Overview:
What if Ariel had never defeated Ursula?
It's been five years since the infamous sea witch defeated the little mermaid... and took King Triton's life in the process. Ariel is now the voiceless queen of Atlantica, while Ursula runs Prince Eric's kingdom on land. But when Ariel discovers that her father might still be alive, she finds herself returning to a world--and a prince--she never imagined she would see again.
Review:
As my introduction to the Twisted Tales series, Part of Your World by Liz Braswell made a great first impression on me. Based on the Disney portrayal of The Little Mermaid, Braswell explores what might have happened had Ariel not lived happily ever after at the end of the film. In this alternate telling, Ariel cannot intervene when Ursula also takes human form to sabotage her attempt to fulfill the deal the two of them had made, thus losing her voice, her father, and her prince charming forever. So she believes…
When she gets word that her father may still be alive under imprisonment by Ursula, Ariel, now Queen of the Sea, decides that any chance of this being true is worth investigating. Pursuing her mission to bring her father back to the sea reveals that the consequences of her deal with the sea witch extend to the Dry World. Righting her wrongs, she learns, is a delicate balance between the urgency to relieve the residents of Eric’s kingdom, Tirulia, of Ursula’s regime and acting with enough care, cunning, and precision to outsmart the evil witch.
Along the way, suspense and anticipation build as Ariel works to keep her feelings for Eric in the back of her mind. It isn’t until later in the book that Ariel and Eric are able to be forthcoming with their feelings for each other, which have remained throughout the turmoil of the last several years. How much of a happily-ever-after will Ariel get to have this time?
One downfall of this book is the major requirement of a willing suspension of disbelief, as it doesn’t quite add up how Ursula holds and exercises so much power over military decisions and international relations as merely a princess. In fact, we never meet the king and queen of Tirulia and for any of Ursula’s influence to be possible, they must be practically complete absentee rulers. Some of the pacing was a bit difficult to keep up with as Ariel runs around the castle, swims back to her own kingdom, and meets various people around Tirulia. It can be difficult to know whether certain events are meant to occur within the same day or over the course of several days at times. Additionally, the writing style seems to be geared toward a younger audience, and this book can be found in the Young Adult section of Barnes & Noble, but a lot of the vocabulary is extremely advanced for this audience and often feels very out of place.
However, one thing Braswell includes in this story is some interesting insight into the differences between Ariel’s experiences with and without the ability to speak. Ariel frequently discusses the way her relationships with her friends and family, as well as her subjects, changed when she lost her voice, as well as how her thoughtfulness of communication diminishes when she regains it. It’s not central to the plot, but it was an interesting and notable inclusion from Braswell.
Overall, this book definitely hooked me right away and kept me needing to know what would happen next in the cat-and-mouse game between Ariel and Eric, and Ursula. Braswell does a great job building excitement and suspense, and bringing the reader into the fear and frustrations of trying to outsmart a centuries-old evil witch. I loved all 475 pages and I intend to continue reading the Twisted Tales series!
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