Bibbidi Bobbidi Academy

Sometimes I just need childrens' books to read. It's like decompression for me. 

I spotted this series on Amazon and bought all five that are currently out. 

The plot is simple: it's an academy for fairy godmothers and godfathers-in-training. 

They're pretty much picture books. Not a ton of text, though not the most basic text either. The art is gorgeous. 

The plots are simple but fun. Rory here has trouble with spelling. Not s-p-e-l-l-i-n-g, which she does frequently in her book, but casting spells. They come out just a little bit off. But she's different in that she grew up in the human world, so she finds a way to use that to help her through her studies. 

Mai's issue is that she always thinks more is best. She's likeable but very over the top. 

So what does she do when her need for more transforms her project partner into a unicorn? 

I LOVE OPHELIA. 

Hands down my favorite. I wish there were dolls and plush of this series, because I want an Ophelia soft doll. 

Her flaw is focusing too much on helping others and not enough time to do what she needs to for herself. She's from Atlantica. Yes, that Atlantica. This is Disney, after all. On a class trip, she runs into her cousin Octavia, who's a sea witch-in-training. Octavia distracts Ophelia all day under the guise of needing help. It's up to Ophelia to finally put her fin down and do what she wanted to accomplish on her trip. 

Cyrus, the one fairy godfather-in-training we meet, is afraid of everything. They have an assignment where they need to conjure up a pet for someone who wished for one. Annnnnnnd his wisher wants a dragon. Cyrus is terrified, even though the dragon is just adorable and does nothing scary. So he has to work past his fear to solve the problem and complete the assignment. 

And finally, we have Tatia. Tatia is the one who tries too hard because she's spent her life in her sister's shadow. She always wants to be first at everything. 

The class is going on a camping trip and she's using an old book written by the Fairy Godmother (yes, from Cinderella) as a guide. Only absolutely nothing is going as planned. 

This is the one I liked least, mostly because it felt rushed. I hate to spoil anything, but there are pages where the art switched Octavia for Ophelia and it was really annoying. The story is okay though. 

I'm not sure if this will be the last book. They could easily do a sixth for Octavia and this one did only just come out on April 2nd. 

It's a fun little series. 

Disney's Twisted Tales: Part of Your World Graphic Novel

A Twisted Tale turns to the world of graphic novels and they picked one of the best to begin with. This is the story of Queen Ariel of Atlantica, set five years after the events of the movie, only in this version, Ursula won. 

This is one of my favorite books in the series and this adaptation did it epic justice. Mostly. The art is splendid. The gist of the story is there. My main disappointment is that Jona the seagull barely had a role, and they eliminated Argent and Vareet entirely. 

I hope to see them tackle more from A Twisted Tale in this style. I know they're doing Valentino's Villain series as graphic novels, but I got enough of that in the books, so I haven't bought any. Especially because one is Cruella and I HATE that book. 

If you're a Little Mermaid fan, I recommend picking this up. Ariel and the Curse of the Sea Witches is another good one. I never reviewed it, but it's set after the movie. All of these prove that I really only dislike Ariel as a character within the confines of her own movie. Every other thing I've read that takes place before or after or in a twisted version, I've really liked her. 

Against the Tide

I absolutely loved this prequel to the new live action Little Mermaid movie. Its premise is pretty simple: Ariel's eldest sister is kidnapped right before Ariel's protector ceremony and the book reads like a mystery. Ariel is trying to solve it and working to rebuild her family's relationships at the same time. 

Ariel herself is well-written. It follows suit with other Little Mermaid things from Disney. I quite like Ariel BEFORE the events of the movie when she gives up everything for some guy she doesn't know. They're really going to have to work hard to convince me live action Ariel isn't even more irresponsible than the cartoon one, because now she's not only giving up her family, her world and her very self, but she's also stepping away from the kingdom she's protecting. Being a good protector matters to her in this book, so yeah, they're going to have their work cut out for them to make her come up with reasons for what she does. 

I loved all the sisters, though not right away. Their dynamic is primarily bickering and fighting. Indira and Caspia are close, but they don't really like anyone else except sometimes Ariel. No one really likes Mala except Ariel because Mala was the perfect one they had to live up to. Perla and Karina don't like each other. And Tamika hasn''t been seen since the day their mother died. 

Perla stepped out right away as my favorite. I love her design best, so I'm glad I liked her character in this, too. She's the only one to help Ariel right away. She's kind, warm, funny, a bit fearful but honestly, they all are except Ariel. 

Karina was next. She returned to her kingdom quickly after Mala's kidnapping because she was afraid. She and Perla mend fences and she joins the sleuthing. I got a sense of Karina being very caring. 

Tamika was never shown in a bad light. She's simply traumatized by fear over what happened to their mother. I don't even think she dislikes Mala like the others do, though it's possible she once did. She's sweet and gentle. 

Indira and Caspia can barely be separated. Indira is a bit of a joker, while Caspia is more prissy. Neither of them are rule breakers. It takes them the longest to come around and I didn't 100% get where I loved either, but I definitely liked them by the end. 

Mala herself was barely there, so it's hard to get a good read on her, but I liked what I saw. She has an interesting secret that I won't spoil. 

This book is set when Ariel turns fifteen, as that's when protectorship is granted. She does become protector at the end. 

Each sister has her own MerSong, which is essentially a superpower. 

Each sea has a protector and a resident, which is a sea monster. In this book, the sea monsters take the role of the humans in the movie. They're what Triton fears and what the rest of the seafolk fear. 

The queen's death is different in this book from what it was in Eric's Guide to Merfolk. Not sure which story they'll go with for the movie, but they're both the fault of Ursula and humans, so it doesn't really matter. 

The book has the origins of Flounder (who I liked a lot more in this world than in the original) and the grotto. Scuttle is referenced as a friend of Flounder but doesn't appear. Sebastian is there but barely. 

So yeah, it's basically Ariel solving a mystery alongside Flounder and her sisters and it's awesome.

Disney's Twisted Tales: Peter Pan

It's been over a year since I read my last one of these. I remember reading the Frozen one down in Florida on vacation in 2021. I got distracted with finishing off the Valentino villain series and we know how that one went. So now it's back to A Twisted Tale. Gah, these are mostly so much better. 

Aside from Disney Fairies, I'm not a huge Pan fan. I remember starting this one also on vacation and only getting a few chapters in. It does start out slow, but then it gets good. Really good. 

The premise is a bit confusing at first, because it seems like the Darlings went to Never Land, but really, it's all just Wendy's stories. They've never been. She's never met Peter. She doesn't know Tink exists. But Wendy tells such good Peter Pan tales that he drags Tink down to London to hang out outside the nursery window and listen in. On one trip, Nana grabs his shadow and for four years, the Darlings do have a physical sign that Never Land exists. However, only Wendy cares. Michael is a typical young boy. John is precocious, highly intelligent, and a bit snobbish. 

