A Book Addict's YA Palace: genie

Review A WHOLE NEW WORLD by Liz Braswell

Morning Addicts, it's Thursday and day 4 of my week of reviews! There are so many things I love in life, and one of them is the Disney princess movies. Yes, I'm one of those girls, and proud of it!
Aladdin was always one of my favorites right along side Sleeping Beauty so when I saw A WHOLE NEW WORLD by Liz Braswell (A twisted retelling of what if's and darkness--based on the beloved movie) I was all in. Read on Addicts to see how this reimagined story fell on the addiction scale.

A Whole New World (Twisted Tales #1)

by Liz Braswell

Welcome to a new YA series that reimagines classic Disney stories in surprising new ways. Each book asks the question: What if one key moment from a familiar Disney film was changed? This dark and daring version of Aladdin twists the original story with the question: What if Jafar was the first one to summon the Genie?

When Jafar steals the Genie’s lamp, he uses his first two wishes to become sultan and the most powerful sorcerer in the world. Agrabah lives in fear, waiting for his third and final wish.To stop the power-mad ruler, Aladdin and the deposed Princess Jasmine must unite the people of Agrabah in rebellion. But soon their fight for freedom threatens to tear the kingdom apart in a costly civil war.

What happens next? A Street Rat becomes a leader. A princess becomes a revolutionary. And readers will never look at the story of Aladdin in the same way again.

GOODREADS

MY REVIEW:

Life is full of questions. The greatest: what if.

In the case of a whole new world by Liz Braswell its: what if Jafar had succeeded and got Genie's lamp, before Aladdin? What if his first two wishes: to become Sultan and the most powerful sorcerer in the world had come true?

Needless to say the whole idea of one of my favorite Disney movies getting a darker makeover................YES!!!

I was so excited when NetGalley approved me to get the ARC of A WHOLE NEW WORLD!

I wasn't sure, but I figured this book would stick pretty true to the movie for a while, I just didn't expect it to almost copy the original script Word for Word. But after that first 1/4ish of the book then the originality kicks in.

For my loyal Addicts, you know world building – a clear, realistic or just plain amazing book world I can feel myself in- is key to getting an amazing view from me. (Well one way at least.) As above you can see A WHOLE NEW WORLD managed a 4 1/2 star rating so it clearly did something right: world building. I really can't say enough about it; from the vibrant life of the city, to the very nice action pact plot, to the band of street rats (led by Jasmine and Aladdin of course) .

Which now brings me to our cast of tenacious and daring characters.

OK, maybe I'm trying to compensate a little with that last part.

Why you ask, simple: despite the amazingly large cast of new and old characters, about 70% of them felt very one or two dimensional. Let me break it down for you starting with our movie stars.

Aladdin- very similar to the movie only less optimistic and "carefree"/flippant. Which I actually liked.

Jasmine- she was always the strongest of the 6 O.G. Disney princesses. But man...........she really came into her own in this book and it was a show stealer. Plus how cool to see her leading a gang of street rat rebels alongside Aladdin! (though in the Aladdin TV show of the early 00's she was pretty strong too!) Plus it was interesting to see her own struggles with darkness.

Abu- very much the same and I still love this little guy.

Genie- this was a hard one for me. Genie is so iconic thanks largely to the late and great Robin Williams. So seeing this tenacious, stomach twisting hilarious character be so....... serious was hard. Plus I didn't get to see a whole lot of him in the book. I did however die for his backstory! So great to see it, but poor Genie – he used to have a wife! I won't say anymore to avoid major spoilers.

Iago- Poor Iago. He didn't get much attention. He seemed more like a tool to show Jafar's 1000% psycho personality.

Jafar- still evil – just this time we add the sick and twisted to his name. Totally terrifying bad dude. And I need to add his "golem" patrol really kept reminding me of the zombie guards of Mozenwrath from the Aladdin TV show.

Carpet-............. :( that's all I'll say on that!

The Sultan – yeah, very different from his dimwitted portrayal in the movie.

Now for new characters:

The street rats were straight from 1001 Arabian nights – which was cool, but I felt they didn't get the lime light they should have.

Morgiana- A total badass chick who was a lot of fun – especially with her and Jasmine work together. But again I felt she was too similar to another female character from the Aladdin TV show.

I think, besides the whole 70% lack of character development, my other problem was that there was too much that felt like it wasn't as original as I wanted. Maybe it's because I love the Aladdin TV show and movie and remember them both so well. Or maybe I just have such an idea of the story and it's characters already that it was hard for me to appreciate Liz's interpretation of them.

That said, I would totally recommend A WHOLE NEW WORLD! But it's very dark, deals with serious issues and character death. IMHO, teens under the age of 15 shouldn't read it, at least not without their parents reading it first.

Major thanks, again, to Disney and NetGalley for granted me an arc in exchange for my honest opinion.

~Dynomoon

9:00 AM
1 Comments

Review Becoming Jinn by Lori Goldstein

2 star

Hey Addicts, I received a copy of of BECOMING JINN by Lori Goldstein from NetGaley in exchange for my honest opinion, so here it is! But first, read a little more about this first installment in a brand new YA series.

