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.
Well, it was an experience, I'll give it that. Just don't know if it was a memorable one.
The story starts out with a prologue that sets up Aladdin's life in the slums while his mother was still alive. He's been taught that stealing is a necessity, but not a profession. He does have two friends, Duban and Morgiana, but they seem more invested in stealing more than their share, no doubt setting up tension for later in the story. We end the prologue with the mother's inspiring words:
“Don’t let life’s unfairness, don’t let how poor you are decide who you are. You choose who you will be, Aladdin. Will you be a hero who looks after the weak and powerless? Will you be a thief? Will you be a beggar—or worse? It’s up to you, not the things—or people—around you. You can choose to be something more.” [pg 9]So right out of the gate we're getting pretty strong hints that poverty and class will be a larger factor in this story. Sure, in the original film Aladdin already saw his goal of living in the palace and marrying the princess as unobtainable (without magic), but the story brushes off the class aspect pretty quickly. Aladdin isn't unworthy because he's a thief, but because he isn't a prince. The whole thieving thing never even comes up after Jafar has him arrested—not until the 3rd movie! But here there's a definite emphasis on being a thief and how that defines you, as well as supposedly having a choice in the matter, so right off the bat I'm curious to see where this will shake out.
The next couple chapters are almost identical to the movie, with Aladdin running from guards, encountering a disguised Jasmine, being arrested and thrown in Jafar's secret dungeon, journeying through the Cave of Wonders, and being trapped in the collapse. But this time he's without the lamp, meaning he's got to dig himself out. And while Aladdin takes a couple days to do that, Jafar has already made his first two wishes: 1) to be sultan, and 2) to be the world's most powerful sorcerer. Oh, and to cement his right to the throne, he plans to marry Princess Jasmine. Again, same as in the movie, but with a bit more...death.
You heard me right, this story has death in it. And not just trivial characters in the background, either. These are characters we know, characters established in the movie and in this story, characters with names. I kept expecting them to appear later, since we never see any bodies (I've seen too much anime), but no...they're dead for real. And other characters feel grief over them. So, no, this isn't your G-rated Disney movie anymore.
But it's also not what I would consider true YA either. There are definitely older themes and subject raised, but I wouldn't say they were explored fully. For example, when Jasmine and Genie first meet they share a conversation about choice and being trapped: Jasmine bemoans her being forced into marriage against her will, how afterward her only job would be to make a male heir, and that she'd be lucky if she didn't die in childbirth (something that is never brought up in the story, and felt more demeaning to the culture than an actual fear she might have had, or something included solely for shock-value). Jasmine seems to be on the receiving end of a lot of truth bombs as well: hearing Genie's tale about being the last of his race of Djinn, losing his wife in his quest for power; hearing Aladdin's rundowns of life in Agrabah's slums, the types of thieves, poverty, and this cheerful tidbit—
"Everyone’s got something, like they say. Everyone had someone starving, sick, or dying. Morgiana’s parents would spend any money they got on wine. Duban’s dad was lame and his older sister was married to a man who beat her." [pg 129]But besides all this being mentioned, and the characters (mainly Jasmine) reacting with sadness or horror, there's never anything done to actually address it. Sure, Jasmine vows to make improvements, but the book ends before anything can be enacted. We're promised change will come, but we have yet to see if Jasmine can actually do anything about it.
Really, this should have been Jasmine's story from beginning to end. Instead of focusing mainly on Aladdin, who really does very very little to change in the course of the story—about all he does is remove some of his better-than-thou attitude when it comes to stealing more than food—it should have been solely about Jasmine's journey from her life of ignorant privilege, through being a hostage, a rebel leader, and finally a ruler. Let us follow her through her turmoil, her stress, her pain.
Either that, or have Aladdin do more than just the grunt work in this rebellion. He really doesn't undergo any changes to his character, making his central role in the narration feel like it lessens everything's impact. Make him flawed! He gets by just fine on his own at the beginning of the story, so have him be wary of accepting help, or working with others. I get that you can't have his character be too changed, in order to have him still be the Diamond in the Rough for the lamp, but that doesn't mean he can't be a good person with fears or some sort of prejudice or something that changes through the course of the story. At least the original movie has him sacrificing his friendship with the Genie over his fear of losing Jasmine, of seeing himself as unworthy or lesser (which admittedly is never addressed because of Jafar's coup, but at least it's there). If you're gonna expand on these characters, really expand on them!
Obviously I don't know what limitations this story had, if any, but it had a lot of good ideas that just didn't have room to grow in the small space they were given. This book is only 224 pages, and with the first five chapters being mostly a note-for-note rehash of things we already know, there really wasn't enough room to show all the intricacies and depth of the world it tried to sample. No doubt there is a fascinating story about a princess discovering the world she knew wasn't what it seemed, or perhaps a class uprising and revolution led by that same previously clueless princess, (or even a loner street rat learning how to work with and trust others?) but instead we get a rushed and overly-stuffed story that is trying to tackle more than it can manage.
Now, I don't mean rushed in the sense of pacing, just in the resolution. The story's pacing was actually very well done, with a good amount allocated to setup, action, dialogue, and planning. I would have liked a bit more allocated to characters' reactions and feelings, but that's only because of the subject matter attempting to be tackled. The ending, particularly with Duban, Jafar, and Genie, could have used a lot more setup and payoff, but considering the story was already over-stuffed as it was, the ending feeling rushed and somewhat disconnected was inevitable. I mean, Jafar's third wish was just...kinda bizarre. And Duban's ending felt more like a get-out-of-Disney-jail-free card for our main characters than something we might expect of his character, us underdeveloped as it was. And though Genie felt a bit weird throughout the story (his dialogue not matching the original's at all), I still wanted more development for him as well, making his ending feel pretty hollow.
Overall, there was a lot I liked in this story, but the execution was lacking. There are tons of valuable perspectives addressed throughout the story—of women in a patriarchal society, of poverty and morality, of power and justice—but without a central character to witness and react to these revelations and (hopefully) changes, it doesn't leave much of an impact when all's said and done. It is an interesting What If... story, to be sure, but would have greatly benefited from a tighter focus and/or more alterations to main characters. Still, as an introduction to the possibilities of these Twisted Tales, I'm definitely looking forward to what lies ahead, albeit with a bit more apprehension.
Read by James Patrick Cronin
Unabridged Length: 8.5 Hours
Listened at 2x Speed
Unabridged Length: 8.5 Hours
Listened at 2x Speed
This audiobook probably had the most going against it of any that I've heard before, since the characters are all ones we've heard and loved for years. Still, I thought Mr. Cronin did fairly well. Admittedly, Jasmine was a bit rough, and Genie didn't sound like he was trying for a straight Robin Williams comparison (though that might have been due to the writing as well), which I appreciated. I particularly enjoyed Jafar, who while not as campy as Jonathan Freeman, did successfully portray both the sneering, scheming vizier and the gleeful partly-mad sultan. Aladdin basically shared the narration voice, though there was a good amount of emotion (particularly snark) embedded in the performance.
Overall, the production was fine. No glaring errors, but no amazing innovations either. The characters were distinct, the pacing was fine, and the text all matched up with the Kindle copy I was reading. If Disney wanted to, they could have provided a full voice cast (even with the animated series actors), which would have greatly enhanced the production (especially with Jasmine's voice), but Cronin did his best with what he had and made a serviceable performance. It'll get you through, but you won't be feeling much magic afterward.
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