What Once Was Mine by Liz Braswell - OPTIONAL

 

What Once Was Mine (Twisted Tale, #12) by Liz Braswell, 490 pages. Disney Hyperion, 2021.  $19.  

Language: PG (3 swears); Mature Content: G; Violence: PG-13.  

BUYING ADVISORY: MS, HS - OPTIONAL  

AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE  

Rapunzel is born with glowing hair, but in this version, her hair comes from a moonflower and as the moon changes phases, Rapunzel's hair has different magical powers. When Rapunzel is a newborn, she accidentally kills a nurse when she is angry and then is quickly whisked away by Gothel to a tower. Gothel convinces Rapunzel that she is in the tower because her hair kills people. The story picks up when Rapunzel turns nineteen and Gothel bids Rapunzel's hand in marriage to the highest paying evil-doer. However, before Gothel can sell her, Rapunzel sneaks out of the tower to find the glowing lanterns and to track down Flynn Ryder who she has seen in the meadow outside her tower. What ensues is an adventure full of self-discovery, magic, romance, friendship and villainy.  

Tangled is one of my all-time favorite Disney movie, so I was super excited to read about Rapunzel. While slogging through the first 100 pages, I almost quit reading. It was boring, drawn out and not creative in the least. Then Rapunzel leaves the tower and all of the fun began.  I enjoyed Rapunzel's friend, Gina, and Rapunzel's discovery of her magical powers. Flynn was well developed and Maximus has an origin story that was surprising. That said, no matter how well the story turned out, I'm not sure there are many young readers out there who would keep slogging through to get to the good parts.  Also, the book is 490 pages long, so that alone would discourage many, making this book optional even though it had really good parts.  The violence bumps this book out of the elementary age and into middle school.  One of the villains kills multiple girls and bathes in their blood and there is a gruesome war wound.  

Reviewer, C. Peterson