Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the advanced copy.

As I think is fairly known by now this is part of the Twisted Tales - a series that takes a key element of the story and twists it and figures out where the story would go from there. Sometimes the twist doesn't always work for me (such as Peter Pan....) but Tangled was such a delight!

What if Rapnuzel's mother had drank the essence of a Moon flower instead of a Sun flower? How would Rapunzels magic have changed?

As is the way with twists - Rapunzel has a very different power and as a baby ends up killing her nurse in a fit of baby rage. The King and Queen decide for the safety of themselves and their kingdom their baby must be raised in secret until such a time she can control her powers. They request the realms witches to come and raise her to help her learn to control the magic within.

unbeknownst to them - Gothel isn't a witch but instead someone very savvy with an opportunity when she sees one.
Rapunzels early life is largely the same - and for that reason we don't see a lot of it. The main difference is Rapunzel is told she killed her parents with her murderhair and is occasionally told by Gothel to kill the chickens she brings home (for dinner) to remind her of how dangerous she is and why she is locked up in the first place.

However when Rapunzel decides to leave the tower on her own her adventure to see the floating lights is where her story really deviates from the original and its an exciting story with new characters and a lot of magic and found family. Watching Rapunzel learn to overcome the abuse she suffered was really refreshing to see. I think it touched nicely on the reality that we can still love our abusers even when we know they're hurting us. The book didn't go too deep into these topics (it is a disney book afterall) but the acknowledgement was there.


Perhaps what i found most interesting about this tale is that it is the first (that i am aware of but i haven't read the whole series yet) one to be self-aware. This is actually a story within a story. We are also following Brendan who is sitting with his sister while she receives chemo treatment. He is sick of reading the same story (Tangled) over and over to her so he decides to twist the story himself to give him more entertainment. We get a few interjections throughout the tale of his sister teasing Brandon for his choices or demanding that we see more of certain characters. It was very on the nose in a cute way.

suffice to say - if you've read and enjoyed any twisted tale I think you'll enjoy this one too :)