Reflection

Of all four twisted tales novels, this book has to be my favorite. Although A Whole New World will forever be in my heart, I have to make room for another. Mulan is in my top 5 favorite Disney princess list even though she is not an actual princess, but rather a hero. I also adore Li Shang. He is courageous, stubborn, strong-willed, intelligent, and deep down a caring leader. In this twisted tales, the question goes as followed: What if Mulan had to travel to the underworld?

When I first saw this book in stores, I noticed that there was a different author. All the twisted tales novels have been written by Liz Braswell, author of The Nine Lives of Cloe King. Despite the author change, I still wanted to read another twisted tale because they are cleverly written and truly feel like the characters are straight from the screen to the page.

I was curious about where the story would start off. Would it start off from the very beginning? Or, would it start off towards the end? It actually started in the middle during the avalanche scene. The first page literally had me stuck reading due to the action details and comical characters such as Mushu, Ling, Chien-Po, and Yao. It felt like I was reading the actual movie.

One of my favorite aspects of the story was the world building. Diyu is the underworld in Chinese mythology. I may not be a mythology buff, but the world of Diyu reminded me of Dante’s Inferno. There were different levels in this underworld and the highest was closest to earth and heaven and the lowest to hell. After Shang is struck by Shan-Yu during the avalanche scene, he is on the edge of death. Mulan and Shang’s guardian, ShiShi, travel through a lot of Diyu’s levels to find Shang and bring him back to earth. Each level has its own atmosphere and characteristics which makes the world that much more thrilling and enticing to read.

I highly recommend this book to all Mulan fans. It is not often that Mulan gets the recognition and spot light she deserves.

#ElizabethLim #Mulan #TwistedTales