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Fafa's Book Corner's Reviews > Once Upon a Dream
Once Upon a Dream
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Review posted on Fafa's Book Corner !
Beware spoilers ahead!
I received this E-ARC via Disney Hyperion and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
DNF
I have read one of the authors books The Nine Lives of Chloe King. This was before I started reviewing and blogging. I ended up DNFing that book. You can imagine my surprise when I found that the author was writing dark fairy tale retellings for Disney. I saw this book on Netgalley and read the synopsis. It sounded interesting so I requested it. But unfortunately I did not enjoy it.
The book begins with a prologue in Phillips point of view. He has just defeated Maleficent. He has no idea where the dragon's body is but assumes that someone must have double checked for it. He makes his way to Aurora's tower. He begins to explain that for the most part he has no idea what's happened. Phillip was in a cell when the 3 fairies saved him. They told him to kill the dragon and wake up Aurora. He's reached the tower and kisses Aurora. Then he starts to get dizzy and realizes that no one checked on the body.
A few years before Aurora's birth her parents got married. Together they ruled the land. But they were greedy and terrible people. They spent a significant time of their ruling eliminating good witches and fairies.
Once Aurora was born they invited everyone who was evil and the whole kingdom. When the guests started arriving the Queen immediately requested Aurora's presents. The three evil fairies arrive. Two of them give Aurora a gift (singing and a good heart) and third fairy promises the King and Queen an army of monsters. They also mention that once Aurora turns 16 they would take her. Maleficent arrives and is shocked that the King and Queen have made a deal with the evil fairies. Maleficent's a good fairy. Before she leaves she promises to save Aurora.
For the next 16 years the King and Queen neglect Aurora. They instead chose to focus on conquering their fellow neighbors. At this point the King and Queen have messed up epically. Their land is dying and so are their people. When the fairies arrive to take Aurora they demand their help. The fairies deny helping them mentioning it was the King and Queen's fault for making a deal with them. Before Aurora is taken away Maleficent arrives. She now has enough power to save Aurora and the land. She saves the people and becomes queen.
I'm starting to realize that I don't enjoy fairy tale retelling's. I was amazed at the amount of changes that were done from the Disney movie. I couldn't imagine the King and Queen being awful and the fairies being evil. I loved those fairies! I also couldn't imagine Maleficent being 'good'.
Aside from that I really didn't like the writing style. It felt choppy and misplaced. And there were more words than necessary to describe something. When I read the authors previous book it was written in first person. Whereas this book is written in third person. I think had this book been written in first person it would've sounded better. If it had just been because it was different I would've written it of as 'It's not you but me'. But that's not the case.
Overall I did not enjoy this book. But I still recommend it. It would definitely be interesting to read about Maleficent being a Queen and that for being a 'good' fairy she still puts the sleeping curse. And how with all these changes Aurora meets Phillip. I would recommend it to fans of dark fairy tale retelling's and fans of the author.
Beware spoilers ahead!
I received this E-ARC via Disney Hyperion and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
DNF
I have read one of the authors books The Nine Lives of Chloe King. This was before I started reviewing and blogging. I ended up DNFing that book. You can imagine my surprise when I found that the author was writing dark fairy tale retellings for Disney. I saw this book on Netgalley and read the synopsis. It sounded interesting so I requested it. But unfortunately I did not enjoy it.
The book begins with a prologue in Phillips point of view. He has just defeated Maleficent. He has no idea where the dragon's body is but assumes that someone must have double checked for it. He makes his way to Aurora's tower. He begins to explain that for the most part he has no idea what's happened. Phillip was in a cell when the 3 fairies saved him. They told him to kill the dragon and wake up Aurora. He's reached the tower and kisses Aurora. Then he starts to get dizzy and realizes that no one checked on the body.
A few years before Aurora's birth her parents got married. Together they ruled the land. But they were greedy and terrible people. They spent a significant time of their ruling eliminating good witches and fairies.
Once Aurora was born they invited everyone who was evil and the whole kingdom. When the guests started arriving the Queen immediately requested Aurora's presents. The three evil fairies arrive. Two of them give Aurora a gift (singing and a good heart) and third fairy promises the King and Queen an army of monsters. They also mention that once Aurora turns 16 they would take her. Maleficent arrives and is shocked that the King and Queen have made a deal with the evil fairies. Maleficent's a good fairy. Before she leaves she promises to save Aurora.
For the next 16 years the King and Queen neglect Aurora. They instead chose to focus on conquering their fellow neighbors. At this point the King and Queen have messed up epically. Their land is dying and so are their people. When the fairies arrive to take Aurora they demand their help. The fairies deny helping them mentioning it was the King and Queen's fault for making a deal with them. Before Aurora is taken away Maleficent arrives. She now has enough power to save Aurora and the land. She saves the people and becomes queen.
I'm starting to realize that I don't enjoy fairy tale retelling's. I was amazed at the amount of changes that were done from the Disney movie. I couldn't imagine the King and Queen being awful and the fairies being evil. I loved those fairies! I also couldn't imagine Maleficent being 'good'.
Aside from that I really didn't like the writing style. It felt choppy and misplaced. And there were more words than necessary to describe something. When I read the authors previous book it was written in first person. Whereas this book is written in third person. I think had this book been written in first person it would've sounded better. If it had just been because it was different I would've written it of as 'It's not you but me'. But that's not the case.
Overall I did not enjoy this book. But I still recommend it. It would definitely be interesting to read about Maleficent being a Queen and that for being a 'good' fairy she still puts the sleeping curse. And how with all these changes Aurora meets Phillip. I would recommend it to fans of dark fairy tale retelling's and fans of the author.
