A Whole New World: A Twisted Tale by Liz Braswell
(Format for this read: Audiobook)
Uuuggghhhhhhhhh.
Y’all. That is my true feelings on this book.
And I had SUCH high hopes 🙄
Before I get into my rant, here is the summary:
“What if Aladdin had never found the lamp? This first book in the A Twisted Tale line will explore a dark and daring version of Disney’s Aladdin.
When Jafar steals the Genie’s lamp, he uses his first two wishes to become sultan and the most powerful sorcerer in the world. Agrabah lives in fear, waiting for his third and final wish.To stop the power-mad ruler, Aladdin and the deposed princess Jasmine must unite the people of Agrabah in rebellion. But soon their fight for freedom threatens to tear the kingdom apart in a costly civil war.
What happens next? A Street Rat becomes a leader. A princess becomes a revolutionary. And readers will never look at the story of Aladdin in the same way again.”
Okay let me give y’all the run down of how I even got into the situation of reading this mess to begin with.
I have about a dozen amazing books I want to read on my “holds” list with my Libby app (that’s how you check out audio/e books with your library card for those of y’all that are not aware)
I was like 10th in line or worse for ALL of them so I had to find something real quick to fill a couple days til one of my “must reads” came thru.
(I AM training for a half marathon so my runs are when I get a lot of my audio reads on….
I literally CAN NOT do those miles without a book.
Some people prefer music but for me audiobooks are like watching Netflix in my brain…
Weird metaphor that doesn’t really make sense BUT anyway…they seem to work WAY better for me. LOL)
I thought “Let me see what is available in the YA section.”
Because y’all know I CAN NOT GET ENOUGH OF THAT SHIT.
I see this book.
I get excited.
Because HELLO…
it is Disney, which i super love…
and it is Aladdin, which I used to watch on repeat….
AND it is a “retelling” of the tale, which I also get jazzed about.
(TOTALLY unrelated to books BUT I have been SUPER INTO the retelling/remaking Disney has been doing with movies the past couple years…
I ADORED the live action Aladdin…. ESPECIALLY Jasmines song they added that was all about female empowerment and the men that try to keep them down)
I was thinking this Twisted Tale series may be like the Lunar Chronicles series I read last year (which I FREAKIN LOVED SO MUCH)…
so I got all happy as I clicked the “Borrow” button.
Let me tell y’all right now….
NOPE.
Just NOPE.
This book was just NOT GOOD.
The first almost TWO HOURS of this book was basically just retelling the entire Disney movie piece by ever loving piece.
Which I was kinda into at first because you know…nostalgia and all that…but after awhile I was like “When does the new and different crap start happening?”
But then when it finally did I was like “Dang. This ain’t even good.”
I had my fingers crossed the whole time I listened just waiting for the plot to take a turn and pull me in full force with modern day Disney magic…
That did NOT happen.
Not even a Tinkerbell sprinkle, y’all.
Plus parts of it seemed familiar to me and then I was like “Wait a second…I think this happened in Aladdin 2: Return of Jafar!” (Which btw was also NOT GOOD)
Bummed out because I was HOPING this was another YA series I could jump on board with…
there are quite a few others they’ve retold in this series like Little Mermaid and Beauty & the Beast…
but I am gonna take me a HARD PASS on any more of these.
Y’all go try it out if you are a Disney fan if you want…but don’t say I didn’t warn ya that it ain’t worth the time.
👎👎👎