The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

The Good: This one was far better than the Aladdin story. It was a tremendous expansion on the original story. The addition of the dream world and what it meant and represented was unique. It was also the bulk of the story, so the reader wasn’t immersed into a complete rehash of the Disney version of the fairy tale (this was my complaint of the Aladdin story). Of course, this is my second favorite fairy tale, so I might be a bit biased here.

The Bad: There are some girl power moments here, except not really. It acts like it might go full girl power and then the author pulls that back and brings balance to the relationship between Aurora and Prince Phillip. There are times when it seems like Aurora sees him as stupid or beneath her, but those moments pass. In reading it, it almost felt like she just got irritated with him and didn’t really feel superior, which I think is something we can all relate to. I really like how they protrayed their relationship at the end. In the end, it was two young people, in love, negotiating how their relationship works.

The Ugly: Nothing too ugly in this one. Again, its not Shakespeare. It was a fun read. If you are opposed to magic, don’t read. If a small kiss bothers you, don’t read. There is quite a fair amount of killings, but nothing very graphic. Other than that, it was a pretty clean book. It is rather lengthy 400+ pages, so its not quite a quick summer read, but almost!