It should be simple—a dragon defeated, a slumbering maiden, a prince poised to wake her. But when said prince falls asleep as soon as his lips meet the princess's, it is clear that this fairy tale is far from over.
With a desperate fairy's last curse infiltrating her mind, Princess Aurora will have to navigate a dangerous and magical landscape deep in the depths of her dreams. Soon she stumbles upon Phillip, a charming prince eager to join her quest. But with Maleficent's agents following her every move, Aurora struggles to discover who her true allies are, and moreover, who she truly is. Time is running out. Will the sleeping beauty be able to wake herself up?
First things first, Aurora Rose's exploration was amazing. Since the original movie gave us so little to go on, we were practically given a blank slate to work with, such that practically anything would have been an improvement. But to see her not merely re-imagined, but analyzed and given depth for the few traits we do know about her, I was definitely impressed. And using the dreamworld as her inner mindscape for that analysis, incorporating flashbacks and representations of her self into her journey towards literal self actualization— I don't want to give much away, since I really didn't see a lot of this coming from the start, but let me just say, I loved it. Brava!
That being said, if you haven't read the previous Twisted Tale and don't know that these books take the G/PG Disney stories to a borderline PG13, that sudden exploration of mental health issues might be a bit triggering. Granted, it did come after the complete rewriting of Aurora Rose's memory to being raised by Maleficent in a hellscape world, a bloody killing of a friend right in front of her eyes, and coming to the realization that she'd been lied to by everyone she'd ever cared about, but...yeah, even after all that I wasn't quite prepared for the darkness this story explores.
Unfortunately, not everything about that dark tone really meshed for me. Take one of Aurora Rose's early flashbacks:
"You can't be out in the woods after dark!" Merryweather scolded. "Wolves could get you! Or bears!"Um, excuse me? Why is rape suddenly introduced out of nowhere, and then (thankfully) never brought up again? Why was it included at all? It's like the mention of death in childbirth in the last book. I'm not against including real-life horrors in YA stories, I'm simply against including completely unrelated/unexplored horrors just for the sake of name drops and shock value. If they wanted to stray out of dangerous animals, they could have easily gone, "And there are worse things than wild animals," instead of using a term that barely existed in that time period (and likely not in the same sense we have today).
"They won't hurt me," she had said, slowly getting up. [...]
"Bunnies and owls are one thing," Fauna said with a gentler tone of caution. "They are not the same thing as bears."
"Or rapists," Merryweather added. [pg 161]
And that wasn't the only strangely modern term or idea I had trouble with. I had the same sort of whiplash when Prince Philip said, "It was epic!" when recounting his dragon-slaying feat. And then, towards the end of the story, the fairies (mainly Merryweather, again) go off on how ridiculous it is that royalty inherits power instead of choosing someone best for the job. Like, because they're magical, they either have future-vision or have an electoral system (even though Fairy Kings and Queens are a common staple of myths as well)? But then, that almost directly sabotages the whole girl-power message that the end of the book has going for it.
Honestly, that whole ending made a mess of my brain. Obviously discussing it is quite spoilery, so if you've already read it, or don't mind spoilers, then... But maybe that's just me reading too much into some innocuous inclusions. It was probably just the author giving a wink and a nod to modern day sensibilities, and not throwing the whole Happy Ending into dubious territory. Right?
On that note, I really wanted more about Maleficent. Sure, this wasn't her story, but basically all that's analyzed about her was that she was already pretty crazy to have cursed a baby to die over not being invited to a party. We get a little bit more at the end, when Aurora Rose interrogates her over why her life included so much care and attention under her in the dreamworld, along with some pointed questions from the three fairies, but that conversation is dropped in favor of fighting fairly quickly. I'm not asking for a full redemption or rewrite a la the movie, but I'd have appreciated a little more exploration and answers.