Forget everything you thought you knew about genies!
Azra has just turned sixteen, and overnight her body lengthens, her olive skin deepens, and her eyes glisten gold thanks to the brand-new silver bangle that locks around her wrist. As she always knew it would, her Jinn ancestry brings not just magical powers but the reality of a life of servitude, as her wish granting is controlled by a remote ruling class of Jinn known as the Afrit.
To the humans she lives among, she’s just the girl working at the snack bar at the beach, navigating the fryer and her first crush. But behind closed doors, she’s learning how to harness her powers and fulfill the obligations of her destiny.
Mentored by her mother and her Zar “sisters”, Azra discovers she may not be quite like the rest of her circle of female Jinn . . . and that her powers could endanger them all. As Azra uncovers the darker world of becoming Jinn, she realizes when genies and wishes are involved, there’s always a trick.

GOODREADS

MY REVIEW:
BECOMING JINN caught my attention for 2 reasons

Genie's--or rather Jinn. My first thought was Eden, the female genie from the Aladdin TV series. So boss, and so exciting to see in YA :)
The blurb--this blurb promised us a world of adventure and excitement

Sadly it didn't quite deliver.

Lori Goldstein's writing style is great, she does wonderfully building the world and laws of the Jinn. Where this book bit it for me was the overall plot and the less than original characters. I knew there was going to be a lot to learn and remember just from the first page of the book.

Dropping 12 characters like that, like you need a chart because the book isn’t (and didn’t) do a good job of clarifying the mother and daughter pairs. My first thought was this: TO MANY CHARACTERS. Especially for one book, and only the first in a series at that.

Azra—she’s our heroine. I liked her……until I didn't. The first, like, 12 pages being all about how she looks since she came into her Jinn powers---------shoot me. The only thing that kept me reading was that the whole bit of it had a hefty liberal dose of grade a teen sarcasm and rebellious behavior to go with it. I liked her for the attitude. Then came her save-yo-drama-fo-yo-mama bomb when her “Zar sisters” came into the picture. Each of those 5 girls were different, yes; but nothing original or extraordinary.

Azra’s rebellion against the oppression of being a Jinn quickly went from making me snicker to making my eyes roll then finally reaching the I’m gonna smack you stage. Maybe she’d like some hater cheese to go with that hater wine. Yes, she did have a few redeeming qualities and moments that came along in all that, which again kept me reading, but it wasn’t enough to fix my overall annoyance. I think Azra had great potential, still does, if she can get over being a brat and suck it up.

I won’t go into the details about the Zar sisters because it would be a bit of a lag so let’s get down to the romance.

4 words: lover triangle insta love

I’m a fan of both, when well done. This one missed that target for me. Both guys fell into their stereotypical roles of boy next door and bad boy (ish).

Nate was the hot bad boy (ish) guy and fulfilled the insta love quota. Azra meets him then suddenly she can’t stop thinking about him, even though she doesn’t really like him. He was hot, and of the two guys I liked him the best—but I wouldn’t say he’s made my list of fav book boyfriend addictions.

Henry is the boy next door, been friends with Arza for ages, and crushed on her for just as long, only she doesn’t know he does. At one point he makes it fairly obvious that he’s into her, but she does that whole doubting thing. Then Henry makes the smart move that very few YA heroes do when the chick they like is all over another guy and being dense. He started to move on with another girl! YEAH for HENRY! (this fact alone raised my rating by a whole star)

Still overall I liked Nate better, but the tougher guys are always my preference so…….

I mentioned the Jinn world above, which I really liked the thought and design behind it; totally intriguing. The Afrit is the ruling body (think dictator government for the Jinn world and god help you if you cross them!) After a while though it started to feel a little dystopian/big brother/elitist monarchy. I can already guess where this whole series may be going-Rebellion uprising against the government. Or at least that’s what I’ve picked up with all the foreshadowing. I could be wrong, of course, so don’t quote me.

I liked the search to find out who her father was, though again, it was a bit obvious before it was revealed. But I still liked it.

I can’t say yet if I’d consider reading the second book in this series, but I would recommend this book to those who are curious about Jinn/Genie books. The world building is very nice, just brace yourself to hear the sorted story through a whiny brat of a teen girl.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to do an advanced review of this new YA book.
~Dynomoon

My debut novel, the Young Adult Contemporary Fantasy Becoming Jinn, is a modern spin on the traditional tale of wish-granting genies. It will be released on April 21, 2015, by Feiwel and Friends, an imprint of Macmillan Children’s. The sequel will follow in Spring 2016. I am represented by Lucy Carson of The Friedrich Agency.

Too much of my day involves chatting books, obsessing over The Vampire Diaries, and perfecting the art of efficient writing through Twitter. Find me at @loriagoldstein and follow my blog at www.lorigoldsteinbooks.comor my Tumblr at http://lorigoldsteinbooks.tumblr.com. Like my author page on Facebook for fun book-related photos, tidbits, and happenings as well as news on Becoming Jinn.