The book opens with Wendy not being thrilled with her current life. She's 16 now. The boys are in school but she didn't go. She doesn't fit in with other people her age. She's thoroughly too distracted with Never Land. She writes stories about it in a notebook. Her parents try to distract her by giving her a small dog. She's not thrilled. (And honestly, a bit of an asshole about it. It's not the dog's fault she isn't a wolf.) After they find her notebook of stories, her parents overreact and decide to send her to Ireland, where she'll be a nanny for 5 young boys. I'm not sure why this reaction to her writing is so outlandish. She could be an author, for fuck's sake. (This point is eventually driven home by Michael much later on, but Wendy sadly never writes her stories in novel form from what I can tell.) 

So Wendy brazenly decides to yell into the ether that she has Peter Pan's shadow. And she packs a bag and wanders to the Thames in the middle of the night, as if this is going to work. Yet it does work, because here comes Hook on the Jolly Roger. Wendy trades the shadow for a trip to Never Land and back home again. She spends some time aboard the ship, but Hook's actual plan unfolds soon. He said he'd take her to Never Land but didn't say anything about letting her go ashore. He plans for her to be the ship's "mother." With the help of a dissatisfied pirate named Zane, Wendy escapes the ship.

Once on shore, she finds this special place she created in her stories, as well as a young wolf named Luna, who's apparently her BFF in her tales. She realizes things she wrote about actually came to exist in Never Land. 

Then she's off to find the Lost Boys to get their help in the eventual battle against Hook. He's planning to use Peter's shadow as part of some big plan to finally take him and Never Land out at the same time. The Lost Boys are good characters. One is a girl, who tells her secret when Wendy is there. 

Wendy journeys off with Tink to find Peter. So much happens. I'm not trying to summarize, but they have a LOT of adventures. The mermaid chapters were really enjoyable. Tink initially hated Wendy. When Peter was searching for his shadow, Tink kept discouraging him from checking London out of jealousy. So she's partially at fault for him being separated from it, as is Wendy for the current situation. Watching their relationship change and grow over the course of the book is really the best part of the whole thing. This isn't Disney Fairies Tink. This is definitely fleeting emotions, changeable Tink. But she's done so well. 

On the cover, that's Wendy's shadow, not some random silhouette illustration. She's also a character, as is Peter's shadow. 

We also do meet some other fairies. One is a female who was pretty rude, but the male, Thorn, is awesome and Wendy develops a crush on him that's cute. 

I won't say anything else for fear of spoiling too much, but if you are a fan of the dark Disney stuff, definitely check this one out. It's up there with the Mulan and Aladdin ones.

Serena Valentino Disney Villains 9

Ah, finally made it through the last of the Valentino villains series, at least until Hades' book comes out in July. 

James was a Lost Boy when he was young, but he was found by his mother and returned home, though he spent his young life thinking of ways to get back to Never Land. James is extremely intelligent and after graduating, he decides to try his hand at being a pirate, thinking that will help him return to Never Land. He signs on with Blackbeard's crew, the pair bonding quickly because they're both intelligent men. 

After an attack by a kraken, James and Blackbeard rescue each other, though it's ambiguous how they survived a confrontation with Davy Jones at the bottom of the ocean. Blackbeard takes James to the Jolly Roger and gives it to him, saying he once stole treasures from the Odd Sisters and they cursed him with a long life until someone saved him and he gave them that ship in return. That someone is James. Blackbeard needs him to go to the Many Kingdoms to tell the sisters that his end of the deal is done, so they can remove the curse on him and he can rest in peace. 

James goes to the Many Kingdoms, where Opal the crow gives him a message from the sisters. He's to meet them in the Dead Woods and bring cake. He meets Mrs. Tiddlebottom at her bakery and begins to learn some of the weirdness and magic that is this world. In the Dead Woods, he meets Circe, Hazel and Primrose, who almost convince him to stay with them, but he's determined to get to Never Land. Circe offers him a deal and he takes it, only to end up conversing with Lucinda via a magic mirror in the chest of treasures Blackbeard gave him along with the Jolly Roger. Lucinda says she can do what James wishes for most, while Circe cannot. Lucinda also offers him a way to make sure his mother, now a widow, is cared for. James switches from Circe's deal to Lucinda's, taking the treasures back to London to sell in an antique shop. He buys his signature red coat and his pirate hat there, and gives the rest of the money to his mother in secret, not wanting to talk to her in case she tries to make him stay.

Then it's off to Never Land thanks to a vial of pixie dust in one of the coat pockets. Turns out the sisters gave it to Blackbeard to leave in the shop all those years ago. James is upset to learn that Peter and the Lost Boys now don't like him. Not sure what he expected, as he's both an adult and a pirate. He needs to kidnap Tink and take her to the Many Kingdoms, which is where Lucinda said she comes from. This plan goes horribly awry, Peter cuts off the hand holding Tink, the crocodile eats it and the clock, and James wakes up next to a brand new hook. 

He eventually learns that this was the actual plan. Lucinda never meant to help him become a kid again, nor did she need Tink. And Peter knew about it all along. He sent James home the first time he was in Never Land, knowing he'd return to become the enemy he needed to have more adventures. Now Hook is stuck in Never Land forever, determined to kill Peter to repay him for ruining his dreams. 

This one wasn't bad. Once again, we're tying everything together. Remember the jade earrings Cruella's father bought her and said they were from a pirate? They're some of the items Blackbeard stole from the sisters and Hook sold to the shop. Likewise, remember the jade brooch Lady Tremaine got from her husband? Again with mention of pirate treasure? Yep, same deal. Without Hook, Cruella and Lady Tremaine wouldn't have gotten their cursed jewels.

My favorite reveal was that James and his crew never survived the kraken attack. This plays into the idea that Never Land is actually an afterlife and all the people in it have died on Earth. 

The next book is Hades. It ought to be interesting to see how the Odd Sisters find their way into Greek mythology. 

Now that I'm done with this series, I'm moving back to the world of Twisted Disney, where the next book is...surprise...the Peter Pan one.

Serena Valentino Disney Villains 8

I needed a break from the Valentino Disney villains after Cruella. Oh, that one was like torture. 

I got a few chapters into this and set it aside. It's the same thing again. Will she ever write something where the villain isn't the victim? Still, I enjoy elements of this series. I like how she wraps everything together and we're once again back in the world of the Odd Sisters with this book. 

So Lady Tremaine is a wealthy London widow with two young daughters. She meets a lord/knight from the Many Kingdoms at a friend's party and they hit it off. He sweeps her into a very fast romance that has her making extremely poor choices, like leaving her entire household behind without saying goodbye or making sure everything is taken care of. He whisks her off to the chapel practically the moment she arrives at his door, then abandons her on their wedding night, rushing off to the castle on business. 

While he's gone, Lady Tremaine sets about hiring staff and refurnishing the chateau, as well as trying to befriend the knight's daughter, Cinderella. When he returns, he's pissed and it turns out he only married her so he could take her money. He forces her to get rid of all but two of the servants and makes her and her daughters do the housework. So the real story of the Tremaines is that they were tricked and turned into servants. 

Nanny is there as the nanny, of course, but she can't do anything to help, as the Odd Sisters' book of fairy tales is writing Lady Tremaine as the villain, getting her story completely wrong. She isn't villainous and neither Drizella nor Anastasia do anything wrong either. Their only crime is being afraid of the mice Cinderella is weirdly obsessed with. 

