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Hello and welcome! My name is Emma (I write fantasy under the name E. M. Epps). This blog features my Two-Paragraph Book Reviews. One paragraph from me. One from the book. Here's why I keep it short.

You are here: Home > Review: “A Whole New World” by Liz Braswell

Review: “A Whole New World” by Liz Braswell

Image Emma 12 June 2017

Thumbs up for A Whole New World by Liz Braswell. Young adult fantasy.

I am among the minority of people who thought this book was great. Aladdin is one of my favorite movies (and I’m not a Disney buff in general) so I was curious to see how it could be twisted. This retelling begins at the same place, but skews into alternate-universe ground a few chapters in when Jafar, not Aladdin, is the one who summons the genie. Jafar quickly takes over, enslaving the poor genie, doing terrible things to the carpet (seriously, I was Not Okay with that: and that’s why it was great), and generally making Agrabah a terrible place to be. Jasmine and Aladdin are left to run an insurrection with the help of Aladdin’s thief friends. I enjoyed this because, to be honest, it was exactly what I would have done if I’d been given the job. The content stays in tween-appropriate territory, as one would expect from Disney, but the author worked out the realistic ramifications of what was implied in the movie (if some people have to steal to eat, it’s because they’re starving) and didn’t skimp on the, well, logistics of insurrecting. My kind of thing, in other words. And the genie gets in some great lines. Very nicely done.

“Of course I care. You think I don’t care? For a snippy little princess you don’t actually seem so bad and yeah, I’d say your city is two shakes away from being a fascist dystopian nightmare. But—and pay close attention now—I have to do what [Jafar] says.”


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Cold Sandwiches and All: A Romantic Comedy

Mrs. Fromish's Guests

The Interpreter's Tale: A Word with Too Many Meanings

The Portrait of Geraldine Germaine

You Made My Heart a Hunter

To Hell and Back Again

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E. M. Epps is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. (That's what they tell me I have to say. This is not a lucrative venture, but if you do decide you want to read one of the books I link to, and your neighborhood bookstore hasn't got it, then it would be simply lovely if you were to go to Amazon via one of my links. That may get me 10c or so and then if a bunch of you do that maybe I would get myself a cup of tea or something like that. If you're feeling nice.)

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