This isn’t going to be a super long breakdown or review, but I do want to put this out there…this was by far the best book in the entire Twisted Tales series. I loved the twist that separated Anna and Elsa. It made sense and flowed with the story so well. There was really no point in the story where I felt bored from reading a novelization of the movie but the author did an AMAZING job of sneaking in lines from the movie even though they were in new context because of the twist. It was perfect. And she did an amazing job of capturing all the characters and their unique voices and mannerisms. It just felt so authentic to the story I’ve come to know by heart and love thanks to my daughter making me watch it every day for an entire year basically. It made me excited for the Twisted Tales series again as I make my way through it. I don’t want to give too much away or spoil it, but I definitely recommend it!
Snow White is not one of my most favorite Disney Princess stories but I did like this twisted tale, even though the twist they promised on the cover really didn’t happen until the very end, the Prince being the one to be poisoned instead of Snow White.
This is the first book in the series by Jen Calonita. I’m glad they’re adding new authors to this series because it keeps it fresh. I can tell the subtle difference between their writing styles. At first I did not really click with her writing style but as the book went on I got into it.
This book is definitely filled with positivity and strength for women. I think this was done because the original Snow White Disney cartoon was so outdated. She just fled and waited and fell in love with the prince she met once, his true love kiss waking her even though they didn’t know each other at all. In this one Snow White does flee but she doesn’t just sit at the Dwarves house and wait. She builds a plan, she gathers allies, she plots to take the kingdom back from the Evil Queen. She gets to know the prince as he helps her and slowly through their endeavor they “fall in love”. Is it real love after just a few days with all they went through together? No clue. But they at least got to know more than each other than him just hearing her sing.
This was a good edition to Disney’s Twisted Tales. I can’t wait to read the next one, “Conceal Don’t Feel”, also written my Calonita.
I have to admit that I was not too excited to start this one as I make my way through the Twisted Tales series. Ariel isn’t one of my favorite princesses and I’m not crazy about her story but I kept an open mind. This was also one of the longer books in the series too so you can understand my hesitation. I actually ended up really liking it, though!
Ariel’s character was believable in this story. The twist is that she never stopped the wedding of Eric and Ursula. Her father was captured and turned into a disgusting polyp and she returned to the sea defeated. Her kingdom of Atlantica made her serve as queen, supposedly as punishment for all the trouble she caused but really none of her older sisters wanted to do it. That part was a little wonky to me, but hey it’s a fairytale. At the start of the story she is already queen and has matured a lot since her days of dreaming of the Dry World. I liked her.
I really liked Eric’s development into this tortured and miserable Prince who is under Ursula’s spell but still feels in his heart something isn’t write. To deal with his depression from being married to a horrible woman he turns to music, specifically writing operas which is original, and the ocean. He always loved sailing out on the ocean but his new wife won’t allow it so he walks the beaches talking to himself, helping him get the nickname The Mad Prince.
Ursula is stuck living as the human Vanessa in the Dry World, but she actually seems to like it because of her status as Princess and ruler. She gets to do whatever she wants and Eric never says anything because he’s busy walking beaches and writing operas and being distant. She still has her evil plans and a bunch of those seaweed looking poor unfortunate souls trapped in jars, including Ariel’s father. Once Ariel finds this out she can’t let that go, of course.
I liked this book better than the first few only because it jumps right into the story without giving 25% of the book to novelizing the original movie before getting into the twist. A lot of people seemed to complain about that and they finally addressed it and laid out these books differently, which is nice. I breezed through this despite being over 400 pages. It genuinely held my interest. The ending wasn’t wrapped up into a happily ever after but left open between Eric and Ariel to develop into whatever the reader wanted to think. That was different and kind of nice. I highly recommend this series if you’re a Disney fan and a Disney Princess fan, and I recommend this particular book in the series as well.
This was a great conclusion to the Practical Magic series. I loved that all the ones that came out prior to this were all prequels to Practical Magic. This is the only one that follows up what happens to the family after their adventures in Practical Magic. Sally’s girls are in their 20s and on their own, protected from knowing about magic all their lives but that catches up to them. For someone like me who has read the book once but seen the movies a thousand times, it gets confusing for me because the characters are inverted; Sally’s girls are opposite in the book and the aunts are opposite in the books, or I guess in the movie. Messes with my memory of the story and I have to stop and think, wait which one is this?