Rebecca, the servant who basically got Lady Tremaine into this situation, turns out to be Circe. She's also the one who stops the lady's letters from making it to her friend, as she and her sisters want to be the ones to help her. Circe's entire role in this book feels out of character for her. The sisters give Lady Tremaine the poison that kills her husband after all. Yes, he's the real villain, but that's what turns her into the villain the fairy tale claims her to be. After this is when the events we know take place. Lady Tremaine blames Cinderella for a betrayal she likely didn't even do.

At the ball, the Odd Sisters and Circe battle with Fairy Godmother, who's overprotective of Cinderella and refuses to listen to Lady Tremaine's pleas for help. Fairy Godmother sends them all away, which leads to the tale ending as we know it, and the Tremaines being locked in their home. Lady Tremaine goes mad and forces the girls to wear wedding dresses, cutting off their hair and hurting them if they try to stand up for themselves. 

Finally, Fairy Godmother and Nanny step in to stop her and then play the role of fairy godmothers for poor Drizella and Anastasia. 

Essentially, Lady Tremaine was never a villain. She was forced into the role by the Odd Sisters and their obsession with following the fairy tale book. Then when they tried to help, they couldn't, and she ended up the villain after all. She's too far gone at the end and is turned into a statue to live forever in the attic where she forced Cinderella to live. 

This one wasn't horrible, but it was frustrating. Sad to see a smart woman make such poor decisions and fall victim to the patriarchal backwards ways of an unknown land. She was a pawn of the bigger characters the entire time and not truly a villain. And Cinderella was just weird. Her mouse obsession was never explained. I did enjoy Anastasia and Drizella, and I liked the Fairy Godmother finally wasn't a total asshole in the end. She's never been an enjoyable character in this universe, but she's coming around. 

Serena Valentino Disney Villains 7

I regret ever complaining about the Odd Sisters and the intertwining of all six previous Villains books again. I was looking forward to this one because I knew it would be different. It was different, all right. It was utterly horrible. 

I'm so tired of these villains getting abusive backstories. Find a new angle for why people go bad. They can't all be victims. Seriously. 

Cruella's book simply went on far too long. It starts when she's 11. She's super rich and raised by a governess. Her father is nice to her and tries his best, but he's got a busy job. Her socialite mother clearly is not meant to be a mother and the hour a day she spends with Cruella is eventually revealed to be at the governess's insistence. Her mother cares about wealth, spending money, shopping, keeping in fashion, and hanging out with her like-minded friends. I believe she does love her husband, but it's eclipsed by her love of being rich. 

Cruella's best friend growing up is Anita. But her mother despises Anita. I don't know why she's so creeped out by the poor girl. It seems to be beyond just the difference in station. 

After her father's untimely death, the two girls go off to finishing school together, but Cruella is forced to quit after standing up for Anita and threatening to stop giving financial donations to the school. You see, Cruella's father willed his entire estate to her. Not her mother. Only her. Under the condition she keep the de Vil name, even if she did get married. 

You can see where this is going. Her mother schemes and plots to marry Cruella off to someone rich, hoping she'll fall in love and change her name, and because he's rich, she won't need her father's fortune. It doesn't work. Cruella's mother brings home the perfect man for her, someone who likely reminded her of her husband and she knows Cruella would only fall for a man who was more open-minded like her father. The pair end up being a match, but her mother is thwarted because Jack agrees to take Cruella's name! Ha. 

But no ha. Not long after, Jack dies in a fire. Cruella is left with nothing. Her home with Jack is destroyed. His businesses were failing and he didn't tell her. He was trying to burn a bunch of papers and that likely caused the fatal fire. Cruella also signed a pre-nup, so she won't see a penny of his family's money. And guess what she did right before learning her husband was dead. Yep, she signed her fortune over to her mother. And guess what her mother does. Yep, she sells the family home and doesn't provide for Cruella AT ALL. Cruella still has what becomes known as Hell Hall and she has a small bit of money left. She languishes there and mourns her losses. Then she decides to reconnect with Anita and that's where the puppy story comes in. You see, Perdita was a posthumous gift from her father when she turned 18, but Cruella managed to push away every good influence she had in her constant need to make her cunt of a mother happy. So she does the movie plot, intending to give the puppy coat to her mother, and ends up being locked away in Hell Hall by her mother, because she was so embarrassed by her. 

The book is really frustrating because it constantly changes. Cruella's father gave her those round jade earrings she always wears and they're supposedly cursed pirate treasure. There are several times when they appear to physically bother Cruella and she acts poorly when she wears them. But I believe there were also loads of times she didn't have them on and still was nasty. She starts out by not seeing servants as people, slowly gets better with that thanks to Anita, and then keeps vacillating on it. She has a few times when she clearly sees her mother for what she is, but every single time, she's roped back into her perpetual need for bitch mommy's approval. I did like Jack. He was a good influence on her. After Jack dies, Cruella loses it. That's when she gets too skinny, her hair turns half white, and she keeps wearing the same clothes over and over. And it's then that her mother seems to change for the better and start being a halfway decent person, but then after that, she doesn't help Cruella with anything. She seems better at the end before she locks Cruella in Hell Hall, but does she care about her or only about appearances? Probably the latter.  

Cruella starts out as a character with potential. She loves fairy tale adventure stories and she and Anita read about Tulip, Oberon and Popinjay, so that's worked into the story after all. Cruella doesn't want to marry. She wants to travel and have adventures of her own. She invites Anita along with her but Anita wants to go to typing school so she can find her own future. Seriously though, if my rich friend invited me to travel, I'd do that first. It's not like typing school is going anywhere. Do it later. I believe Anita's "abandonment" of Cruella is where Cruella truly becomes without redemption. 

I simply did not enjoy it. I don't think every villain needs an abusive backstory that's supposed to explain why they're like that. Valentino did it with Grimhilde (bad father). She did it with Ursula (bad brother). She did it with Maleficent (asshole fairies). She did it with Gothel (bad mother). Now she's done it with Cruella (also bad mother). Beast is the only one that was an asshole himself. Reading all of these spaced apart as they originally came out would likely have been far more enjoyable than reading the same "villain as abuse victim" story over and over. I'm hoping for something better for Tremaine and Hook, but I'm not really expecting to get that.

Serena Valentino Disney Villains 6

Okay, this is the one we've been waiting for, the one that finally wraps up all these storylines. 

I'm just going to go spoiler-crazy and try to make sense of it all. 

The big secret of the Odd Sisters is that Lucinda is the daughter of Manea, who was the one who created Gothel. Manea's mother, Nestis, decided to split Lucinda into three different sisters, which is where we get Martha and Ruby. But all three seem to basically be one person split. Jacob, the main undead guy from Gothel's book, is Lucinda's father. Manea loved him but when Nestis threatened the baby, she made Manea choose between Jacob and the baby and she chose the baby, so Jacob died but Nestis split the baby anyway. Stupid Manea. Nestis apparently had some big visions of ruling beyond the dead woods, so the ancestors and Manea were worried about that. Eventually, Manea sent the Odd Sisters, who they knew would be very powerful, away. Nanny (AKA: the One of Legends) was the fairy given charge of the babies and she left them with the White family. Remember how they were said to be related to the king in the first book? So that's the history of the Odd Sisters. 

