The Twisted Tales series explores alternate, darker versions of Disney’s most famous fairy tales. In A Whole New World, Liz Braswell takes us through what would happen if Aladdin never rubbed the lamp in the Cave of Wonders.
It was kind of weird to me how the book seemed to copy parts of the movie exactly (I think parts of the dialogue were the same word for word). The storyline diverges at around a quarter of the way into the book into the “What if” scenario. I can see where people are coming from when they remarked that this book reads like a fanfiction of the movie.
My favorite part of this book is how Aladdin never pretends to be something he’s not (Jasmine knows he’s a street rat/commoner from start to finish). My issues with the book (and why the rating is so low) stem from the age difference in the plot and violence level versus the character interactions and writing. Violence and the plot were YA-level while character interactions and writing were middle-grade level. For example, there were multiple scenes filled with humorous banter and sarcastic remarks which didn’t really fit the mood and what was happening in the scene.
With this in mind, I don’t think I would be comfortable recommending it to younger middle-grade readers. I think it would be more suitable for an audience of young adults. I’m unsure whether or not I’ll be reading the other books in the Twisted Tales series if they turn out similar to this one.
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