Reviews tagging 'Forced institutionalization'

As Old as Time by Liz Braswell

17 reviews

sar_lion's review

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adventurous challenging dark hopeful tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Quite dark overall, but very well written with lots of changes to the Disney movie. But all good changes, in the long run. The characters already mean so much that I already felt connected to them from the jump. The additions were very interesting.
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lauraeduncan's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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skyegbooks's review against another edition

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adventurous dark hopeful mysterious fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I had been questioning if I would even enjoy this book, due to putting it off for so long I believed it would seem childish and boring to me. This was not at all the case. The story is so unlike the original, so entirely unique, it's amazingly thought through.
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caughtbetweenpages's review

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adventurous dark funny fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

I think, in this series/collection at least, Braswell is at her best when she cleaves a little closer to the original tales, giving them twists instead of full reimaginings, though I still liked this addition to the Disney B&tB canon. Going into the backstory of Maurice and the Enchantress who cursed the Beast/Adam was interesting, especially in that it acted as a critique of bigotry against People Who Are Different (god, if les charmantes weren't an allegory for queer, neurodivergent folks by way of changelings/western European fairy lore, I'll eat my hat) and how that leads to oppression, which leads to Bad Outcomes for Literally Everyone. Really, the story felt divided between the present of Belle trying to fix the Beast's curse and the backstory of her parents living through a magical creature genocide, culminating in an eventual blending of the two stories. 

I think I struggled a little with being given a primary villain who wasn't the same as the one from the original Disney canon, since a lot more heavy lifting needed to be done to make him as sinister and insidious as Gaston was in the original film, and I don't feel it was done to good effect. He was awful, and his
magic removing experiments were disgusting and reminiscent of other totalitarian, genocidal regimes
, but maybe that was a little too on the nose and not spread through the narrative enough to feel earned when it happened. I also don't love the idea that the biggest bigots are actually people who are Different and full of self-hatred. The biggest racists are not PoC. The biggest homophobes and transphobes are cis and het. It's a gross move, and one used WAY too often for my taste, to make an oppressed person be the agent by which others are oppressed. 

I enjoyed that Adam and Belle's relationship actually developed on page instead of via montage, and that Adam demonstrated actual growth re: selflessness when he asked Belle's mother to
use the last of her magic to save his castle servants/staff instead of turning him human. Beastly Beast is hotter anyway, and I honestly feel like Belle's better off NOT searching for a "cure" to what's not a problem (this is a joke ONLY if Adam really really REALLY wants to be human and being a Beast bothers him)
. I ALSO like that Belle very much calls out the Enchantress for cursing a grieving, orphaned child as harshly as if he were a fully grown adult man who understood what he was doing and had context for a life that wasn't as pampered as Adam was. That's an important callout! Another delicious piece of book candy down, another tribute to the desire for nostalgia my heart demands.
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ailurus's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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joisaddler's review

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dark emotional mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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vixenreader's review

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

The ending is a bit of a bummer, it still has a lot of creativity, and it addresses the hiccups in a more fascinating fashion. 
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alexinitalics's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

I definitely enjoyed this book, personally I was a very big fan of the flash back sections in the first half of the book, especially as the rest was basically just retelling the movie exactly. The second half focuses more on the "twisted tales" idea, continuing the timeline of the movie after a major change. It has a lot of clever ideas that it explored well, although I found it a little inconsistent. The villain was a good twist on the original story and I didn't see it coming. However I think it was also a little affected by the pacing as I felt there were two many reveals in a short space of time. I've seen a lot of people complain about Belle's characterisation but I personally didn't find this. I did think the beast's character was well written and the new characters were interesting to read about.
Overall, I definitely recommend this book for Disney/beauty and the beast/twisted tales fans but it's not one of my favourites from the series

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dragonwithapen's review

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adventurous emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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quartzbeesknees's review

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dark lighthearted mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

The story itself was quite nice. It read a bit like fan fiction, which I suppose in a sense it is. I will admit I was disappointed with then ending, however it did encourage my reading streak to kick back up and definitely didn’t stop me from reading the entire book in one sitting. 
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