The fairies are bitchily trying to decide what to do about them and hold this ridiculous trial where Fairy Godmother and the three asshole good fairies from Sleeping Beauty all are completely insane with their fairy bullshit. The only good fairies are Nanny, who prefers to be called a witch, and the Blue Fairy. Oberon the Tree Lord comes to shut them up and agrees with Nanny, who wants the fairies to assist anyone in need, not just pretty, pretty royalty. Valentino must really hate fairies because there are zero redeeming qualities for any of the four. 

Tulip is working with Oberon to rebuild everything. Popinjay is fine with this. Eventually they will be married. 

Snow is researching the history of the Odd Sisters. She's the one who will discover the secret. She and Circe go to Mrs. Tiddlebottom to retrieve Gothel's library. They learn that Hazel and Primrose were finally healed by the regrown rapunzel flowers and are on their way to the desd woods. Snow and Circe rush there to tell them all that's happened in the centuries they've been dead, but surprise, they already know. There's a middle realm in between life and death where you can basically just chill and listen in on the world. So they heard everything. They're on the side of good. Circe feels at home there, which makes sense, because she's Lucinda's daughter, so she's of the dead woods bloodline. 

Meanwhile, Pflanze the cat has summoned all her magic to pull the Odd Sisters out of the dreamlands. They're in the place in between for a while, but then resurrect Maleficent in her dragon form. They have help from Grimhilde, who just wants to find Snow again. Circe has been keeping Snow away from her mother, which turns out to be a mistake. 

The Odd Sisters and Grimhilde arrive at the castle in the dead woods, where Grimhilde makes up with Snow and then dies, though Snow is also relieved at this. The Odd Sisters are somewhat quelled by Jacob, their father. But there's a lot of chaos and Circe stabs herself to end it all, knowing that by dying, the good parts of her "mothers" will return to them. Maleficent falls dead again before she can destroy the fairylands. The dead woods ancestors speak to everyone in their castle and the Odd Sisters are given a choice. 

So the book ends with them, along with Circe and Pflanze, chilling in the land in between. I'm hoping this is the end of the Odd Sisters for a while. Trying to link all these together was A LOT. The next book is Cruella, which is far more modern, so I don't think they can be part of it. Then there's Lady Tremaine, who I believe the sisters did mention, and Hook. 

The thing I liked best about this one was the illustrations. I wish they'd all been illustrated. I like that they tied everything up and I'm looking forward to a break from trying to remember how all the tales link together. 

Serena Valentino Disney Villains 5

I finally made my way through this one. It's all over the place. I'm just going to go spoileriffic to try to summarize as best I can. 

Young Gothel lives in the dead woods with her mother, the queen of the dead. Her mother is basically a necromancer witch who grows rapunzel to keep herself eternally young. Gothel has two sisters and the three are triplets who look nothing alike. Primrose has red hair and is the perky, nice one. Hazel is the introspective one. She had white or silver hair. I can't recall. Gothel is the one most interested in witchcraft and her mother agrees to begin teaching her, but Primrose is against all of them learning together. There's a lot of drama with this and Manea, their mother, attacks Primrose and Hazel because she really only cares about Gothel. Gothel kills her mother and destroys all but one rapunzel flower in the process. 

In the time that follows, Gothel uses her control over the dead to rebuild her life and make the woods a nice home for her sisters, but her sisters have never fully recovered from their mother's attacks. The odd sisters arrive and want to help, but Primrose and Hazel end up dying. In an attempt to help her with her grief, the odd sisters put Gothel into a decades long sleep, possibly for even hundreds of years. It's never specified. 

While she's asleep, the sisters are dealing with what happens in the other books. Then the king of the kingdom that grows near the dead woods has a wife having a difficult pregnancy. She needs the rapunzel and Jacob, Gothel's lead zombie guy, gets her and the bodies of her sisters out of the woods, having set up a cottage for her to start a new life in. 

Gothel is obsessed with resurrecting her sisters, but the stupidest thing she ever did was not drink the vial of her mother's blood that would have given her magic. She spends years trying to figure out how to bring them back and being angry at the odd sisters for abandoning her. 

Eventually, the king's soldiers come for the last rapunzel flower, which is the one the queen eats and it makes Rapunzel magical. Gothel steals the baby, moves to a tower, and she and the odd sisters put Rapunzel to sleep. The life she thinks she has is all a dream until she wakes and the events of the movie occur. Gothel in the book wants Rapunzel to help heal her sisters instead of only keeping herself young. The odd sisters, trying to escape the dreamlands by making themselves look good to Circe, hinder Gothel as much as they can. They tell her that Manea created Gothel magically and the other two aren't her real sisters. The events of the movie play out and Gothel dies. 

Circe bitches at the odd sisters, having no plan to free them. She and Snow seem to be about to live happily ever after having adventures in the fairy tale kingdoms. 

This book was just weird. I don't think Gothel needed this elaborate necromancy witch backstory. Everything got to be too convoluted, and I have a hard time believing she'd really never drink the blood and gain the powers. She wasn't a likeable character and the odd sisters aren't always, so it was hard to get through this one. The next one is all about the odd sisters, so maybe getting some backstory on them will make me like them better again. 

Serena Valentino Disney Villains 3 & 4

I'm finally getting back into reading my huge backlog of dark Disney stuff. I started this one ages ago, but finished it a few days ago and then just finished Maleficent's now. 

Ursula's book is the most annoying one so far, because so much of the story isn't about her. It follows a few plotlines. 

There's Ursula's past. She's Triton's sister and it's revealed that he hated her, so he basically lost her on purpose. She ended up being adopted by a human fisherman, then grew into her powers, so the villagers became afraid of her based on her looks alone and tore apart her father who was trying to protect her. Ursula turned them all into her soulless servants in return, which prompted Triton to appear and be pissy with her, but then he tried to take her to his kingdom to be part of it. He forced her to remain in an unnatural for her mermaid form though, because apparently her octopus form is hideous to him and he's really rude about it. She ends up being exiled blah blah you know this part. 

Then there's the part with the odd sisters. Ursula gets them to help her try to kill Triton, which is the Little Mermaid plot. There is surprisingly little of this in the book. The odd sisters want Ursula to help them find their little sister Circe (the Enchantress from Beauty and the Beast) in return for them helping her. 

There's another plotline back in Morningstar, where Tulip is dealing with her returned beauty and voice. She just wants to read and be a better person, but all these suitors are driving her nuts. One of them turns out to have promise though, and he continues to play a small role in future books. He has the amusing name of Prince Popinjay. Pflanze, the odd sisters' cat, is there with Tulip, doing some investigating of her own. Her presence somehow restores the memories of Tulip's nanny, who is actually a very old, very powerful witch/fairy referred to only as the One of Legends. She's telepathic, as are the odd sisters. 

I am blanking out on all the details, but the odd sisters discover that Ursula made Circe one of her "poor unfortunate souls" and they are furious. They use their magic to assist in her demise, which happens like it does in the movie. So Ursula is dead and Circe is restored, but now the odd sisters are in some sort of trance sleep.

Moving right on into Maleficent's story, the plot continues with Circe trying to wake the odd sisters while still in Morningstar, so Tulip, Nanny, Pflanze and Popinjay are all still there, too. 

