As Old As Time: A Twisted Tale- A Disney Nerds Book Review
In this month’s review we’re going to take a look at another book from the Twisted Tale Series. This series is a great “What If” type of series where the good guy might not look like they’re going to win and everything seems to be going wrong. Each book asks that “What If” question about a different Disney tale so they don’t have to be read in order either. This month we read “As Old As Time” by Liz Brasell.
“As Old As Time” asks “What if Belle’s mother cursed the Beast?” which is an interesting question. The animated Disney tale never refers to Belle’s mother and the live action version just shows a glimpse at Belle’s mother’s passing. In this book though, we learn more about Belle’s mother. Her name is Rosalind and we get to read about how she met and fell in love with Belle’s father, Maurice.
The beginning of the book goes over the same story from the animated movie up until the moment Belle ventures into the Beast’s room and finds the enchanted rose. Belle lifts the glass dome away from the rose and reaches to touch it. But this time the Beast doesn’t stop her time and her touching of the rose changes everything.
SPOILER ALERT
When Belle touches the rose, it disintegrate and the cruse over the castle seems to get worse. A icy web covers the entire castle and grounds and seems to trap everyone inside. Belle and the Beast must figure out if there’s a way to stop the curse. Of course, Belle figures out that the enchantress that cursed the Beast and the castle is her mother Rosalind. She starts to realize that she doesn’t have a lot of memories of her mother which may be from a forgetting curse that her mother cast of everyone.
We also find out why Rosalind curses the Beast. It turns out that the Beast’s mother and father ruled a kingdom that used to accept those with magical abilities, called Les Charmants. Over time, the king and queen (Beast’s parents) start to become fearful of Les Charmants living in their kingdom. Les Charmants start to disappear from the kingdom. Fearful for their lives and the life of their newborn baby, Rosalind and Maurice move to a neighboring village and begin to live without magic to the public eye.
But Rosalind is angry and resentful toward the king and queen. When a plague comes to the kingdom, the king and queen are desperate for help. They summon Rosalind. She refuses to help because of what’s been done to Les Charmants. She knows that the king and queen have something to do with the disappearances. Without the help of Rosalind or anyone with magical abilities, the king and queen fell to the plague. This means that their young son is left alone to rule.
Rosalind was still upset about what was happening to Les Charmants. She decides to test the young prince to see if he’s as unkind as the king and queen were. Well, we know what happens next, the prince becomes the Beast.
One thing that is different from the animated and live action versions of the story is that the prince is cursed at age 11 in the book. If you think about it, this actually makes more sense. This age fits better for when Belle meets the Beast 10 years later.
Now as I mentioned before, the story changes when Belle touches the rose. While the Beast and Belle are looking for a way to break the curse they discover a darker side of the tale. They learn more of the Beast’s parents and their involvement with the disappearances of Les Charmants. Belle also has to figure out if her mother was equally guilty by not helping when the king and queen ask and then cursing an innocent child. They’re both dealing with these facts that don’t paint their parents in the best light and they both have to learn from those mistakes.
There’s a lot of realizations that Belle and the Beast have to go through so it becomes not just a story of breaking the curse but about growing and becoming a better version of themselves.
Now there is so much more to the story but I don’t want to give everything away. What I will say though is it’s a great twist on this beloved story. It does get darker than the last twisted tale we read, “A Whole New World,” but worth it! I’m really enjoying this different take on our favorite Disney tales!
