A capable and driven person voiced with clarity and might. She may not know who that person is, as she has been dealt the hand of post-traumatic-amnesia, but she is a person through and through. Sure, there’s magic, kindly farm folks, gentle princes, a cavalcade of loyal dogs, and intervention by a potential goddess, but Deerskin is her own person. Princess Lissla Lissar, reborn post-trauma as the titular Deerskin, is a princess who saves herself. This re-telling features a visceral rape scene, as well as many other instances of mortal and animal peril. In Deerskin, our princess has the love and guardianship of an incredible hound, but she is unable to escape the madness of the King until it is much. In Donkeyskin, she is helped by a fairy godmother. Both feature a King, maddened at the death of his beautiful Queen, who chooses that his next wife will be his teenage daughter. Hooray!īe warned: Deerskin and, to a slightly lesser extent, Donkeyskin, feature some truly vile behavior at and from the hands of men.

Both of these entries are picks for our upcoming #cannonbookclub event- and I’ll be discussing Deerskin further during our Zoom- but in the meantime, let these two help you choose your pick(s)! Also- both of these tales of girls on the cusp of womanhood have been reclaimed and retold by women. What we have here are two retellings of classic fairy tales: Charles Perrault’s deeply upsetting Donkeyskin (recently reviewed by our very own BlackRaven) and Hans Christian Andersen’s also unsettling The Little Mermaid.

Deerskin novel