The story is all about breaking the family curse that keeps Owens members from falling in love, which is something I’m sure everyone who knows the story has been waiting to see if it’s possible or not. So many have tried before and failed. One of Sally’s daughters finds herself in a race against time to save her boyfriend’s life due to the curse. It takes her across the pond and she meets some very interesting and unique characters and villain. Sally meets another new and interesting man. To me, this relationship always felt a little off, like it never really would happen but it didn’t hinder the story at all.
If you’ve read the other books in the Practical Magic series then you HAVE to read this one. It wraps the story up nicely. I love Alice Hoffman’s writing.
Right off the bat, I have to say that so far this is tied as my favorite Twisted Tale book alongside Belle’s story. I just love Belle so much and thought the twist was creative and fit her character and background. I’ll admit that Mulan is not one of my favorite Disney Princesses. I’ve learned to like her more as an adult because of her strength and independence and feministic quality and love for family and desire to protect them, things that as an adult I value. But as a kid I just thought Mushu was funny and the story was pretty good. My childhood friend will passionately argue that Mulan should under no circumstances even be included as a Disney Princesses. She wasn’t born a princess, she didn’t marry a prince. It’s really funny to get her going on that. But this book was really good! It’s the first book in the series not written by Liz Braswell.
I really enjoy Elizabeth Lim’s style of writing. Th problem I had with Aurora’s story and even Jasmine’s at certain times was that the dialogue felt too modern teenagery for me. It took me out of the story that was supposed to have happened centuries ago. I didn’t feel that way with Reflection at all. I felt the author had a good grasp on Mulan and the supporting to characters and she presented them throughout the story true to their Disney movie counterparts, cartoon and live-action. One thing I noticed people complained about a lot with the first three books in the series was that the entire first 25% was just a novelization of the Disney cartoon movie rather than being a unique story. They didn’t like that. I personally didn’t mind that. I loved the movies and the novelizations are just another way to enjoy them but in Reflection it seems they took the constructive criticism and adjusted for it because within the first chapter we were into the Twisted Tale part of the story. On that note, I felt a little jarred in the beginning because we are thrown into the battle with Shaun-Yu at the mountain right away. I would be lost if I hadn’t seen both Mulan movies. But then again, they write these Twisted Tales on the assumption that if you’re reading it it’s because you saw and enjoyed the movies.
I think the reason I loved this story so much more than the others is because of the cultural mythology the twist was founded in. Chang is wounded in battle and dying. Mulan goes to the Chinese culture’s version of the underworld to bring his soul back before he dies forever. I LOVE mythology but unfortunately don’t know a lot about Chinese mythology so I felt I was learning as I was reading. Mulan travels down into Diyu, which is the Chinese’s version of Hell and Purgatory combined. Everyone who dies goes there for judgement. The people who were good in life are only there for a short while before they go to heaven or are reincarnated and sent back to earth if King Yama, leader of the underworld, thinks they can do more good there. The time you spend in Diyu is proportionate to the good or bad you did in your life. The ones who did bad things are sent further into Diyu to different levels that each present a different and creative style of torture. It’s very interesting stuff!
The characters of Reflection were really good too. Of course there was Mulan and Chang, the main characters. Chang is mostly in ghost form but Lim did a good job of bringing him to life (haha, get it?) with her descriptions and natural dialogue. There were a lot of new characters too that I felt were really great! They interacted with the classic characters perfectly and fit right into the story seamlessly. There was Shi-Shi, the Li family guardian who travels into Diyu with Mulan to bring Shang Li back. King Yama, the leader of the underworld, though he isn’t in the story a whole lot. The one I loved most was the Lady of Forgetfulness. Her backstory is great and she was a perfect compliment to Mulan.
I even enjoyed the story as a kind of spooky Halloween read since I read it in October. It was filled with ghosts and demons and danger and adventure. I highly recommend this story!
