Book 1 in the Twisted Tales series
AUTHOR: Liz Braswell
CATEGORY: YA
GENRE: Fantasy/Retelling
PUBLISHED: September 1rst, 2015
PREMISE: A retelling of Disney's Aladdin if Jafar had gotten the lamp before Aladdin.
MY REVIEW: This is one of those cases where I love the idea way more then I love the execution. I'm a huge Disney nerd, okay? The idea of twisted Disney tales where everything is more dark? Sign me the hell up. There's a reason I love Once Upon a Time, despite said shows flaws.
Unfortunately, this didn't quite live up to the promised idea. There are some great things in it. It explores the things that the movies can't because the movies are meant for kids. This goes into things like privilege and poverty and Jasmine does get to shine way more then she does in the movie. If you loved TV Jasmine more then movie!Jasmine who is forced into the background, this is great stuff. Unfortunately even this Jasmine is forced to the background so Aladdin can save the day, which is odd because the summary and marketing made it sound like this was going to be Jasmine being an awesome rebel princess with Aladdin just sort of there to help. Instead it's just a what if with Aladdin still very much the hero. While Jasmine does get a little more to do then she does in the movie...it's still not what I wanted. I kind of wonder if maybe there was a different intention and then a Disney exec somewhere got cold feet and was afraid parents would get upset about Disney being too feminist or something and the author was forced to change direction. Whatever happened...this was not what I wanted and so I was a little disappointed.
It's still an interesting take on the tale. If you don't into this expecting epic badass Jasmine, then you should get a kick or two out of it. But I guess I expected too much out of this. I may pick up the next one that's about Sleeping Beauty, but I also may not. It will depend on my mood.
WHO SHOULD READ: Aladdin fans, younger YA readers, Disney fans, Once Upon a Time fans
MY RATING: Three out of Five not what I wanted, but okay shrugs
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