Had some problems but worth reading!

I put off buying this book after being disappointed with the Beauty and the Beast Twisted Tale.  I love Mulan both the movie and the legend. I was curious and almost 2 years ago I checked the book out from the library. I finished the book in 2 days.

Pros

I did like that Chinese folklore was mixed in with the story of Mulan especially with the underworld. I liked that it was darker and we see Mulan get tempted at certain points. The mirror chamber was creepy. It was as if the magic of the underworld was tempting Mulan to give up and that she was nothing. I do love the chemistry between Shang and Mulan. I also enjoy that we get little backstories of their childhoods and what life was like for them that we didn’t see in the movie. Yes we see that Mulan met the matchmaker and feels she wasn’t a perfect daughter, but there were details the movie didn’t have in it that I felt moved the story nicely.  The writing was well done and I can’t wait to read more from Elizabeth Lim.

Cons

However I have a few criticisms. I feel like we’ve read and seen so many plots with rescuing people from the underworld that it didn’t fit with Mulan. I also wished Mushu had a bigger part and the ending while it was happy it seemed abrupt. The book wasn’t terrible though. I just think a better story would have been, what if Shan Yu took over China and Mulan and Shang and Li, Yao and Chin Po tried to overthrow Shan Yu? Or what if the evil spirit of Shan Yu wanted revenge on Mulan from beyond the grave? Those I feel would be better plots for a twisted tale about Mulan. Still this book is worth reading at least once, especially if you’re a fan of Disney, fairytales, folklore and legends etc… This book wasn’t perfect but considering the Twisted Tale books can be hit or miss, this was one of the decent ones. I wish Disney made the twisted tale books into the live action movies instead of remakes. With the twisted tale books to films they’d actually be original and different.