For example, the three fairies get some interesting characterization in Aurora Rose's flashbacks, painting them as kindhearted, but utterly inhuman. Which makes sense, since they aren't human. They have no clue about the "moon-blood" aka periods, and apparently don't have much to do with children at all, since none of them recognize any of the issues Aurora Rose has growing up. They may love her, but that didn't make them good parents. I would have liked to see something similar with Maleficent, something highlighting her inhumanity rather than searching for it at the end. Or go the compartmentalization route and have her separate her perceived weaknesses from herself. Something more than just, "she chose to be evil, and that was that."
Conversely, I could have used less of Prince Philip. Okay, not less, less, just less stupidity? I guess we're supposed to gather that he's mostly carefree and free-spirited, what with deciding to marry a random peasant girl in the woods after all of ten minutes, but did that really need to translate to nearly giving away their tactics in the final battle? I could have done without most of the inane ramblings he offers throughout the book. About the only scenes I enjoyed were of him supporting Aurora Rose and the one scene with the mimic. Almost everything else he says could have been left out.
Finally, I want to just say how much I appreciated and loved the way facts and knowledge were woven into the story. The tidbits about how Aurora thought she was stupid for not being able to read or do math in her lessons (which could have been used as Mal's justification for providing them...just saying) and being warned not to wish for things were all clever nods to the dreamworld. And I know I called the mental health thing a bit sudden, but looking back through earlier parts had me realize that there were signals of her issues even in the beginning chapters. Having the symptoms sprinkled throughout the story, and then having it addressed in a serious context was so much better than the narcolepsy jokes that usually surround Sleeping Beauty stories. It really was one of those, "the importance of representation in media" moments, and I just wanna say how much I appreciated it.
Overall, this one hit me a lot harder than I ever expected one of these Twisted Disney stories would. It still has its fair share of things I didn't like, things that felt tonally off, and things I felt could have been given a deeper exploration, but on the whole I appreciated the thought and care given to the main subject. Aurora Rose was taken from a passive role as a damsel in distress, now re-imagined as a character with gifts and curses (given & natural) who has to fight demons (literal & internal) in order to overcome evil and find her place in the world. If you're okay with some dark subject matter—specifically murder, childhood trauma, and mental health issues—I would highly recommend checking out this Twisted Tale.
Read by James Patrick Cronin
Unabridged Length: 9.7 Hours
Listened at 2x Speed
Unabridged Length: 9.7 Hours
Listened at 2x Speed
With this story focusing primarily on Aurora Rose, I was a bit surprised that the powers that be chose to, once again, have Mr. Cronin assume narration duties. I mean, I wasn't too impressed with his last attempt at a heroine as a secondary protagonist, so I wasn't too enthused with this book's prospects.
Surprisingly, he wasn't too bad with the majority of characters, Aurora Rose included. The supporting female characters did get a bit samey, but I can't really hold that against him as he did a good job with the three fairies and Aurora Rose when they shared scenes. Really the only character I was disappointed with was Maleficent, who sounded a bit too much like Jafar from the last book, but I suppose that might stem from missing her iconic voice from the original movie and her reappearances (Kingdom Hearts). So, short of doing a full voice cast, Cronin did a fair job on voice duties.
I feel like I'm harping on the reader, but really it's the production leaders behind the scenes. As this was published by Disney-Hyperion, no doubt many of us would expect a bit more budget to go into these things. I'd love to see hiring a full cast or including music or sound effects for these. Then again, these first three were done a bit before the series really blew up (not even having these animated-movie-based covers until reprints), so perhaps they were hedging their bets on budget until they proved lucrative? Or perhaps having a single narrator simply mitigates the fear of a new voice not living up to the original? Giving them the benefit of the doubt, I won't assume that they're being cheap for no reason, but I guess we'll just have to see what future installments hold.
Overall, this production did everything it needed to, but once again lacked that Disney flair some of us would appreciate. The the pacing was fine and the text all matched the Kindle copy I read, so nothing bad to report but nothing innovative or amazing either. If I had to nitpick, I would have liked a different reader narrating a female-led story, but he did well with what he had. I sincerely hope that future audiobooks innovate more, giving us something more magical instead of merely passable.
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