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.
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When I saw this new book series by Disney I was really interested. Remaking classic Disney stories into something new in the YA genre with a twist sounds fun, right? I really wanted to read this first book to see how it would all go down.
This book starts out almost exactly (verbatim) as the the animated Disney movie of Aladdin but without the singing. It felt young and not at all like a YA version or a remake. I really thought about giving up on this book because I was so bored and I was expecting something different. It felt young, more a middle grade read instead of YA.
But, eventually it does change. Jafar makes a different decision and it changes the flow and the outline of the story. Things started to pick up from there but I was still unconvinced. For me, while the story started to gain some momentum and have more of a YA feel, I still felt like an outsider looking in. I didn't actually feel anything and I didn't become engaged emotionally. The characters fell flat for me. I just didn't care. That made it very hard to get through this book.
While I am really not impressed with this first book, I still believe that this series has potential. Perhaps with the right authors and stories matched up? I don't know. If every story follows the movie verbatim in the beginning it will always feel boring and young. I'll be interested to see what comes next.
Content: Some violence and dark magic. No swearing or sexual content beyond some kisses.
Oh no! This was one of my most anticipated late summer/early fall releases! And now this is the second of two reviews I've read where people are saying it was flat. For the same reasons too. That it was basically telling the Aladdin Disney movie but a touch differently. This makes me upset and scared! I looooove Disney! I loooove fairy tales and retellings. Hence, I should loooooove this one, but so far, I'm starting to think I'm not going to like it.
ReplyDeleteAnd I like this author too! It took a bit of digging but I realized I read her Snow White (fairy tale) retelling years and years ago! I adored that one! It was so well written and a unique twist to the story but this one is starting to sound like the exact opposite of all those things when it comes to relating it to its Disney predecessor.
I guess I will need to see if the library gets this one and put myself on the wait list. I am starting to think I don't want to buy this one for fear of ultimate buyer's remorse!
Very nice review though! I feel informed and scared because of it since I was so looking forward to reading this! But yes, nice review! ;)
I love Disney too. Maybe my expectations were just too high? Maybe you will love it where I didn't. I hope you will read this book and then let me know what you think. I'd be interested to hear your thoughts. Thanks for your comment!!
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