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Reading Progress
March 31, 2016
– Shelved as:
to-read
March 31, 2016
– Shelved
April 3, 2016
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Started Reading
April 3, 2016
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by
Chasity
(new)
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rated it 2 stars
Apr 18, 2016 01:16PM
Well, you really should finish because this is not how the book ends...spoiler alert, Aurora is still in her deep sleep thanks to Maleficent during this time that she thinks Maleficent is the Queen and she saved everyone; and this "I'm the savior" idea was brought to you by Maleficent who managed to infiltrate Aurora's dream when Phillip thought he killed her in dragon form. More happens and Aurora starts to realize she is sleeping. FYI It's still not the best book of the bunch, and certainly not my favorite retelling, but I wouldn't want you walking away thinking the wrong premise of the book.
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@Chasity Wow that's quite the twist! I definitely did not see that coming. I really didn't like the writing style that's one of the reasons I didn't finish the book. So unfortunately I won't be finishing it. But I will edit my review. Thank you for letting me know :)
Fafa's Book Corner wrote: "@Chasity Wow that's quite the twist! I definitely did not see that coming. I really didn't like the writing style that's one of the reasons I didn't finish the book. So unfortunately I won't be fin..."I know, right! Too bad the execution was terrible.
@Chasity Yes indeed.
She did Aladdin before this one, and huge chunks of that one was just copy/paste of the movie's dialogue. At least this one had a smidge of originality. This twisted tale idea would've been so much better with someone else executing it. :-/
@Caralen I never read Aladdin by her. But I heard so many complaints like what you're mentioning. Yes that's true. But man that the writing style was so off. Yeah maybe it would've been way better if someone else wrote it.
*Makes a sad sad face* Hope your next read is great! <3 Awesome review, fafa. :))
@Alafiya Thank you :)
Maleficent is evil and the fairies and parents are good. You really should read the whole book so you don't write an inaccurate review.
@Aili Yes an earlier commenter mentioned that I had it wrong. I forgot to leave a note on that earlier. And I wouldn't have finished it anyways because I didn't like the writing style.
Can u read books on this app
I haven't read this book, and don't plan to, so I can't speak to how good of a retelling it is(n't). But I would urge you to give retellings another try, because most of them aren't like this. If you're looking for a good sort of retelling, I say give the Lunar Chronicles a try. Over the course of the retelling, many fairy tales are involved, but the first book starts with Cinderella. Except she's not a girl, she's a cyborg woman, and lives on Earth far in the future and there's a plague and stuff. That sounds crazy, but I like that it takes the elements of Cinderella as we know it (step mother is still in the evil category, we still get a prince), keeps those essential elements and doesn't twist them about, but changes everythign else, like the setting and the time and the whole rest of the world basically. Because while it's all new and different, it also feels familiar. And that's what a good retelling should do. It should keep the essential important elements, like the characters that are evil staying evil, and the ones that are good stay good, and keep the parts we love, while changing everything else, and spinning the story to fit a new world. Anyway, that's my 2 cents. I'd say give retellings a try, because they can be great fun, and you're into sci-fi with some romance at all, then start with the Lunar Chronicles.
@Shannon I actually did try the Lunar Chronicles. It didn’t work for me. I have read The Storymaker’s series and enjoyed it. First book is called Spelled. It combines several different fairy tales and was quite good! I’d recommend that to you! Thank you for recommending the Lunar Chronicles ☺️
@FaFa’s Book Corner- I’m with you on this book. I found it hard to read as well and wasn’t a fan.
Does it matter what order you read them?
Did you immediately write this review after receiving the ARC? And before the actual book was released?
@Angela Yes I read the arc before the final copy was released.
I HATED Brazwell's retelling of Beauty and the Beast, so I shouldn't have been surprised by this book. Brazwell bleeds out all the wonder and magic of the source films, instead filling her stories with violence, death, stilted dialogue, forced romance, and characters who are nothing like their film counterparts. Brazwell should just have written her own books with her own characters, and Disney should never have attached their name to these books. I expect better of the Disney brand.Brazwell's writing style is subpar - her metaphors weak and lazy, her characters too quick to outbursts, the dialogue hollow. Very disappointing. I'm not surprised you didn't finish the book.
Well....had you actually FINISHED the book...you would have found that the story actually has a huge twist and what you portrayed here in this post is actually NOT what happened at ALL. So....there's a reason why you should actually finish a book before writing about it. :)That doesn't mean you would necessarily like the book had you read it all the way through. But everything you claimed to have had an issue with was not actually true of the story, and unfair to write about in this way, I think.
I just actually finished the entire book and I found it to be an absolutely amazing jab at the original, problematic, fairy tale. All the way through this retelling of the story there is a tearing apart, bit by bit, of all the issues with the original story. Like how absolutely ridiculous and useless the "gifts" were that the fairies gave Aurora Rose as a baby (beauty, grace/music). And this entire book goes into great depth about how Aurora Rose feels throughout, especially with all the discoveries. I mean think about how YOU would have felt had you been sent away by your parents and lied to for your entire life about who you were...kept away from anyone but 3 "aunts" (fairies who clearly know nothing about raising human children) and suddenly on your 16th birthday you bump into another person (the prince) and fall for him (he's the first boy you've ever seen!) and then you are suddenly told who you really are and whisked away to a castle and told you will be marrying someone you've never met the next day and locked in a room and you have NO choice in any of it. EVERYTHING you've ever known has been a lie....how would you feel??? Yeah...that's the Aurora Rose in this story and the whole story is essentially her journey of discovery in her dream world. It's pretty damned amazing. I haven't even gone into so much of it...It's an amazing journey of discovery and pain and strength.
I highly recommend people check it out if that sounds like something appealing to you. I think the author did an amazing job of showing the characters as real people and a STELLAR job with Aurora Rose in particular!
I agree with Tina! I LOVED the character development and perspectives in this book!
