Great fun for aficionados of the film.
A graphic adaptation of an entry from the popular Twisted Tale series that reimagines Disney fairy tales.
Basing her work on Braswell’s 2018 novel of the same name that remixes “The Little Mermaid,” Strohm presents readers with a cinematic, full-color graphic novel that ponders what might have happened if mermaid Ariel had never defeated the nefarious sea witch Ursula. Rather than having a fairy-tale wedding to Prince Eric, Ariel is made to serve her undersea home, Atlantica, as its queen after her father, King Triton, bargains himself away to save her. When Ursula, now living on land as Eric’s wife, Vanessa, puts his kingdom at risk with her evil aspirations, he and Ariel must find a way to expose her and put an end to her conniving machinations. This graphic interpretation is captivating in its own right: Fans of the classic Disney film should be delighted with the highly recognizable characters and the visually stylish format culminating in a happily-ever-after. Panels burst to life with bright action sequences working in concert with evocative facial close-ups, keeping the pages flying with swooning eyes and a race to beat the clock as Ursula’s powers grow. As this closely follows the Disney original, expect some chauvinism and fatness signaling evil. Main characters read White.
Great fun for aficionados of the film. (Graphic fantasy. 12-16)Pub Date: June 13, 2023
ISBN: 9781368064095
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2023
A grand finale, presented with a touch light enough to buoy all the self-actualization. Also: giant space worms!
Hotshot pilot Spensa Nightshade completes her apotheosis in this series closer, as human rebels and their alien allies mount a climactic assault on the galactic empire.
Having progressed from eating rats to being a cytonic superwarrior, Spensa is bonded by ties of loyalty and lust to former Skyward Flight leader, now Defiant Defense Force admiral, Jorgen—and also to a traumatized, planet-killing, interdimensional delver named Chet. Spensa would be well on her way to full-blown pacifism if the Superiority’s war of extermination against humans were not ramping up to a newly active phase. Nothing for it but a massive space battle, complete with dogfights, huge explosions, feints, betrayals, and tragic sacrifices…not to mention a swarm of ravenous, vacuum-dwelling vastworms eager to chow down on both sides. Though slowed by Spensa’s and others’ wrestling with conflicting impulses and weighing moral imperatives, the plot features more than enough large- and small-scale action set pieces to please space-opera fans. Better yet, the deliciously expansive cast includes not only humans and AIs but a broad array of aliens and semi-aliens from blue-skinned humanoids and a furry, haiku-reciting, fox-gerbil samurai with a (wait for it) laser sword to sentient crystals and empathic slugs. “The more different types of people we got into the flight, the stronger it would be,” Spensa reflects, and indeed, it’s collective action that proves decisive in the end.
A grand finale, presented with a touch light enough to buoy all the self-actualization. Also: giant space worms! (Science fiction. 12-15)Pub Date: Nov. 21, 2023
ISBN: 9780593309711
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Despite the stale fat-to-curvy pattern, compelling world building with a Southern European, pseudo-Christian feel,...
Adventure drags our heroine all over the map of fantasyland while giving her the opportunity to use her smarts.
Elisa—Princess Lucero-Elisa de Riqueza of Orovalle—has been chosen for Service since the day she was born, when a beam of holy light put a Godstone in her navel. She's a devout reader of holy books and is well-versed in the military strategy text Belleza Guerra, but she has been kept in ignorance of world affairs. With no warning, this fat, self-loathing princess is married off to a distant king and is embroiled in political and spiritual intrigue. War is coming, and perhaps only Elisa's Godstone—and knowledge from the Belleza Guerra—can save them. Elisa uses her untried strategic knowledge to always-good effect. With a character so smart that she doesn't have much to learn, body size is stereotypically substituted for character development. Elisa’s "mountainous" body shrivels away when she spends a month on forced march eating rat, and thus she is a better person. Still, it's wonderfully refreshing to see a heroine using her brain to win a war rather than strapping on a sword and charging into battle.
Despite the stale fat-to-curvy pattern, compelling world building with a Southern European, pseudo-Christian feel, reminiscent of Naomi Kritzer's Fires of the Faithful (2002), keeps this entry fresh. (Fantasy. 12-14)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-06-202648-4
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2011
© Copyright 2023 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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