Book Review : "As Old as Time : A Twisted Tale"

With all the Beauty and the Beast hype I have been able to snag more movie memorabilia, collectibles and books. There was one book in particular inspired by this great classic that sparked my interest. "As Old as Time" by Liz Braswell is part of an amazing "Twisted Tale" series where the classic tales are a bit twisted...a "what-if" scenario to many of our classic Disney favorites. I have already read the Twisted Tale about Aladdin, and that was such a great read. In this particular twisted-tale, the twist is "What if Belle's mother cursed the Beast?" I KNOOOOW! I was to eager to dive into the book to hear this version of my favorite Disney classic. I grew up in the early 90s...so Beauty and the Beast was the Disney movie hit of our time.

Liz Braswell starts off jumpy...moving from one character's perspective to another, as well as jumping to two time periods, with each and every chapter moving back and forth. That style always throws me off and many times I loose interest because it's too choppy. I stuck with the story because it was something I desperately needed to know. The character perspective you hear from is first Rosalind, Belle's mother, and Belle herself. The one neat thing was that I felt like the other side to the story was finally being uncovered to you as far as her mother, because Belle's story is word by word the story we knew from the animated classic.  So the jumping from characters and time periods stops before mid-way through the book, which was a nice change of pace. We learn that Belle's mother was an enchantress, but the town labels her automatically a dangerous Witch. This leads to her "disappearance" we suspected as kids, but never knew exactly why or where she ended up.

The book itself has some dark sides to it, which I actually found interesting. There was a sense of reality to the story because of the dynamics between the town and others they find "odd" or "different." The asylum we remember hearing about as kids in the movie is finally unveiled to the readers, and we get a sense of what is going on inside and WHO they have captured there. I will not ruin it for you...but the ending...WOW! The ending is truly a side-swipe and completely different from the classic, but I wasn't unhappy with the ending. If you have a teen, the ending will be a true lesson in compassion, morals, and what it really means to love each other for what is on the inside...maybe many adults could benefit with that life lesson in the end, huh?