A Twisted Tale (Book Series)

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Sotiris
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A Twisted Tale (Book Series)

Post by Sotiris »

This thread is dedicated to the "A Twisted Tale" book series. Is anyone a fan of the series?

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Collections of the books have been released as well.

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Re: A Twisted Tale (Book Series)

Post by Disney's Divinity »

The covers have definitely improved over time. I'd say the TLM and B&tB stories have the best covers. Improvement by the artist over time is the only explanation I can come up with, because you'd have thought the Jafar cover and especially the Maleficent cover would have been much more visually striking. Does anyone who owns one of these books know the name of the artist that creates the artwork for the hardback covers?

I can't call myself a fan. The TLM book will be the one that I go by. If I like it, I might pick up another (likely Aladdin, although the B&tB book has the best reviews).
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Re: A Twisted Tale (Book Series)

Post by JeanGreyForever »

The only things about this series that I like are the covers. The reviews make clear that the books themselves are utter trash. BATB is the best-reviewed but even then, it has a positive rating of about 40% which only seems like a step-up because the prior books were so critically reviled. I do want to read that one though because it included some interesting additions to the continuity of the original film, such as the prince's portrait functioning like Dorian Gray's portrait.
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Re: A Twisted Tale (Book Series)

Post by Disney's Divinity »

I don't let reviews do the thinking for me. Some things that are hated I like, and some things that are liked I despise. :shrug: They are basically fanfiction, and I do read some fanfiction. I'll try out the one book to see how I feel.
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Re: A Twisted Tale (Book Series)

Post by Raf »

I read the first three and I enjoyed them a lot. When you read them, it definitely feels like a cool fanfiction. The writing could be better (yet I read them in my first language so perhaps that was a translation fault, not the writing style), but the ideas and plot are great. I also really enjoyed the characters, some of them much better than in the original movies. Once Upon A Dream was my favourite so far, and As Old as Time is at the bottom of my list (perhaps I was really tired of Beauty and the Beast-themed novels when I read it, there were so many of them!). I'm excited about Mulan and The Little Mermaid's once. And I really hope to see the books for Cinderella and Snow White. Probably not a chance for a Pocahontas one :roll:. And yeah, I agree the covers are amazing. But I wonder why there is so many releases with different covers, for the first two books especially?
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Re: A Twisted Tale (Book Series)

Post by JeanGreyForever »

When the first two books were released, they had a different style of covers that was more realistic with a silhouette of the princess with a live-action background. For some reason, by the time they got to the BATB book, they decided to go with the more animated type of covers they've been using now. I think on Amazon they also have a third wave of covers that are black and white.
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Re: A Twisted Tale (Book Series)

Post by Sotiris »

Snow White is the next one in the series.
What if the Evil Queen poisoned the prince? Following her beloved mother's death, the kingdom falls into the hands of Snow White's stepmother, commonly referred to as "the Evil Queen" by those she rules. Snow keeps her head down at the castle, hoping to make the best of her situation. But when new information about her parents resurfaces and a plot to kill her goes haywire, everything changes for Snow. With the help of a group of wary dwarfs, a kind prince she thought she'd never see again, and a mysterious stranger from her past, Snow embarks on a quest to stop the Evil Queen and take back her kingdom. But can she stop an enemy who knows her every move and will stop at nothing to retain her power...including going after the ones Snow loves?
Source: https://www.amazon.com/Mirror-Twisted-T ... 36801383X/
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Re: A Twisted Tale (Book Series)

Post by Raf »

I'm happy they are doing Snow White. And it's by a new writer, too. We also know Liz Braswell is working on another one, perhaps Cinderella?
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Re: A Twisted Tale (Book Series)

Post by JeanGreyForever »

If it's a new writer, then the quality of this one might actually be better. Might. It sounds very much like Snow White's Once Upon a Time plotline though so I won't be getting my hopes up.

Interesting that someone from Snow White's past will come into her life again. I wonder who that might be. I don't know how the prince can help her take back the kingdom though if the premise of the book is that he is poisoned instead of Snow White.
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Re: A Twisted Tale (Book Series)

Post by Disney's Divinity »

I'm surprised they aren't working on one for Frozen yet.
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Re: A Twisted Tale (Book Series)

Post by Disney's Divinity »

The TLM book came in the mail on Tuesday. I'm just going through it a little at at time; I'm not in a hurry. I've only read about 80 pages now. I have to say the plot is nothing like I expected... In, well, a bad way. I guess it just doesn't make any sense to me that: *SPOILERS* If Ursula won and Triton traded his soul for Ariel's, why wouldn't Ursula have the trident? Instead Ariel has it and Atlantica is free.... That would never happen. The whole point of Ursula's plan was to get the trident and go back to rule over the people who cast her out. Why would she settle for ruling Eric's tiny kingdom and not Atlantica first? When I first started the story, I thought Ursula as Vanessa had the trident and was basically setting about taking over all the area around Eric's kingdom since she'd already taken over Atlantica. The trident would make easy work of everyone, but....

