Mother Knows Best- A Disney Nerds Book Club Review
Hello Disney Book Nerds!
For this month’s Disney Nerds Book Club Review, we’re are talking Villains. Specifically the mother of all villains, Gothel. We are diving back into the amazing Disney Villains series by Serena Valentino by discussing #5 in the series, “Mother Knows Best.”
This volume dives into the tale of Gothel and we discover how she became the villain that we all know.
Turns out Gothel has two sisters, Hazel and Primrose. They live in the Dead Forest with their mother, Manea. Manea is the queen of the dead. Manea is supposed to teach them magic and to one day succeed her as queen of the dead. There’s only one problem, Manea won’t teach them magic. For the most part this only seems to bother Gothel. They have seen displays of Manea’s power but Gothel becomes upset that her mother won’t teach her what she knows.
What seems like out of the blue one day, Manea offers Gothel a chance to obtain some of her power but to do so, she has to take in Manea’s blood. This horrifies Gothel’s sisters. Hazel and Primrose think it’s a bad idea and that Gothel will turn out just as bad as their mother if she takes Manea’s blood. So Gothel decides that they should all take the blood and that way they can stay sisters and rule the Dead Forest together. Seems like a great plan, right?
Like all good stories, things do not go according to plan. Manea ends up dying and the sisters are divided between staying in the Dead Forest or leaving for good. It then becomes a tale of how those choices play out.
I really enjoyed this book, like all of the volumes in this series.
I like it’s a great way to learn more about Gothel and there are even some familiar faces that turn up. Personally, I think this tale is where the whole series takes a turn and you can’t wait to find out what happens next! I highly recommend the whole series if you haven’t started it yet!
Have you read “Mother Knows Best?” What did you think? Let us know and stay tuned for next month’s installment of Disney Nerds Book Club!