The events of Sleeping Beauty are taking place right at this time. Aurora has been cursed to sleep. Maleficent made a brief appearance in the last book, because she tried to warn the odd sisters about Ursula's betrayal. 

So Aurora and the odd sisters are all in the land of dreams. Aurora is surrounded by mirrors and she learns she can control what they show her. The odd sisters spend a bit of time tormenting her and then make her show them Circe. 

Meanwhile, Nanny has been remembering Maleficent's story, which is infuriating. Maleficent appeared in the Fairylands as a tiny green baby with horns. Fairies are apparently horribly bigoted, so they immediately thought she was evil and left her in the care of the crows. (This is why Maleficent loves her crows and ravens.) When the One of Legends returned for her turn in running the Fairy Academy, she was appalled and bitched out her sister, Cinderella's Fairy Godmother. Fairy Godmother is like Triton. She's an asshole who judges character based on appearance alone. So the One of Legends (Nanny) adopted Maleficent, who was four by that time, and raised her to be a good fairy. Maleficent tries going to the academy, but the other fairies are total dicks to her. The three "good" fairies from Sleeping Beauty exhibit the same assholery as Fairy Godmother. Maleficent shows aptitude for magic beyond just simple fairy magic, so Nanny decides to home school her, using her own spellbooks, some of which were written by the odd sisters, who become favorites of Maleficent's. 

All this backstory is mixed with the present time. Maleficent is on her way to Morningstar because she needs the help of Nanny and Circe to keep Aurora asleep. Snow White over in her kingdom is graying at the temples and her children are grown. Her mother, Grimhilde, is dead, but watches over Snow from within the mirrors. Snow gets involved in the main plot because in Grimhilde's things is a fairy tale book the odd sisters had left for Snow White when she was young. (Remember, they were related to her father.) That fairy tale book writes itself as events happen. The Tree Lords reawaken and come to Morningstar to protect it from Maleficent. The fairy lord (and Tree Lord) Oberon wants to punish Maleficent for destroying the Fairylands years ago. 

Back into flashbacks. Maleficent is now turning 16 and wants to sit her fairy exams. Only three fairies each year are chosen to be wish-granting fairies and she wants to try her hand at it and get her certification to show she really is a fairy. I like the detail in Maleficent's description that her skin is basically a mood ring. She's only green when she's angry or sad. She's mentioned as very pale purple in this scene. The odd sisters come to celebrate her birthday, which is the next day and the day of the exams. Maleficent has never met them before but loves them instantly. There's a lot of hint-dropping that Nanny has seen her future and it might not be great. The stupid Fairy Godmother comes and tries to get Nanny to not allow Maleficent to take the exams, but Nanny tells her to fuck off basically. Maleficent goes to sleep worried because her favorite raven, Diablo, didn't return home. The next morning, she and the three "good" fairies are the only ones planning to take the exams because, as the good fairies bitchily explain, why would anyone bother when they're going to take all three wish-granting spots? Flora and Fauna are worried about taking the exam separately because clearly Merryweather is the leader. Through some clever maneuvering, Nanny manages to say all three can take the exam together but that means they only earn ONE wish-granting spot and must act as one in the future. This leaves two spots open. The Blue Fairy from Pinocchio is the first to step forward and say she wants to try. She also tells Maleficent that she wishes she'd stayed in school because they didn't all hate her. Other fairies also want to try the test. Each one goes down a path and finds a human charge they have to use magic to help. Maleficent ends up finding Snow White and defeats the queen's father in the mirror, freeing both the queen and Snow. After everyone returns, Nanny and Fairy Godmother sit down to go over the results, though Fairy Godmother keeps reminding Nanny that the choice is hers. Then all hell breaks loose. The odd sisters appear, bringing a crying child. That's Circe as a young girl, who was one of the charges for the test. (Some charges are real. Some are kind of images from the past like Snow was.) Circe claims the good fairies attacked her. Then Maleficent storms in and demands to know where her bird tree is. All the bullshit comes out. Fairy Godmother let it slip to the good fairies that Maleficent was taking the test, so they kidnapped Diablo. Circe saw into their hearts during the test and decided to transform herself to look like a worried Maleficent to test whether the fairies would help her or not. They refused. Somehow Maleficent's entire tree got there and the stupid fairies set it on fire trying to attack Maleficent. Because they're ASSHOLES. Maleficent yells at the fairies upon learning this and Merryweather bitches back at her. Fairy Godmother finally explodes and says Maleficent is going to be evil no matter what and even Nanny knows it. That's the last straw for poor Maleficent, who turns into a dragon for the first time and in doing so, obliterates the Fairylands with green flame. 

So she did destroy the Fairylands, as Oberon saw, but she was provoked and lost control of magic she didn't know she had. The real fault here lies with the bigoted fairies. Even Oberon admits there's going to be punishment for them but sadly, we never get that. 

As the story moves on, Maleficent and Nanny talk and Maleficent is angry because Nanny didn't try to find her. Apparently, Maleficent stayed in dragon form for years because the transformation hurt and Nanny couldn't detect her because she was a dragon. Maleficent thought she'd killed her, but the odd sisters had transported them into the alternate reality space created for the exams. So all the fairies there and Maleficent's birds lived. Maleficent was basically terrified to go out into the world because she didn't want to hurt anyone else, so she lived in a ruined castle for years and her birds brought her things. It used to be Hades' castle, so that's where the movie minions came from. The odd sisters would come visit her from time to time. They never had word of Nanny, because to punish herself, Nanny wiped her own memories. That's why she's just Tulip's nanny in her first appearance. 

Then things get even weirder. The odd sisters develop a spell that will create a daughter for Maleficent out of everything good in Maleficent. Problem is, that leaves Maleficent cold and unloving. This is also how they created Circe, as it's revealed she is their daughter, not their little sister. However, Circe has no memory of the Fairylands events and the odd sisters used to be different and nicer, so there's still an untold story here. The Circe that exists likely is not the same as the Circe in the Fairylands scenes. So this spell explains why both the odd sisters and Maleficent are on the evil side. Circe is pretty wrecked when she learns all this. I completely forgot to work it in, but Snow White is with her, having brought the fairy tale book to Morningstar. The odd sister's house automatically transports itself somewhere, taking Circe and Snow with it, so they're both trapped who knows where. 

If you haven't guessed it, Aurora is Maleficent's daughter. And the reason she decided to spell her to die is because when she turned 16, she lost control of her powers and obliterated the Fairylands. She's not trying to hurt Aurora. She's trying to save everyone from her. She saw how Circe got the powers of the odd sisters but much stronger, so she figures Aurora will get her own powers and lose control like she did. 

The end gets a little crazy. The odd sisters work from the dreamland to provoke Maleficent into being truly evil and things play out like they do in the movie. Circe works her magic on Aurora through mirrors and is able to bind her powers. Now she has to decide whether she's going to try to wake her three mothers or not. 

This book is not easy to review. It switches points of view and time periods A LOT. It's not confusing when you're reading it but trying to summarize it in a coherent manner I don't think it working very well. 

