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A review by annettebooksofhopeanddreams
What Once Was Mine by Liz Braswell
4.0
At the moment I'm not in the mood for big books. But at the moment I am in the mood for light hearted and fun fairytale retellings or fairytale inspired stories in general. So, even though I doubted a little this morning if I was really gonna read this brick, I decided to just go for it. Mostly because I know the the font of this book is quite big and that these almost 500 pages wouldn't feel like almost 500 pages.
I was absolutely right. In no time I made my way through this book. Partly because the font is indeed quite bit, but also because I love Braswell's writing style. It's never simple, it feels at times quite poetic even, and yet it never feels hard or complicated either. I think it really fitted the story of Rapunzel and how Rapunzel should sound. After all, she had loads of time to teach herself all kinds of things and she's quite clearly not stupid. Naive, yes, but not stupid.
Just like all the Disney Twisted Tales the story manages to keep the heart and soul of the story while changing quite a few things and adding even more. I don't want to take away too many surprises of course, discovering all the changes is half the fun of reading these stories, but there's a lot more politics, a lot more magic, there are a few amazing new characters and a few characters appear in a slightly different form. Tangled is an amazing movie and this book is different, but just as great.
I do have to admit though that the chapters in the hospital are beautiful and sentimental, but don't really add much to the story. It's nice to have a story about a girl with magical hair told to a girl who lost all her hair because of chemo, but if the scenes with the girl with cancer had been left out, the twisted tale of Rapunzel still would have been the same. However, after reading the author's note at the end of the book, I understand why the scenes had to be there.
I was absolutely right. In no time I made my way through this book. Partly because the font is indeed quite bit, but also because I love Braswell's writing style. It's never simple, it feels at times quite poetic even, and yet it never feels hard or complicated either. I think it really fitted the story of Rapunzel and how Rapunzel should sound. After all, she had loads of time to teach herself all kinds of things and she's quite clearly not stupid. Naive, yes, but not stupid.
Just like all the Disney Twisted Tales the story manages to keep the heart and soul of the story while changing quite a few things and adding even more. I don't want to take away too many surprises of course, discovering all the changes is half the fun of reading these stories, but there's a lot more politics, a lot more magic, there are a few amazing new characters and a few characters appear in a slightly different form. Tangled is an amazing movie and this book is different, but just as great.
I do have to admit though that the chapters in the hospital are beautiful and sentimental, but don't really add much to the story. It's nice to have a story about a girl with magical hair told to a girl who lost all her hair because of chemo, but if the scenes with the girl with cancer had been left out, the twisted tale of Rapunzel still would have been the same. However, after reading the author's note at the end of the book, I understand why the scenes had to be there.