Disney Princess: My Side of the Story - Sleeping Beauty/Maleficent - Book #4 (Disney Princess: My Side of the Story)

Rating:
Summary: Just Awful! Sleeping Beauty's Nightmare!
Review: Simply atrocious!!! Let me explain. First off, I'm a huge Disney Sleeping Beauty fan. This version of the tale and its sweet princess grabbed me at a very young age. I'm now an adult and often look back on this enchanting film with great fondness. I'm also an avid Sleeping Beauty collector and have been collecting memorabilia for 2 decades. So, when I saw this book on Amazon I thought "Hey, I don't have this version in my collection!" So I purchased it.

Needless to say, I'm very sorry I did. This book in one word is HORRIBLE! Don't get me wrong, the concept is cute and clever. Maleficent and Princess Aurora get a chance to tell their side of the tale in their own words. You get Maleficent's story on one side, flip the book over, and get Aurora's story on the other. We all know what really happened (at least one would assume) so the storyline is familiar. This had the potential of being a fun little book. However, Kiki Thorpe has managed to take bad writing to a new level. Furthermore, Thorpe has managed to take the original 1959 romantic, classic tale along with its timeless and enchanting characters, and degraded them to such a level that can only be described as sacrilege. All this in 62 pages!

Let's talk about the characters of Maleficent and Aurora, themselves. Maleficent, the "Mistress of all Evil", is portrayed here as the CEO of E.V.I.L. (that's an acronym for Enchanted Value Industries Limited and no, I'm not making this up). Great! So we have an evil witch who also just happens to be a powerful businesswoman. And her crime? Well, according to HER story, she was a victim of a string of misunderstandings. After all, she only wanted Aurora to get a job and thus, develop a strong work ethic.

And what about the beautiful Aurora? Well, if you're having visions of the winsome heroine of the '59 film, she's NOT to be found in this book. Instead, we are `treated' with a purple-eyed Aurora who is crude, self-absorbed, ignorant, and a self-proclaimed "hillbilly". No, I'm STILL not making this up! "Hillbilly" and "country bumpkin" are actual terms used in this book, by our heroine! She also refers to her father-in-law as "this fat little man" (twice!) and discredits Phillip for risking life and limb to save her. Absolutely shameful!

Now, imagine reading this monstrosity to a young, impressionistic girl (or boy for that matter). What a wonderful message! I will NEVER read this to my 4 and 5-year old nieces. No child should be exposed to this! Words cannot describe how awful it was reading this book. And what's even more appalling is that this garbage is parading under the Disney name!

The only consolation I have after reading this is that the illustration art is so POORLY done that the characters portrayed within are (visually) only mere shadows of the majestic `59 film version.

Please, PLEASE, don't waste your good coin on this book. If you must buy it, then by all means do so. But I then urge you to read it, bury it, and write a long letter to Disney regarding taking responsibility on how they handle their characters and what they unleash to the public. That's what I did!

So, I'll end this review the same way I started it because I can't say it enough...Simply ATROCIOUS!