A Whole New World by Liz Braswell

What if Aladdin had never found the lamp? This paperback edition of the first book in the A Twisted Tale line will explore a dark and daring version of Disney's Aladdin. Plus, it includes an excerpt of book two, Once Upon a Dream, a twist on Disney's Sleeping Beauty! 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. Praise for A Whole New World: "A magic carpet ride of a book! A fun and unpredictable retelling of the classic Aladdin story, a must-read for all of us Disney fans!" -Melissa de la Cruz

Oof that hurt, Especially the ending!! This was an Incredibly well done re-imagining!!! I really Love Liz Braswell's writing, and I'm excited to read more of it!!!

I've been wanting to read the Twisted Tales series for quite some time, and finally requested the first book. To be honest, I'm not thrilled. Aladdin was never my favorite Disney movie, though, so it might just be unfortunate that it's the first book in the series. I'll probably still try the rest.

The book actually sticks pretty closely to the Disney movie in descriptions, characters, and setting. Everyone looks like their Disney movie counterparts. I had to check the inside cover to find that the book is indeed an official Disney product. There's no way they'd get away with it, otherwise; it'd be blatant copyright infringement, and Disney is rather strict about that.

Basically, the book takes the script of Aladdin and asks one question - what if Aladdin really did give Jafar the lamp instead of keeping it when he got stuck in the cave? We know what Jafar does with the lamp eventually, but what if he had it first, before Aladdin? A lot of the plot is familiar - Jasmine and her tiger, the hourglass with people stuck inside of it, the Sultan playing with his toys. It's really interesting to see the plot elements deconstructed and put back together in new ways.

I'm not sure whether I like this plot or the movie plot more; I never had strong feelings about Aladdin so I'm probably not the best judge.

It's alright. If you're a fan of Aladdin you might like it more than I did. I'm withholding judgment of the entire series until I read a few more, though.

You can find all my reviews at Goddess in the Stacks.