The writing itself is fine and the characters--so far--have dialogue that sounds like themselves. I'm still going to finish it even though I don't care for it too much so far. Really I bought the book for the pretty cover more than anything else, so I can't exactly be disappointed... :wink:
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Re: A Twisted Tale (Book Series)

Post by JeanGreyForever »

Not surprised to hear that the new book's quality is about the same as the previous ones. From what you've described, the plotline doesn't make any sense to me either. Another wasted opportunity it seems.
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Re: A Twisted Tale (Book Series)

Post by supertalies »

Raf wrote:I'm happy they are doing Snow White. And it's by a new writer, too. We also know Liz Braswell is working on another one, perhaps Cinderella?
The Mulan one is also by a different writer. I've heard some good things about that one, so I'm guessing the fact that so many people seem to dislike the first couple of books also seems to partly be because of Liz Braswell's writing style.

I haven't read these books myself by the way. I have, however, read the Disney Villains books by Serena Valentino, which I did like.
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Re: A Twisted Tale (Book Series)

Post by JeanGreyForever »

Have you read the new Mother Gothel one? I was wondering what that was like.
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Re: A Twisted Tale (Book Series)

Post by Disney's Divinity »

Finished it. Wouldn't recommend it, but it's okay. I don't think I'll be reading the others in the series. :wink:

The writer never quite hit the mark on Ursula, imo, but she wasn't awful. I did like that she was mostly a step ahead of Ariel at every stage of the book, which is in-character even if her dialogue left something to be desired and she came off more desperate for attention whereas Ursula is confident and yet bitter. Her defeat at the end was incredibly anticlimactic, especially since the plot did have the potential for a good climax. At the very end when Ariel and co. plan to confront her in front of the people of Eric's kingdom at a play/opera, revealing her to be a monstrous-looking sea witch in front of everyone, Ursula one-ups them by using that same moment to enact a plan in which she sacrifices Triton and the lives of everyone in Eric's kingdom in order to have magical powers on land like when she was in the sea. That made me think of Full Metal Alchemist, tbh, where a king attempts to sacrifice all his people to create a sorcerer's stone to keep himself alive forever at one point in the story. Anyway, her spell, I forget how to spell the name of it, would call on the "Elder Gods," who sounded almost like eldritch abominations* who might just as easily kill Ursula along with everyone else as grant her deal. That would've been a better ending for Ursula, with her reliance on witchcraft and laws/powers that trump even the trident's power being her undoing, rather than getting accidentally stabbed by a dagger held by F&J when falling into a fountain....

The book seems to treat Ariel's Beginning as part of its universe, because they reference Athena, how humans killed Triton's wife, and that Ariel looked just like her. They also made Attina the eldest.
Probably the dumbest thing in the book was a plan where Ursula attempts to have her warships drop dynamite in the ocean above Atlantica that will just miraculously drift straight down and not explode until it hits the palace, wiping out the merfolk, lol. Like... How...? What....?

*Although Ariel references Greek gods regularly throughout the story, including Titans like Helios and Gaia, as if they're real and that she and Triton are descended from Neptune/Poseidon, so maybe that was just my personal interpretation. The Greek gods were monsters, too, so.... I believe the author has a thing for mythology. That must be why the Mulan book's plot was about her going to the underworld, even though that sounded like such a WTF plot to me for Mulan.


Overall, I'd say the book wasn't what I expected at all. It's decent fodder for the children it's aimed at, but my least favorite part is still how nonsensical it is that Ursula wouldn't have the trident. The trident is mostly a non-factor the whole story, which is utterly bizarre to me. And Ariel herself puts a spotlight on how illogical it is for Ursula to be on land ruling Eric's kingdom anyway rather than wanting to lord over/make miserable the merfolk who banished her.
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Re: A Twisted Tale (Book Series)

Post by Disney Duster »

Disney's Divinity wrote:That must be why the Mulan book's plot was about her going to the underworld, even though that sounded like such a WTF plot to me for Mulan.
WTF, I totally agree, lol.

I really enjoyed your review. It was good, and funny, too.
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Re: A Twisted Tale (Book Series)

Post by JeanGreyForever »

Thanks for recapping because it saved me the trouble of having to go through the book myself. It sounds awful and the plot doesn't make any sense, since, as you pointed out, I'm not sure why Ursula would want to conquer Eric's kingdom when she always had her sights set on the undersea world.

You mentioned that the author even alluded to that in one scene which makes me wonder if this was something editorially mandated for whatever reason. I do like the Greek allusions though because there were plenty in the TV series and the Marvel comic series (also set in the canon of the TV series) explained that merpeople came from Atlantis during Ancient Greek times when merpeople and winged centaurs lived together. Although the Ariel in the series had very little knowledge of ancient Atlantican history (let alone interest, at least initially), so I'm not sure she would really be aware of all the Greek gods and titans. Still, that was a nice inclusion.
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Re: A Twisted Tale (Book Series)

Post by Sotiris »

Snow White Fans Will Enjoy Reflecting on This Excerpt From Mirror, Mirror: A Twisted Tale
https://ohmy.disney.com/news/2018/10/04 ... rpt-cover/
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Re: A Twisted Tale (Book Series)

Post by JeanGreyForever »

The cover's nice but I don't like the new names for the characters. And Snow White doesn't feel like herself at all. More like the OUAT version.
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Re: A Twisted Tale (Book Series)

Post by MrXemnas1992 »

I just finished the Ursula one, and to be perfectly honest, I absolutely loved it.

Haven't read any of the other Twisted Tales yet. Is "Part of Your World" the best one?
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