Let's just say that Valentino went the same route as she did with Ursula. Both Ursula and Maleficent were not bad people until others treated them with prejudice and cruelty. Ursula was ruined by Triton. Maleficent by the bigotry of the fairies and the lack of honesty from Nanny. I didn't like Ursula in her book though and I did like Maleficent. Death-dealing or not, she's trying to save people. Needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few and all that. What's most frustrating about her story is if the damn fairies hadn't been such dicks, everyone probably could have worked together to contain Aurora's powers and she could have lived a normal life and Maleficent could have also remained alive. And I'm sure they're not going to get any sort of comeuppance either, just like Triton got out of it. That's the problem with where Valentino keeps going. She's trying to still stick by the movie world so while she's making the good characters into bullying toxic influences, they're still getting the happy endings of the good characters they are in the movies, and that's getting frustrating.  

I do really enjoy the character of Tulip though and Circe is great, too. And Pflanze. I love Pflanze. Next up is Mother Gothel, so I'm intrigued where that's going to go. 

Serena Valentino Disney Villains 2

 
This one was a much quicker read than the first. It doesn't really drag on. 

The time frame of the backstory is changed a lot. Here the prince is already pretty old when he's cursed. Old enough to have been a skilled hunter and womanizer and Gaston's best friend. Gaston was the son of the gamekeeper and it was the prince who gave him lands and wealth, something he hates to be reminded of. 

The prince is engaged to a girl named Circe but Gaston says she's the daughter of a pig farmer. At first, the prince doesn't believe it but when he sees her on the farm, he's enraged and declares she lied to him because she knew he could never marry that far below his station. She comes to him and tries to win back his love but when he's cold to her, she reveals her true self. The odd sisters from the first book swoop in and say Circe is cousin to the old king (Snow White's dad) and their younger sister. They're all witches but Circe is the most powerful as well as the most kind-hearted. She curses the beast with the curse we know from the movie. 

Unlike in the movie though, the curse takes a long time to take effect. As long as he remains cruel, the prince's cruelty will begin to show on his body. At first, this is hardened eyes and looking older than he is. It takes a long time before he becomes the beast. In this time, Gaston throws a party to find the prince a new bride. He matches him with Princess Tulip Morningstar. Belle is actually at this party, though the prince never gets a good look at her. 

Tulip is an interesting character. I like her a lot. She's well aware she's trapped by her gender. Being a girl means you're only taught certain things and she's frustrated that she knows so little and that people think she's stupid for it. She was also taught not to contradict men or offer her own opinion. So she doesn't carry on conversations very well but she's so pretty that when she giggles instead of contributing thoughts, it's endearing. From the outside, this would be a very annoying character but being able to be inside her head a bit, you see how she's a product of being a royal girl in that time. 

So the prince tries to use Tulip to break the curse but his cruelty remains and everything comes undone. The staff slowly turn into objects, though they never actually appear on the page as speaking objects. The prince hides in his room. 

The odd sisters are determined to make him pay for hurting their sister so they send compassionate Circe off on an errand to see Ursula. Ursula saved Tulip when she tried to throw herself off a cliff after the prince broke their engagement, but being Ursula, she took Tulip's beauty in payment. Circe's off to fix this and help Tulip's family, as they were counting on the marriage to help their land. The odd sisters bring about the events of the movie and this part of the book is only the last few chapters. Most of it is taken up with backstory. When Circe returns, her sisters spell her into sleep but awaken her to see the beast mortally wounded after fighting Gaston. An angry Circe berates her sisters and uses her powers to revive the beast and return him to human form, as seen in the movie. 

It's not the most fascinating story ever and the details are strange. Making Gaston the prince's BFF and then part of the curse being that everyone in the castle forgot about the townspeople and everyone in town forgot about the court was a bit contrived. Making the prince stay human for far longer seems like less of a punishment, although it does serve to show that he really earned that curse. It wasn't only a fleeting moment of rudeness that caused such punishment. Lumiere just sort of appears, too. Cogsworth and Mrs. Potts are the only servants named for quite some time but then later on, Lumiere is just suddenly there. 

I do like the odd sisters being the older sisters to the Enchantress (Circe). I like that they know Ursula and Circe says she likes Ursula best of the sisters' friends. They make a few references to the days of Snow White, though it's clearly long past. They also make references to the events in Sleeping Beauty. Next up is Ursula's book, then Maleficent's. I believe I stopped partway through Ursula's and never finished nor did I read any of the rest of the series, so this will be my first readings of each from here on out.

Serena Valentino Disney Villains 1

 
It's been so long since I read this for the first time. This was published in 2009, though I don't think I read it that early. I'm pretty sure I remember getting it along with the second in the series, which is about the Beast. Ah, yes. I love Amazon's record keeping. Right there on the item page it says I purchased this in August 2015. So 6 years after it was published and the one about the Beast had also been out a year at that point. 

I knew Serena Valentino from Gloomcookie, a goth comic book series. Maybe someday I'll track down all the collections. I think I only had two. Serena also did the Nightmares & Fairy Tales comic series, which I bought much later than when they came out. So she has the darker mind that works well for darker fairy tales. 

I did a short entry here after reading the second book in the series, which mentioned that I didn't care for this one...and that still mostly holds true.

The book follows how the Wicked Queen became so wicked because she wasn't originally. She was the daughter of the most famous mirror maker in the land and when the king visited his shop, he fell in love with the girl after the death of Snow White's mother. The early chapters are nice with the queen getting to know Snow and the little family having fun times. But the king keeps riding off into war and each time, it becomes harder on the queen. Finally, he dies in battle which breaks her. 

The king has three "odd sisters" who are supposed to be his cousins but likely aren't really. They're triplets named Lucinda, Ruby and Martha. These three turn out to be witches and it's them behind the molding of the Wicked Queen. When she was still alive, the queen's mother wished for a child. Her husband, the mirror maker, bargained with the odd sisters, trading his soul for a pregnancy. Unfortunately, his wife died after birth and he spent his entire life tormenting and abusing the little girl who would become the queen. So the queen comes from an abusive background. Then even in death, he works with the odd sisters to control the queen. He is the face in her magic mirror. She still craves his approval, though it's also become her holding power over him, forcing him to say that she's the fairest when all she heard from him in her youth was that she was ugly. So now we've got victim gaining power over her abuser. The queen learns witchcraft from the odd sisters and is driven down an obsessive path to true evil by their hand and her father's. The sisters use a spell on her to drive her to her final act: trying to kill Snow White. 

So we've got a sympathetic character who was abused in childhood and then found love, only for her husband to constantly neglect his wife and child. I blame him for part of this, too. He abandoned her and Snow over and over. She was an easy tool for the odd sisters to transform. The constant chapters on her depression and descent into madness were boring though and you read through all of them and the sisters still have to use a spell to truly turn the queen evil! 

In the end, she repents of her actions. The sisters appear when she's still a crone and say she can run into the forest and escape or she can run to the cliff, which will lead to certain death. The queen chooses that path, regretting what she's done and what she's made of her life. After Snow is married, she gets the magic mirror and inside it, she sees her stepmother, who tells her she always loved her and always will. It's a nice little ending. 

