A Whole New World

By Liz Brazwell

What I love about Liz Brazwell’s work is that she takes a tale — one that we 90’s children are already very familiar with — and she dissects it. She takes each scene and pulls out details that we’ve seen a hundred times and expands on them — gives them more meaning. The first several chapters are basically a mirror retelling of the 1992 film, which I didn’t mind because she made it feel like it was for the first time. I felt like I was watching the movie over again in my head, but in slow motion, and could witness so much more than I had ever noticed before. I could really smell the marketplace; I could feel the blade of the scimitar on my heels; I could almost empathize with the guards. She makes the reader really feel like they’re fighting for their survival.

One thing I thought was lacking from this book was the big personality of the Genie. He is not at all a big presence like he was in the film. This tale had very little in the way of comic relief. And the little we do see of the Genie is the depressive, defeated Genie who is under Jafar’s rule for, pretty much the whole story. While Brazwell does give us more of a backstory on him, we never see the Robin Williams-esque character that we know and love. But this story isn’t about him.

This is a MUCH darker retelling of the story and I understand why it is recommended for 12 years and up. It is very violent and graphic, and the fairytale ending that we come to expect with any Disney tale never comes. I think it’s important to understand this before reading. Afterall, many of the most beloved characters are either killed off early on or pushed into the background (Iago, Carpet, the Sultan) in an attempt to make the stakes much higher for our heroes. 

And the stakes ARE high. We see that Agrabah is very clearly split into the “haves” and the “have nots”; the well-to-do’s and the poorest of the poor; the vibrant colorful city vs. the decrepit shadowy ruin that is the quarter of the street rats. Jafar is quickly granted his first two wishes and has become an all-out power-hungry madman whose sole aim in life is to have everyone either love him or worship him. After Jafar makes himself the sultan, he reigns coins down on the people of Agrabah and then shoves Jasmine’s father over the balcony to his death. Meanwhile, it takes Aladdin three days to physically dig himself out of the Cave of Wonders, which had been turned into a tomb. When he finally emerges, he finds (an aptly named) whole new world. A world in which darkness reigns. Jafar’s plan is to force Jasmine to marry him, make the people of Agrabah either love him or subjugate them, and then raise an army of the dead to wipe out anyone who dares stand against him. 

My favorite part of this story has to be Jasmine. She is much more than just a “prize to be won”. She’s a total badass! Brazwell makes this princess a fully fleshed-out, multi-dimensional young woman, who is every bit the hero as Aladdin. She is fighting for her people, and she knows there’s a very good chance she will lose. She must unite the people of Agrabah in an all-out rebellion against Jafar.

Since this was such a dark re-telling of the story, I liked that Brazwell took the focus off the “cartoony” aspects of the film — like Abu and Carpet — and introduced brand new characters that made the world feel more real — like Morgiana and Duban — but I didn’t care very much for them as stand-alone characters. They kind of bored me a bit. I also really didn’t care for the “Walking Dead-esque” zombie characters. 

I would have loved it if Liz Brazwell had gone into more depth on the moral issues that Aladdin and Jasmine were facing. Jafar is searching for a book that “let’s you kill with your mind and raise armies of the undead,” and the couple is trying to find it before Jafar does. But they have differing reasons for wanting to find it first. Aladdin wants to destroy it because he believes that, because the book is “evil”, it can only be used for evil. But Jasmine believes she could use it to “defeat Jafar and take back the throne.” They had a couple of these arguments, but I would have been really interested in seeing how their differing moral outlooks affect their relationship and whether or not either one changes their stance on the issue. The ending of the book feels very abrupt. 

Overall, I would give this book 3 out of 5 Genies.

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