As Old As Time: A Twisted Tale
Written by Liz Braswell Book Review by Miranda Fraser ISBN: 978-148470728-9 *Deep Breath* Oh man, Disney once again agreed to a publication of a novel involving their version of Beauty and the Beast. In this TWISTED TALE the question boldly written on the cover was, "What if Belle's mother cursed the beast?" Naturally, I was very intrigued. What would that world be like? And how closely would the author follow the story using this concept? Best place to start is the beginning! The book started off immediately with the opening sequence, only, the person telling the story was clearly the enchantress. And she added things that no one else could possibly know. From there the story goes on to describe a small kingdom where people of magical decent and non-magical decent alike could live in peace. There were always those who hated the magical ones, but life in this little kingdom was different than elsewhere in the world where there was no chance to survive if you were magic. In this town we meet a man named Maurice, no magic to him but a love of inventing. To some, that is very strange, and so what a better place to build his inventions than in such a diverse town? He happily makes himself at home in this town and quickly begins making friends as well. He spends most days with his roommate Alaric and their, odd, friend Frederick and eventually he begins courting the lovely Rosalind. She is as beautiful as she is powerful and loved by, almost, all. The early chapters of the story go back and forth between Maurice and Rosalind courting, getting married, etc. and the beginning of the animated movie. Liz also did a fabulous job making sure to keep the dialogue correct for these chapters. There were added lines to keep the story going and conversations flowing, since the musical numbers are excluded, but past that it was very much the same as the movie. I appreciated this SOOO MUCH. I kept thinking "YES! DISNEY THIS IS THE NEXT ANIMATED BEAUTY AND THE BEAST MOVIE! ***But for the love of God do not make it a computer animated film***". Since I've seen some rotten reviews where people thought the chapters with Maurice and Rosalind were stupid and pointless, I thought I'd clarify something. Even if you don't care about her father's backstory, it was important to have the backstory of the kingdom. It helped answer questions about what their world was like that some enchantress would just come along and curse an eleven year old boy. Simply being a brat isn't a good reason, right? Well this safe little kingdom where diversity was at an all time high starts taking a very dark turn. Magical beings are being attacked, sometimes killed, but mostly they are vanishing without a trace. The King and Queen do not seem to care that their kingdom is falling apart. In fact they have the audacity to ask Rosalind for help when the plague reaches their land, even as they tell her how little they care for her people (the charmantes as they are called). And so you see this backstory is very important and will continue to be so right until the end. Now, I had stated that the story clearly followed the original movie. Well it did, right up until the moment she's in the West Wing. Instead of stopping her the Beast is too late and Belle actually grabs onto the enchanted rose, and it disintegrates in her hand, thus completing the curse. But also revealing to Belle how the curse happened and that it was her own mother who had set it. Up until this point the story very well could have just been information we didn't have from the animated film! Now we've entered an alternative universe where we all get the answer to the question, "what would happen if she'd touched the rose?" Moving on, now that Belle fully knows about the curse and also just solidified it coming to fruition is there a way to undo it? The two begin to work together to uncover the truth of the kingdom and why her mother would have placed the curse. All these years Belle simply believed her mother abandoned them but now she fears something worse has happened to her. What I did enjoy about this new twist on their relationship is it really gave them more reason to get to know the other. They had actual conversations about their lives and who they were, something that if they did it in the film we never saw. Belle tells him about Gaston and even gave a very insightful commentary on how he views Belle, "It wasn't that he overlooked the oddity of the father and daughter; it was more like it was irrelevant compared to Belle's status as the prettiest girl in town. Plus he felt that he could fix her. Make her normal" (38). Honestly, was that not already the problem in the world? Believing people need fixed for being different. Now as their friendship blossomed Belle begins to get signs from her mother, she can't quite understand them but she is definitely trying to warn Belle. She discover that his parents died of the plague, hence answering the question about where the king and queen are, but that the Beast was untouched. Most likely her mother's doing, even the Beast notes that not a child in the castle ever caught the plague. She also finds out that the Prince loved the ride horses and spent a lot of time with his favorite servant, Alaric Potts, the stable-master. YEAH, ALARIC POTTS! (See, I said those earlier chapters were important.) But that Alaric had gone missing some time before the curse and the beast's parents blamed him for treating Alaric too kindly and told him it was his fault Alaric took off and abandoned his job and his family. Add that the pile of mysteries they are trying to solve, because even Mrs. Potts knows that is insane. We also find out that the Beast let all the horses go after the curse occurred, because they were afraid of him and it wasn't fair to them. But we also discover that the Beast fully understands the curse, he knows the enchantress was only trying to stop him from being the type of rulers his parents were. And he admits that his parents were not making the best choices for their kingdom. It was wonderful to get to see this side of the Beast. If you watch and obsess over the film as much as I have, you see it, but it is never really given it's moment to shine. As they start to run out of time the castle begins to sink into the ground and the servants are having a harder time getting around and waking up in the morning. They are becoming sediment items with no life and it terrifies them. They finally come up with a plan to leave the castle and seek help elsewhere. The Beast also fears his own curse, knowing that eventually his inside will be as beastly as his outside, but Belle knows he won't hurt her. There's a scene on page 356 that shows this conversation and honestly I felt it was the first real sign that they had fallen for the other. They go to find help, someone who might know about the curse and how to undo it but stop to see her father first. In the movie she goes home to check on him and finds the villagers trying to take him away, this time he's already missing by the time Belle gets there.... and then things get terribly out of hand. Belle vanishes and the Beast races time to find her and save her before anything happens to her. So now imagine when Belle tried to use the mirror in the movie, she showed them the Beast and hoped it would help, this time a TALKING BEAST attempts to use the mirror to prove to the townsfolk that HE is not the threat! Talk about alternative universe, right?! But will the villagers hear his plea and can they find the answer they need to stop the complete destruction of the Beast's home and servants? In conclusion, I adored this book. This alternative universe as it were. The ending was, different. I felt let down by it because I was expecting and hoping for a different ending than the one I received. It wasn't necessarily a terrible ending mind you, it was just different. But from where I left you (the Beast seeking help from the villagers) everything goes spiraling out of hand and the full truth of everything comes out! I mean, where the Charmantes were going, what the villagers are really like, what happened to Belle's mother, and so much more! I truly loved this novel, I just wish there was more. I don't believe there will be a sequel to any of the Disney Twisted Tales by Liz Braswell, but one can hope! Read on my fellow bookworms! And as always links to the author can be found below.
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