As Old as Time: A Twisted Tale

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Did the enchantress really expect the prince to learn to be kind, and caring, and loving by isolating him from the rest of the world, locking him into an enchanted castle that no one remembers, and by turning an unloved little boy into a hideous monster? Now I'm 32 and a librarian--I have to think that Belle's early influence on my life as a reader is partially the reason I chose this vocation. Even though it follows the storyline to the tee, this has a backstory of Belle’s mother which adds a layer of dimension to the Beauty and the Beast retelling. I DNF-ed the book, I hated Belle so much, felt sorry for the Beast, was generally confused by the inconsistencies of the story, and was annoyed by the boring characters. Disney Publishing Worldwide owns the Disney Twisted Tales, the Kingdom Keepers, and the Disney Descendants series, as well as some other series you wouldn’t even think of, like Melissa de la Cruz’s Blue Bloods novels (more on that series next week).

Me ha gustado el nuevo giro que le han dado al cuento clásico que todos conocemos de la bella y la bestia, creando en el lector un montón de incógnitas por desentrañar. It feels like a fairy tale with a modern twist and that’s what it is, but there’s a bit more substance and it fills in a bit more plot holes then the original tales, but it keeps that feeling of wonder and suspension of disbelief. Rosalind (the Enchantress/Belle's mom): Rosalind is a strong female character, yes, but too strong, as if she was trying to fill a quota. Any Whovian will pick up on the woman who is forgotten when you look away, the statue that moves except when you stare at it, and Belle's insistence that she never walk in shadows.

Catch me literally repeating my rant from the last Twisted Tale book I read because they are all the same and I don't like them in the same way. It would have been beneficial for Maurice's backstory to collectively go after Belle's present-day storyline, so we'd be surprised with her. Genauso wie die Erzählweise: Als Leserin habe ich Gegenwart und Vergangenheit kennengelernt, jeweils aus unterschiedlichen Sichtweisen, was die Geschichte meiner Meinung nach umso einnehmender werden ließ.

I loved the flipping between the two storylines, and I completely understand why the ending is what it is.

Every chapter would alternate from Belle's present-day to Maurice's past, and I literally couldn't decide which storyline I hated more! I also liked Rosalind though I agree with everyone else, what she ends up doing is kind of a jerk move. No missing or damaged pages, no creases or tears, no underlining or highlighting of text, and no writing in the margins. Since we had Maurice's backstory going on alongside Belle's present-day storyline, we knew everything Belle was going to figure out before SHE did. You took one of the most beloved movies of all time, ripped the heart out of it, and stomped it down into a pile of steaming goat feces.