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When the queen falls ill and her life, as well as the life of her unborn child, are threatened, the good people of the kingdom search desperately for the all-healing Sundrop flower. Instead, the shimmering Moondrop flower is mistakenly acquired. While it does heal the queen, a healthy baby girl is delivered with hair as rare and silver as the full moon. They soon realize the princess’ hair comes with dangerous magical powers to harm. For her safety, as well as the safety of the kingdom, it is agreed that Rapunzel will be locked in a tower and put under the care of the powerful goodwife Mother Gothel.
Rapunzel remembers nothing of her life before the tower. For 18 years, she’s been led to believe that she killed her parents when she was an infant, and she knows she must protect others from her magical hair: hence, she lives locked in a tower.
But when she leaves home to see the floating lights that appear every year on her birthday, she quickly gets swept away on an adventure across the kingdom, accompanied by a young woman named Gina and a roguish thief known as Flynn Rider. There is more to Rapunzel’s story, and her magical hair, than she realizes, though. Instead of the lanterns she dreamed of, the journey she stumbles upon is one that leads to uncovering the truth about herself.
Tangled is one of my favorite Disney retellings, so I had high expectations for this book when I picked it up. Unfortunately, it didn’t completely live up to them, and any similar fans of the animated film may find this to be a polarizing read.
In What Once Was Mine the Disney version of the Rapunzel fairy tale is retold by a teenage boy to his sister, who is undergoing chemotherapy treatments. Overall, this gives the story strong Princess Bride movie vibes. After reading the author note, I understand why Liz Braswell included these scenes, but from my point of view they were unnecessary and distracted from the story. The narrator also sounded younger than he was supposed to be, making the story read overall more like a middle-grade novel than a young adult book.
Something else I struggled with were the elements of reality. The kingdom of Corona is never mentioned, with the story instead having simply a nondescript medieval Europe setting. It even includes a psycho villain from 1500s Hungary. Also, to fit with the historical setting, the term “witch” is thrown around liberally when people just have magic.
Mother Gothel is portrayed as being even more horrible in this book than in the original movie and her abusive power is very obvious.
What I did love was the addition of Gina and her mother as characters.
In the end, I found the plot to be enjoyable enough once I finally became invested in the story, and I really liked exploring the dark twist on Tangled and the Moondrop flower. The characters, places and main plot points from the movie were all there, but for me at least, the heart of the story wasn’t. Diehard Tangled fans may be disappointed, but those who can accept the story for what it is might find themselves enjoying the twisted tale. (For a really fun twist on Rapunzel, check out Rapunzel’s Revenge.)
Rated: Mild, for some violence and blood. Characters talk of attraction and share a few kisses.
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