A Whole New World takes a twist on the classic animated Disney film and tale of Aladdin. The first quarter of the book follows the Disney movie exactly - down to many of the quotes being exact lines from the movie. While I can see some readers finding comfort in this, I mostly found it annoying. It felt like retracing unnecessary ground. When the reader gets to point in the story where Aladdin finds the lamp, Jafar actually does make off with it, leaving Aladdin stuck in the cave under ground. Jafar is the first to summon the genie and all hell breaks loose with the genie enslaved to Jafar. I enjoyed the last half of the book much more than the first half. There is quite a bit of action, and even a little romance, that will appeal to most teen audiences. It will be interesting to see what the rest of the books in the Twisted Tale series will be like.

I would recommend this book to fantasy readers and fans of Disney movies, from tweens to older teens. This title is an optional purchase for libraries, not a must have. ( )

A Whole New World
Twisted Tales, Book 1

I Picked Up This Book Because: It’s been on my TBR forever.

Media Type: Audiobook
Source: CCPL
Dates Read: 2/29/24 - 3/2/24
Stars: 4 Stars
Narrator(s): James Patrick Cronin

The Characters:

Aladdin
Jasmine
Jafar, Abu, Genie, Morgana, The male bestie whose name I cannot remember

The Story:

I do not know what I was expecting but this was not it. This re-imagining where Jafar gets the lamp and takes over agrabah is intense. Yet in between the sneaking, villainy and fighting we still get a love story.
Contrary to my initial belief I only burst into song thrice. ( )

I didn't love the story but I loved the way this book looks. What you can't tell from the image is that the orange details reflect the light and so it shimmers. I love a sprayed edge and this orange is so pretty. All of the pages are subtly decorated and topping this off with it being a hard cover, this book looks and feels really special.

The first 100 pages are a retelling of the original story of Aladdin which was necessary but it was a long time to be waiting for the twisted tale. When the new story did begin it was... fine. It was a darker twist on the classic with nothing overly inspiring but it's exactly as advertised.

I liked the strong leading role Jasmine takes and was surprised by the harsh portrayal of the Sultan but in retrospect, Braswell makes a good point. While we're speaking of characters, I was disappointed with the lack of involvement of the more entertaining characters: Abu, Genie and Iago. They are only mentioned briefly and sporadically.

There are some more violent than expected scenes so would definitely stick to the age rating of 12+.

I wouldn't go out of my way to read it but if you're a Disney lover, it's a nice book just to return to that world. ( )

Really quite liked it. Was a but dark coming up on the end but overall really liked the twist as a whole ( )

James Patrick Cronin (Narrator)
Love a new twist on an old story.
Very enjoyable ( )