A Whole New World

Quotes

Genre

• Retellings
• Young Adult
• Fantasy
• Romance

Trigger Warnings

• Themes of death
• Themes of starvation
• Battle scenes
• Reanimated dead

*There may be spoilers in this review. I will try to avoid major spoilers but some need to be brought up to be discussed.

Summary

What if Aladdin had never found the lamp? This first book in the A Twisted Tale line will explore a dark and daring version of Disney’s Aladdin.

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.

Characters

• Aladdin – Charming street rat with a heart of gold
• Abu – Aladdin’s friend and pet monkey
• Jasmine – Princess with a fierce heart
• Rajah – Jasmine’s tiger and friend
• Rasoul – Royal Guard
• Sultan – A frivolous infamous for neglecting his people and playing with toys
• Jafar – Royal vizier desperate for power and love
• Iago – Jafar’s pet parrot that he sacrifices in his pursuit of power
• Genie – Magical being limited by his shackles of magic
• Carpet – Enchanted flying carpet found in the Cave of Wonders
• The Cave of Wonders – Its a cave. Full of wonders. Shaped like a tiger. That can talk and is full of secrets. That we learn nothing about. I’m fine.
• Morgiana – Childhood friend of Aladdin and leader of a gang of thieves
• Duban – Childhood friend of Aladdin’s works with Morgiana
• Akram – Street merchant that shows Aladdin kindness
• Zena – Aladdin’s mother
• Cassim – Aladdin’s father (Also the King of Thieves but whatever)

Setting

Agrabah. It really is the same settings as the movie with a thieves hideout thrown in but it’s still all Agrabah

Overview

For the sake of honesty, this type of story isn’t my favorite. For someone who loves fairy tale and mythology retellings I have very little patience and interest in reading things based off of other types of media.

I took a chance on the Avatar: The Last Airbender books and I was happy to be blown away. Then I got to thinking about the other series like Twisted Tales from Disney and the D.C. heroes series I keep seeing floating around. They have authors that I love penning them. This is a new modern era. Things might be different now!

So, A Whole New World, was exactly what I thought it was going to be. The first quarter of it is just a novelization of the movie (I listened to the audiobook and the narrator didn’t even try to do the voices and it was distracting and a bit of a letdown) and the one “twist” was Jafar got the lamp earlier than in the movie. Like Aladdin lost it coming out of the cave so really it just went according to (Jafar’s anyway) plan.

After that it mostly felt like a typical YA tropey type book. There’s a revolution, Jasmine is all rebellion leader and Aladdin is all clever charming hero and there is no real development for the characters. Jafar studies some and y’know can suddenly raise the dead to serve in his army even though magic rules say no. It just felt like it pushed for things that didn’t move the story or give any new aspect of these characters that we are supposed to care about.

They got me with the beginning a little because we do spend sometime with a younger Al and his mother. I would rather have more of that than the same story trends repackaged for Disney. It also got my hopes up that maybe just maybe Cassim would make an appearance and there’d be a father-son team up.

Pros

You tried

I could see these characters doing these things but like better. Jafar in particular could have been fun to explore if we had some of the scenes from his point of view or a bit more of his back story – something. I was expecting these stories to be more villain based and at least with this one I didn’t get much.

I liked Jasmine as the Rebel Leader type, it suits her fiery personality and her drive for freedom. Aladdin fits in well as the rogue with the charm to bring it all together. They fit these tropes but there wasn’t much development for anybody past what the movie had built.

Cons

Tropes. That’s all it really felt like. I could plug any of the YA characters into the story and it wouldn’t feel that different. There was a weird moment where the insta-love of the movie actually had more chemistry and establishment than the book and how do you even do that? They spent more time together in the book and it felt like they didn’t really get to know each other.

Lost opportunities were everywhere. So first we got to see Aladdin’s mom, which is cool. I always wanted to know what she was like and I got excited that maybe we would spend some time in their childhoods. Not even. Then, I thought that maybe Cassim would make an appearance when things went south. I’m not special. Most 90’s kids had feelings about Cassim when The King of Thieves came out. I shouldn’t have gotten my hopes up but in my defense they did bring him up so I feel like I was led on.

Jafar was what I thought this was going to be about. It felt more like he hovered menacingly on the horizon saying the typical dastardly lines and just making life miserable for everyone else. I did appreciate the idea that he was demanding love and admiration form everyone and was even willing to sacrifice Iago to obtain it. It has been done before but it did suit Jafar and could have been something worth exploring. Like y’know with backstory or something.

Genie, Genie is tough. There is always going to be the lingering touch of Robin Williams to the character and it’s hard to not look at any representation without trying to see if it keeps in line with the spirit of the character. This version there was obvious effort, the jokes lined up and the language sounded more modern but unfortunately it was more distracting. We do learn that he had a (purple) wife and that he has a whole history that we do not dive into nearly enough.

Maybe I had ridiculous expectations. With books I do expect to have more time dedicated to the characters and building the world. Especially when you have a universe already established give the audience something new, give them something that they haven’t seen before. The question of what would happen if Jafar got the lamp instead is addressed but take the chance to look into different questions too. We spent time in Aladdin’s childhood, give us things we want to see not just an Aladdin version of the Treasure Planet “Jim’s a troubled kid” scene.

Another thing with retellings, we are here because we love what it was based on (hopefully). I know Aladdin is charming and Jasmine is outspoken but this is where we make it more. The characters I’m here for shouldn’t be stiff cardboard cutouts.

Final Thoughts

I’m not sure who I would recommend this to. I’m sure I’m not really the target audience but I was a Disney kid and I was curious if they would have anything for me. A younger reader, maybe one who isn’t as enthusiastic about branching out into the book world and would appreciate the familiarity would probably enjoy this.

I might read more of them, not anytime soon but I guess I’m the optimist here. They might get better the more they catch momentum and there are a mix of authors that make a contribution. Plus I’m a sucker for the covers. We’ll see.

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