I'm not sure how I feel about it overall. Not every villain needs a sympathetic backstory that explains what drove them to evil. Some people simply are evil. And I don't tend to like the abused becoming abuser trope. I do like the addition of the odd sisters though because they're going to keep coming back. At least if there has to be some driving force behind the creation of all the Disney villains, it's interesting. This one was very slow-paced but it's probably worth starting the series here just to have the full picture of it all.

The Real RPG (Red Panda Girl)

I watched and ADORED "Turning Red," so I had to get this book. 

It's Mei's POV and it's already giving some good backstory and more in depth information.

I'm just going to babble as I come across things worth noting. This won't make any sense unless you've seen the movie. 

So we start out with the girls writing 4*Town FANFIC. YES. We all knew they did. 

The girls are over at Mei's, so they do come to her house with Ming's permission sometimes. There was a discussion about how weird it was to have so many photos of Ming and Mei doing stuff together. I disagreed with that because a lot of it was mother-daughter events, but yeah, the annual tea picture where the only change is how much bigger Mei is is slightly odd. 

And the book solved the main thing that was bothering me about the movie: Ming doesn't like Miriam because she talks about boys too much and Ming doesn't want Mei growing up too fast. I feel like there should have been a clear line in the movie addressing this, because Miriam has a very Jewish last name and it's not gonna look good on Ming's part unless she's very specific about why she doesn't like Mei's Jewish friend. 

Also, I obviously thought Ming was overbearing in the movie because you're supposed to think that, but I thought she was mostly a good person. But in the book, there's a scene in a restaurant and she refuses to tip because they waited "forever" for their food. NO. FUCK YOU, MING. She lost major points with that. 

There's a scene where the girls are working on their fanfic and Ming comes over, so Mei makes them hide it. Then Miriam says something about Devon and Mei covers it up. After Ming is gone, Mei tells Miriam not to talk about boys in front of her mom and Miriam asks why not but Mei never answers her. Would it have been difficult to say her mom isn't ready to hear Mei be interested in boys? Mei hides things from her mom but she also doesn't make it clear to her friends that she basically has a Mom Personality and a Real Personality. I feel like that would have helped a lot. 

A lot of the book is just the movie with little perspective twists or minor additions. There's one great line when Mei is upset about the Daisy Mart incident. 

"It's fine, you'll move to another city, change your identity. Sure, why not? I've always wanted to go to Buffalo."

Heh. I'm from Buffalo. 

There is a great scene with Mei and her dad going to the donut shop for a talk. I hate to say it but I honestly can't remember if this was in the movie or not. I don't think so? But it's a nice father-daughter moment, so it should have been left in. 

There's more in-depth stuff with the aunties that gives them more separate identities. According to the book, Lily's daughter is Vivian, who wasn't in the movie. Helen and Lily are described as Ming's cousins, while Chen and Ping are just "Mom's side of the family." Chen is Lily's mom, but I've read Chen as Ming's sister online. Yet if she was Ming's sister, then Lily wouldn't be a cousin but her niece. So I don't think Chen is Ming's sister. I think she's Grandma Wu's sister. This seems confirmed later in the book when Mei remembers her mother telling her that Chen was jealous of Grandma Wu because Wu inherited the temple and she didn't. So they must be sisters. There's a scene where Grandma and the aunties take Mei for dimsum that's pretty funny. 

So yeah, if you're a fan of the movie, I recommend checking out the book. It's pretty fun. Although it did not answer one of my two big questions from the movie: what is the Goth Girl's name?!!! And if you're looking for more hints about Priya having a crush on her, they're not in a book. Sadly! That scene isn't even mentioned.

Disney's Twisted Tales: Conceal, Don't Feel

I'm not a big Frozen fan, but there are definitely elements in the story that could have made for a good twisted version. 

However, what we got is so watered-down and weak that it's just as kid-friendly as the movie. Not what the twisted tales line should be about. 

In this book, when they're kids, Elsa messes up the troll's spell. Her powers are locked away and Anna is spelled to be unable to be near her sister. The closer she is physically to Elsa, the faster she freezes. The screwy spell also makes the entire kingdom forget Anna exists, save her parents and the nice couple who are given Anna to raise. (The woman in the couple is the girls' mother's BFF.) So Elsa grows up in a lonely, solitary, studious life, while Anna lives in a small town in the mountains, being the happy, friendly, creative daughter of the town bakers.  

Time passes and Elsa's powers reveal themselves. Her parents leave for their doomed journey. Anna realizes that Freya, the friend of her mom's who visits every couple months, is actually the queen. She and Kristoff journey to Arendelle to help Elsa, because Anna feels she's in danger. Elsa, who has been courted by Hans for a year, flees a few moments before her coronation, after finding a letter from her parents that reveals she has a sister named Anna who's alive and living elsewhere. Hans goes after Elsa. Anna still saves her sister from him. The sisters are reunited and the cursed spell is broken. There's more here that I'm skipping, but the book is basically only the slightest twist on the movie and everything ends up the same. It wasn't awful but it was far from good.

Disney's Twisted Tales: Mirror, Mirror

Jen Calonita is added to the line-up of authors reworking these twisted versions of Disney movies. She's written this one, based on Snow White, and the next book in the series, which is based on Frozen. 

This is the weakest of the series so far, because it barely changes the story. It makes the queen a little more evil, because she kills Snow White's mother, who is the Evil Queen's younger sister. She banishes Snow's father and tells the people he abandoned them and his daughter. Then it goes right into the regular plot: Snow is a threat to her beauty and her crown so she has the huntsman kill her, but he can't and she finds the dwarves. The biggest difference here is what happens after because Snow is determined to take back her kingdom, instead of singing and playing house. The prince finds her and takes her to her father, who says he physically can't return to the kingdom because of the Evil Queen's curse. So it's up to the prince and the dwarves to team up with Snow and get the local villagers to help rise up against the queen. 

It is nice to see Snow and the prince spend more time together and more realistically develop feelings for each other. Then near the end comes the cover twist, which is the prince getting the poisoned apple, but he's poisoned for, like, a couple hours before Snow kisses him and breaks the spell. 

It was an enjoyable book, but not nearly as good as the others. It's only lightly twisted and even more lightly dark. Snow can't even kill the queen. She just sticks her in the dungeon after destroying the mirror after a bunch of simpering instances of her thinking about how she could never kill anyone. She's a witch who killed your mother, banished your father, neglected you and then tried to kill you repeatedly. Just fucking kill her. Sheesh. 

I'd say read this one is you're a bit of a completist like me who wants to read the whole series, but if you're just picking and choosing from this series, skip it.

Disney's Twisted Tales: Part of Your World

Continuing on with Twisted Disney, we come to The Little Mermaid. 

I had really mixed feelings about this one at first, because why would Ursula stay in disguise as Vanessa and be content with manipulating humans when she could just rule Atlantica? I was further dismayed to see them using the canon from the 3rd Little Mermaid movie when it came to her sisters. 

This drives me insane. The original movie CLEARLY spells out the age order of the sisters. IT IS LITERALLY IN A SONG. 

Aquata. 

Andrina. 

Arista.

Attina. 

Adella.

Alana.

Ariel. 

That is the correct order. I will accept nothing otherwise. The old chapter book series sticks by that. 

