Disney's Twisted Tales

A couple of weeks ago, I began reading a series called Disney’s Twisted Tales. So far, I have read and enjoyed Reflection, What Once was Mine, Straight on Till Morning, and So This is Love, as well as a collection of Disney's Twisted Tales short stories. This series is for anyone who is a fan of any famous Disney movie or just likes reading fairy tales in general. 

Each Disney Twisted Tale book takes a Disney movie and gives it a different plot, sometimes having different endings or even new characters. For example, What Once Was Mine twists Tangled. The book’s subtitle is: What is Rapunzel’s mother drinking from the wrong flower? In the book, instead of having magical healing powers from the sundrop flower, the queen accidentally ingests the moondrop flower instead, which gives Rapunzel the power to kill, change, transform, and heal. I found this really fun and interesting to read, as readers get another perspective of the story and overall theme. Currently, I am reading Reflection with the subtitle What if Mulan had to travel to the Underworld. So far, Mulan has gone to the Underworld to plead that Captain Li be returned to the living because she feels responsible for his premature death. As with the other Twisted Tales, Reflection gives readers another perspective into the characters, especially Captain Li, because I feel like we don’t learn a lot about his personal life from the original movie. 

One thing I find interesting about Disney's Twisted Tales is that each book is written by different authors. The series was founded by Disney-Hyperion, so Disney owns it. But many authors wrote the books/short stories of the series, including Elizabeth Lim (Reflection, The Secret Exchange, The Rose and the Thorns, etc), Liz Braswell (Et Voila, The Reluctant Prince, Straight on Till Morning, etc), Livia Blackburne (What if Snow White Learned Magic ), Jen Calonita (The Envelope, Fates, Three, Call it a Hunch, etc), and more. So if you enjoyed any other books by these authors, I recommend reading one of the Disney's Twisted Tales they wrote! 

Another thing I like about Disney's Twisted Tales is their writing style and worldbuilding. Every single book’s pages are full of vivid descriptions. All of the scenery and characters were described in a way so I could easily picture the scene. It made the fantasy world seem more real, and I really liked it. For example, in Straight on Till Morning (which twists the tale of Peter Pan), Wendy Darling describes the jungle of Neverland, “Large-leafed plants at the edge of the jingle reflected the sun rather than soaking it up, their dark green surfaces sparkling white in the sunlight. Some of the smaller ones had literally low-hanging fruit, like jewels from a fairy tale. Behind them was an extremely inviting path into the jungle with giant white shells for stepping-stones.” (page 118). 

Disney's Twisted Tales has a book on pretty much any Disney movie. From Snow White and Aladdin to Frozen, Disney’s Twisted Tales provides alternate storylines to the movies we all know and love. And unlike other series, Disney’s Twisted Tales does not have a specific order, so you can start with any book and dive in!

Thanks for reading! 

Sarah T.