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A review by bookish_brooklyn
Aladdin: Far from Agrabah by Aisha Saeed
3.0
I received a copy of Aladdin: Far From Agrabah from Scholastic Books Australia in exchange for an honest review, all thoughts are my own.
Let’s start with what I liked: Far From Agrabah, I thought, was initially quite clever in that the bulk of the book actually takes place in the Kingdom of Ababwa, which my fellow Disney enthusiasts would know to be the fictionalised realm where Prince Ali aka Aladdin rules. What really made me chuckle was when Genie was working his magic, seeing that the land of Ababwa was being illustrated onto the map right in front of Jasmine and Aladdin’s eyes, it just made for a completely awkwardly sweet moment and definitely made me think of the live action movie that this book was based on, which for most part I really enjoyed!
What initially started to throw me off though about Far From Agrabah were the chapters throughout the main story though, where the reader learns about some prestigious and noteworthy rulers and how they came to govern their lands and how their realm was able to flourish. In theory I thought that these would have been quite fun and fascinating to read about, but truth be told I was just wondering how they connected back to our main story, with some of the Sultans and people of note slightly getting lost on me!
Whilst I enjoyed the originality of Far From Agrabah, I did find myself feeling the pacing to be a little bit slow, well truthfully quite a lot slow, so much so that I actually procrastinated finishing it because there were moments throughout this book where I personally felt like not much happened at all! To me, it felt like there were a stream of pages where we’re treated to the description of the kingdom of Ababwa, which is all well and good, I appreciate being able to visualise it but sometimes the descriptions just went on a bit too long, I thought.
What I did find curious though was the long awaited reveal of the strange man that seemed to follow Jasmine and Ali around Ababwa, initially I wondered if by some sorcery, maybe it was Jafar? What I must say was completely clever was that in the fabricated kingdom of Ababwa, there seemed to be a young street rat (who was completely cheeky and sweet) and it really felt like Genie modelled on Aladdin himself. There were some lovely scenes with the young boy and Aladdin and Jasmine, it was so sweet to read their dynamic together!
It was interesting too, from Jasmine’s point of view, that she thought Prince Ali reminded her of Aladdin, but I did find it low-key frustrating that it took her so long to piece it together! Now, I understand that Far From Agrabah was travelling along the line of the 2019 film, but I just wish there had of been more of a reaction from Jasmine when she learnt the truth! In this book, Aladdin was thinking how he wasn’t worthy of a Princesses as he sees himself as a nobody, of course we know they’re lovely together, but upon the reveal of Ali being Aladdin, I just felt it was all glazed over a bit.
That being said though, it was quite an innovative idea having this novel set in the kingdom of Ababwa, I think younger readers may enjoy reading about that too, as well as seeing some familiar faces from Aladdin!
Let’s start with what I liked: Far From Agrabah, I thought, was initially quite clever in that the bulk of the book actually takes place in the Kingdom of Ababwa, which my fellow Disney enthusiasts would know to be the fictionalised realm where Prince Ali aka Aladdin rules. What really made me chuckle was when Genie was working his magic, seeing that the land of Ababwa was being illustrated onto the map right in front of Jasmine and Aladdin’s eyes, it just made for a completely awkwardly sweet moment and definitely made me think of the live action movie that this book was based on, which for most part I really enjoyed!
What initially started to throw me off though about Far From Agrabah were the chapters throughout the main story though, where the reader learns about some prestigious and noteworthy rulers and how they came to govern their lands and how their realm was able to flourish. In theory I thought that these would have been quite fun and fascinating to read about, but truth be told I was just wondering how they connected back to our main story, with some of the Sultans and people of note slightly getting lost on me!
Whilst I enjoyed the originality of Far From Agrabah, I did find myself feeling the pacing to be a little bit slow, well truthfully quite a lot slow, so much so that I actually procrastinated finishing it because there were moments throughout this book where I personally felt like not much happened at all! To me, it felt like there were a stream of pages where we’re treated to the description of the kingdom of Ababwa, which is all well and good, I appreciate being able to visualise it but sometimes the descriptions just went on a bit too long, I thought.
What I did find curious though was the long awaited reveal of the strange man that seemed to follow Jasmine and Ali around Ababwa, initially I wondered if by some sorcery, maybe it was Jafar? What I must say was completely clever was that in the fabricated kingdom of Ababwa, there seemed to be a young street rat (who was completely cheeky and sweet) and it really felt like Genie modelled on Aladdin himself. There were some lovely scenes with the young boy and Aladdin and Jasmine, it was so sweet to read their dynamic together!
It was interesting too, from Jasmine’s point of view, that she thought Prince Ali reminded her of Aladdin, but I did find it low-key frustrating that it took her so long to piece it together! Now, I understand that Far From Agrabah was travelling along the line of the 2019 film, but I just wish there had of been more of a reaction from Jasmine when she learnt the truth! In this book, Aladdin was thinking how he wasn’t worthy of a Princesses as he sees himself as a nobody, of course we know they’re lovely together, but upon the reveal of Ali being Aladdin, I just felt it was all glazed over a bit.
That being said though, it was quite an innovative idea having this novel set in the kingdom of Ababwa, I think younger readers may enjoy reading about that too, as well as seeing some familiar faces from Aladdin!