I was bitterly disappointed that the author didn't use the rather blank slates of the sisters to create characters for them, but she wrote them off as forcing Ariel to rule as punishment for the death of Triton while they spent their time on frivolity. It's hinted later that this frivolity is how their grieve their mother, but as Ariel points out, that was over a hundred years ago.  

Yeah, I have no idea how mermaids age. Ariel was 16, yet her mother died 100+ years ago, so one mer year is many, many human years. It's been 5 or 6 years since Ursula defeated Triton, so figure Ariel is 21 or 22, but actually well over 100. 

Anyway, Scuttle is still alive and does some spying on Vanessa. He realizes she's still got King Triton alive in polyp form, so he quickly gets the news to Ariel, who as I mentioned is Queen of the Seas. Ariel is still mute but communicates in sign language, using an old signed form of the mer language. 

Ariel goes to the castle to try to find her father, able to become human thanks to the power of the trident. And yes, there's some bitterness that her father could have made her human all along. 

So thus begins the adventure. Ariel is aided on land by Scuttle, but as he's quite old, it's mostly his great grandgull Jona that's helping. Ariel ends up stealing the nautilus necklace while Vanessa is bathing and gets her voice back pretty early on, but this also alerts Vanessa that Ariel is there and it frees Eric from the spell she's had on him (and the entire town) for years. Eric and Ariel team up and rekindle old feelings while working together to find King Triton and stop Vanessa, who's amusing herself by trying to cause a bunch of wars. 

And...get this...Ursula's big final plan is to cast a spell that summons the Elder Gods, who will give her power on land, as she has none. (Likewise, the trident doesn't work on land.) It even uses a twisted Lovecraftian language. 

Yep. Ursula's gonna summon Cthulhu. Classic.

I started out disliking this, but ended up enjoying it quite a lot. Attina in the role of the oldest sister shows up the most of the other 6 and is the only one to really get a personality. She's snarky and sounds a bit silly compared to the well-read Attina that's my favorite, but she ended up being a decent character. I still swap her with Aquata in my head though. As it should be. All the old favorites are there: Sebastian, Scuttle, Flounder, Carlotta the maid, Grimsby, Max. And they're joined by Jona, a badass older woman tattoo artist named Argent, and Vareet, Vanessa's young servant girl. It's a pretty fun ride and all the questions you have at the beginning do get answered by the end.

Disney's Twisted Tales: Reflection

I let myself fall behind on these again. I'm honestly not sure why it took me three attempts to finally finish this book. This is a good series, but I'm constantly pulled away from it by other things. 

But I'm taking a break from historical reading, so it's a good time to work through my backlog of Twisted Disney. 

Reflection is obviously based on Mulan. I would say this one was far less dark than the previous three installments. It's my favorite so far though. 

Basically, Li Shang is injured protecting Mulan from Shan Yu after she fires the cannon that causes the avalanche. Shang's father visits as a ghost and tells "Ping" he can help save Shang by travelling to Diyu, the underworld. 

So aided by the Li family guardian, a stone lion named ShiShi, Mulan is off on a perilous journey through the underworld. ShiShi is an entertaining character who provides some moments of levity, though not like Cri-Kee or Mushu. He's a better fit for the story because Mulan's actual guardians would have been a bit too comic. ShiShi has range. 

The story follows Mulan, Shang and ShiShi as they battle demons, ghosts and an enchantress, who are all out to stop them from making it out of Diyu before sunrise. It's a great adventure tale with a lot of introspective moments and character development. There are some parallels to the movie, but they're minimal. Though Shang does still say "You fight good." Excellent. 

Little Mermaid: The Haunted Palace

In this book, the sisters and Triton are visiting Duchess Dagmer of the Arctic Ocean to celebrate her 100th birthday. Dagmer lives in an ancient, giant ice castle which is supposed to be haunted.

Shortly after their arrival, the girls are escorted to their quarters by the duchess's great-grandsons, who they met once before and babysat for when the boys visited Triton's palace with their parents.

Some of the girls, like Alana, are afraid of the ghost of Morven, but others, like Attina and Andrina, are not afraid at all. Of course, the boys have conveniently put the girls in the wing that includes the room where Morven died. And it's Ariel who has to occupy that room.

Naturally, ghostly hijinks begin and the perpetrators are obvious from the start. It's the boys, getting revenge for an old prank the girls played on them when they were babysitting. The boys make use of the castle's secret passages to orchestrating their "haunting."

After one sighting, Ariel finds the entrance to the secret passage connected to her room, and she and Andrina lead the others down it. They find the boys and learn that they're behind all this. Then the girls concoct their own plot and get every single person in the castle in on it. At the duchess's big birthday party, Andrina will fake sick, dress up as Morven and come scare the boys, while everyone else pretends not to see him. This all goes swimmingly...or so everyone thinks. Shortly after Morven chases the boys out of the room and wishes the duchess a happy birthday, Andrina comes rushing in, saying she had been trapped in her room the entire time. Looks like the real Morven loves a good joke, too!

No sister facts from this one, unless you count Alana being a bit of a scaredy-cat, though she really hasn't been before.

Little Mermaid: King Triton, Beware!

Another simple, but a bit crazy, plot. The circus is in town and Ariel leads her sisters over to check it out while they're setting up. The meet the merseer, or actually her replacement, who predicts a couple minor things, then says the crown of King Triton will be toppled.

Naturally, there's a debate among the sisters over whether to believe in the merseer or not, but on the way home, both of her minor predictions come true.

So just to be safe, all the mermaids keep an eye on the circus and what better way to do so than to join it? They start training to take part in the act as a surprise for Triton.

Chaos ensues during the show and the king's crown is indeed toppled...as in bumped off his head briefly.

My favorite part is seeing intelligent, well-read Attina be skeptical. After her not so bright showing in Ariel the Spy, she needed to look smarter.

Also, the roles each mermaid plays in the circus are fun. Ariel is a daredevil who gets shot out of a whale's blowhole. Arista works with sea horses, Alana with dogfish, and Aquata with sharks. Athletic Andrina goes with the acrobats. Attina becomes the magician's assistant and poor Adella is a clown, which she hates.

Little Mermaid: Ariel the Spy

And we're back to Ariel being the main character again, but this time she's doing something stupid, so it's not as bad as the earlier books, where she always had to be the one to solve the problem or save the day.

Ariel's reading a book on Mata Herring for school and she gets carried away with the theme. When a substitute teacher turns up instead of her favorite, she concocts this ludicrous plot that this sub has kidnapped her favorite, because they're both in the running for Teacher of the Year. She drags her friend Coral into it, as well as Adella and Attina. Of course she turns out to be very wrong and has to apologize to everyone in front of her father.

No new sister facts in this one. The high point of the book is meeting Coral, who's Ariel's first friend that isn't a fish or a bird. Not that she gets a ton of characterization, but at least she exists. The low point for me was that the author didn't seem to grasp either Adella or Attina. Attina's the bookworm, but she never read the Mata Herring book herself and she seems like one of the smarter characters, so I can't see her really being this silly. And Adella is tasked with talking to the substitute, because she thinks he's handsome, and she bombs it completely and looks like a total airhead. Definitely the worst of the first six books.