The Cheesy Modern Day Sleeping Beauty
I just finished reading, literally about a minute ago haha, Alex Flinn's A Kiss in Time. Like she did with Beastly, she made the classic tale of Sleeping Beauty into a modern day version.
I thought the idea of the story was very cute, however, I wish she would change the stories a little more, to make them more her own. Both Beastly and A Kiss in Time contained too much of the elements that the originals did. If I were to rewrite a classic tale into a modern day version, I would keep the overall idea of the original but put it in a way that teens/kids today could relate to in a way.
The novel had a princess, king, queen, the pretty castle, the evil witch, etc. The modern aspect she added was a modern teenage boy, a high school party with beer and hooking up, and a family that the boy, Jack, doesn't thin understands him.
Before I go on, here's what the overall story is about:
Talia, the princess, has been asleep for three-hundred years, after pricking her finger on a spindle...it's just like the Disney version until that point, except that she was looking for a dress to wear for her sixteenth birthday when she came across the mysterious room where she found an old lady who made the most beautiful dresses. Well, as you might have guessed...yes the old lady was the evil witch who put the curse on her, when she was baby, saying that her destiny was that before her sixteenth birthday she would be stuck with a spindle.
Well, three hundred years later, Jack, a 17 year old stuck on a "boring" museum tour of Europe with his best friend, decides to run away with his said, friend, and find a beach...preferably a nude beach.
Instead of finding the beach however, they find a hidden castle (!!!, I was wondering the whole time, how do you hide this huge CASTLE!! and not notice it with things like airplanes and helicopters), where everyone is sleeping in the kingdom.
Once, in the castle, Jack finds Talia, and kisses her...when she wakes up, along with everyone else in the kingdom.
Okay, so to make a long story short, after Talia has a fight with her father (about how she ruined the kingdom by touching that spindle) she runs away with Jack, back to his home in America, where she tries to persuade him that he is her true love....well, guess what...she does...and they live happily ever after.
The story was cute, especially when Jack talks about his growing feeling for Talia, the Princess, but when I watch movies such as Sydney White (with Amanda Bynes) and She's the Man (also with Amanda Bynes) and even the movie Easy A (with Emma Stone) which are modern day versions of Snow White, Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, and The Scarlet Letter, respectively; and how all of these stories REALLY modernize classic stories, in a way that makes it more interesting for teens today. I mean, I really am not trying to say A Kiss in Time wasn't interesting...because it was, it's just I think it would have been really neat if she replaces the princess, king, and queen with something like...(just an example!)... this rich spoiled brat, and her rich father and mother (even if the father is a successful Furniture King or something), and then having this really mean girl (like Sara Paxton's character in Sydney White) take the place of the evil witch, and somehow that turns into the Sleeping Beauty story. Obviously, that's just one of making the story more modern, but I think it would have been better than having literally a "evil witch".
I hope I didn't sound to harsh, describing the book, but what I really am trying to say, is that if you, or someone you know, happen to be between the ages of twelve and fourteen, then I think you might like this book. I found myself to be just a little to old for it, even though it is considered a "teen" novel, and I am technically still a teen for another two and a half months :).
Overall rating:
That's it for now. Up next...will be Sasha Paley's Huge, which was used to base last summer's ABC family television series Huge, which was sadly canceled before they could give it a proper ending. So I am going to read it and find out how the TV series should have ended. I hope everyone has a great weekend!
I thought the idea of the story was very cute, however, I wish she would change the stories a little more, to make them more her own. Both Beastly and A Kiss in Time contained too much of the elements that the originals did. If I were to rewrite a classic tale into a modern day version, I would keep the overall idea of the original but put it in a way that teens/kids today could relate to in a way.
The novel had a princess, king, queen, the pretty castle, the evil witch, etc. The modern aspect she added was a modern teenage boy, a high school party with beer and hooking up, and a family that the boy, Jack, doesn't thin understands him.
Before I go on, here's what the overall story is about:
Talia, the princess, has been asleep for three-hundred years, after pricking her finger on a spindle...it's just like the Disney version until that point, except that she was looking for a dress to wear for her sixteenth birthday when she came across the mysterious room where she found an old lady who made the most beautiful dresses. Well, as you might have guessed...yes the old lady was the evil witch who put the curse on her, when she was baby, saying that her destiny was that before her sixteenth birthday she would be stuck with a spindle.Well, three hundred years later, Jack, a 17 year old stuck on a "boring" museum tour of Europe with his best friend, decides to run away with his said, friend, and find a beach...preferably a nude beach.
Instead of finding the beach however, they find a hidden castle (!!!, I was wondering the whole time, how do you hide this huge CASTLE!! and not notice it with things like airplanes and helicopters), where everyone is sleeping in the kingdom.
Once, in the castle, Jack finds Talia, and kisses her...when she wakes up, along with everyone else in the kingdom.
Okay, so to make a long story short, after Talia has a fight with her father (about how she ruined the kingdom by touching that spindle) she runs away with Jack, back to his home in America, where she tries to persuade him that he is her true love....well, guess what...she does...and they live happily ever after.
The story was cute, especially when Jack talks about his growing feeling for Talia, the Princess, but when I watch movies such as Sydney White (with Amanda Bynes) and She's the Man (also with Amanda Bynes) and even the movie Easy A (with Emma Stone) which are modern day versions of Snow White, Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, and The Scarlet Letter, respectively; and how all of these stories REALLY modernize classic stories, in a way that makes it more interesting for teens today. I mean, I really am not trying to say A Kiss in Time wasn't interesting...because it was, it's just I think it would have been really neat if she replaces the princess, king, and queen with something like...(just an example!)... this rich spoiled brat, and her rich father and mother (even if the father is a successful Furniture King or something), and then having this really mean girl (like Sara Paxton's character in Sydney White) take the place of the evil witch, and somehow that turns into the Sleeping Beauty story. Obviously, that's just one of making the story more modern, but I think it would have been better than having literally a "evil witch".
I hope I didn't sound to harsh, describing the book, but what I really am trying to say, is that if you, or someone you know, happen to be between the ages of twelve and fourteen, then I think you might like this book. I found myself to be just a little to old for it, even though it is considered a "teen" novel, and I am technically still a teen for another two and a half months :).
Overall rating:
That's it for now. Up next...will be Sasha Paley's Huge, which was used to base last summer's ABC family television series Huge, which was sadly canceled before they could give it a proper ending. So I am going to read it and find out how the TV series should have ended. I hope everyone has a great weekend!
The Romance Bookie :)
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