I was really excited to read this book Aladdin is one of my favourite Disney films. The concept intrigued me. What if Aladdin never found no the lamp? How different would the story be?
Sypnopsis
With Jafar in possession of the lamp and determined to break the laws of magic and gain control over love and death, the deposed Princess Jasmine and Aladdin must unite the people of Agrabah in rebellion to stop the new power-mad ruler. But their fight for freedom soon grows costly, threatening to tear the kingdom apart.
I started off very disappointed and almost didn’t finish the book. The forst fifth of the book is just a rehash of the film and I found myself skimming over parts. All it made me do was want to watch the film. However once the story got to the twist where Jaffar ends up with the lamp instead of Aladdin things take a much darker turn.
While I liked the twist I felt like the characters weren’t well developed and relied heavily on the fact most people have seen the film. I liked seeing Jasmine take charge a lot more in this version and her as a Sultana of the people. Jaffar was a lot more crazed in this and he did terrible things but I’m not entirely sure what his motives were. His plans in this were a lot more extreme than in the film and I’m just not sure what led him down this route.
The network of street rat thieves and the hovels they lived in was well developed and thought out. I loved the addition of other street rats in similar situations as Aladdin. The story takes a dark turn and there are deaths in this book. I ended up liking the book towards the end but the beginning was hard to get through.
W.R.L Morris-Author 