What if Ariel had never defeated Ursula?It’s been five years since the infamous sea witch defeated the little mermaid… and took King Triton’s life in the process. Ariel is now the voiceless queen of Atlantica, while Ursula runs Prince Eric’s kingdom on land. But when Ariel discovers that her father might still be alive, she finds herself returning to a world–and a prince–she never imagined … imagined she would see again.
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A superb reimagining of The Little Mermaid. I enjoyed the character development and seeing the consequences of their actions. Wonderful storytelling!
Great remaining of the well know fairy tale story
I have to admit that I was not too excited to start this one as I make my way through the Twisted Tales series. Ariel isn’t one of my favorite princesses and I’m not crazy about her story but I kept an open mind. This was also one of the longer books in the series too so you can understand my hesitation. I actually ended up really liking it, though!
Ariel’s character was believable in this story. The twist is that she never stopped the wedding of Eric and Ursula. Her father was captured and turned into a disgusting polyp and she returned to the sea defeated. Her kingdom of Atlantica made her serve as queen, supposedly as punishment for all the trouble she caused but really none of her older sisters wanted to do it. That part was a little wonky to me, but hey it’s a fairytale. At the start of the story she is already queen and has matured a lot since her days of dreaming of the Dry World. I liked her.
I really liked Eric’s development into this tortured and miserable Prince who is under Ursula’s spell but still feels in his heart something isn’t write. To deal with his depression from being married to a horrible woman he turns to music, specifically writing operas which is original, and the ocean. He always loved sailing out on the ocean but his new wife won’t allow it so he walks the beaches talking to himself, helping him get the nickname The Mad Prince.
Ursula is stuck living as the human Vanessa in the Dry World, but she actually seems to like it because of her status as Princess and ruler. She gets to do whatever she wants and Eric never says anything because he’s busy walking beaches and writing operas and being distant. She still has her evil plans and a bunch of those seaweed looking poor unfortunate souls trapped in jars, including Ariel’s father. Once Ariel finds this out she can’t let that go, of course.
I liked this book better than the first few only because it jumps right into the story without giving 25% of the book to novelizing the original movie before getting into the twist. A lot of people seemed to complain about that and they finally addressed it and laid out these books differently, which is nice. I breezed through this despite being over 400 pages. It genuinely held my interest. The ending wasn’t wrapped up into a happily ever after but left open between Eric and Ariel to develop into whatever the reader wanted to think. That was different and kind of nice. I highly recommend this series if you’re a Disney fan and a Disney Princess fan, and I recommend this particular book in the series as well.
This is my 2nd Twisted Tale and I think they are just so fun!! The premise for this one is “What if Ariel had never defeated Ursala?”. 5 years ago Ursala won and defeated Triton. Ariel is now Queen of the Sea. Vanessa (Ursala) is married to Eric and runs his kingdom. Ariel and all of Atlantica believe Triton to be dead but thanks to Scuttle realize he might still be alive. What follows is a fun and action packed story of Ariel trying to find and rescue Triton. It was refreshing to have her focused on that and not just reuniting with Eric. I loved how big of a part Scuttle and his grandgull Jona got to play in this book. It was nice to see the familiar faces – Sebastian, Flounder, Carlotta, Grimsby, Eric and so many new characters as well. I will definitely continue with these Twisted Tales.
This book takes place 5 years into the future from when Ariel lost her voice to the sea witch. Instead of the happily ever after ending like we see in the film, Ariel never regained her voice and Ursula (as Vanessa) is now the Princess of Trulia. Prince Eric has remained under her spell for 5 years – as well as members of his staff. Ursula is trying to rule the Dry World and trying to figure out how to destroy the Mer World. She still has King Triton as her prisoner.
Ariel – now Queen of the Sea – has ruled in silence for 5 years. With the help of sign language, Sebastian and Flounder, she has kept the peace. But the time has come for her to try to return to the Dry World and rescue her father, and defeat Ursula. She has to figure out how to do all of this without being able to speak. Wtih the help of her friends – both on land and in the sea – she has a real chance of defeating the Sea Witch.
This was another great installment of Disney’s Dark Fairy Tales. This author is a great writer and story teller. We have really enjoyed the spin of some of our favorite Disney Classics. This one – at almost 500 pages – took us awhile to read (we only read a chapter or two a day) but it was worth it. It ended beautifully after a clever tale of heroes, friendship, and love. We are so glad we read it.
Absolutely amazing! Liz Braswell does not disappoint again with her thrilling re-telling of “The Little Mermaid.” Have you ever wondered what would have happened had Ariel lost her voice and never defeated Ursula? This is one for you!
I loved it, I couldn’t put it down! <3