by Liz Braswell
YA Fantasy
Amazon / Goodreads
Plot Summary:
Welcome to a new YA series that reimagines classic Disney stories in surprising new ways. Each book asks the question: What if one key moment from a familiar Disney film was changed? This dark and daring version of Aladdin twists the original story with the question: What if Jafar was the first one to summon the Genie?
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.
Review:
With a retelling of a well known (and excellent!) Disney film, where this time the villain succeeds, I think I was expecting the villain's point of view to be foremost. But this is still Aladdin and Jasmine's story, and I think that detracts a little from the development of this alternate storyline.Jafar is still an utter villain with little explanation about his motives or his background beyond what was said in the film and I was disappointed by his lack of character development. He is certainly very creepy, and is a much more dastardly villain in this book, but I would have appreciated understanding a little more about why he is so maniacal about wanting the adoration of the masses. Especially as it doesn't seem very realistic, given his temperament.
The first quarter of the novel recaps the film pretty faithfully, so it's a little slow to get into the story, until the twist happens and Jafar succeeds. I thought the character development of Aladdin and Jasmine was a bit better than Jafar, but still cursory and predictable. Even the romance between Aladdin and Jasmine felt too insipid, which was disappointing because there was the potential to develop it further. I do think it's much less of a case of insta-love than the film though so that is a plus. Where this novel excels is in how it expands on the 'street rat' culture and how Aladdin fits in with it, and in the politics of Agrabah. Aladdin's friends are fun to read about, and it's fittingly realistic and heartbreaking to read about the poverty in Agrabah that has reduced Aladdin to his way of life. Jasmine is a stronger female character in this as well, which was nice to see. She has a lot courage, and it was great to read her take charge.
The novel is understandably much darker than the film, however that aspect didn't sit very well with me. For Jafar to maintain his villainous status, it was necessary for some shocking things to happen, but at times I wondered if it really served the story or was just there for the shock value. In one case, I didn't understand the mechanics of how Jafar could do something to a certain character - it didn't make sense to me. And for the other shocking occurrences, I just found it very sad.
Overall, this is a well written story, that once it gets going perhaps moves too fast to really develop the characters. The book is young adult, but it feels middle grade in it's character development, and older YA in terms of darkness, so it's a little confusing to me. As a 'what happens next' it's pretty believable - in the dark turn the story takes and in the steps that Aladdin and Jasmine would take to reclaim the throne.
(I received this book from the publisher or author for a fair and honest review. I was not compensated for this review.)
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