What Once Was Mine: A Twisted Tale

What Once Was Mine: A Twisted Tale takes the familiar Beauty and the Beast framework and flips it into something richer, sharper, and surprisingly complex. This isn’t just a retread of the original—it's a re-examination of character, choice, and the line between love and power. The story leans into moral ambiguity and consequence in a way the classic doesn’t. Characters you think you know are peeled back to reveal motivations and flaws that feel real, not just archetypal. The pacing keeps momentum but doesn’t rush the emotional arcs, so the payoff lands. Themes of identity, redemption, and agency are woven in without ever feeling forced. If you like retellings that challenge the source material and give you something fresh to ponder, this is one of the stronger entries in the Twisted Tale series. Darker, deeper, and genuinely rewarding.

I love the twists these stories have. As an adult, you still want to love fairy tales but sometimes you need a little bit more from them. The Twisted Series is a great juvenile fiction series that can be very engaging for kids and adults. A big part as an adult were the emotions. Mother Gothel, still soul crushingly evil, is painted in a different way even. But when you’re older it’s all that much harder to see her put this kid through what she does. I loved the twists. I laughed (a lot) and I cried at some parts. Great read.

Haven't finished book. But it is so good and twisted

Great twist on the story of tangled

Read this book and it was great. Wasn’t sure what to think at first because it started and is told in a way I’ve never seen before but it was great.

I've read most of the Twisted Tales series, and knew going in that Braswell is one of my personal favorites. She's done Part of Your World, Straight on Till Morning, and A Whole New World (the first and one of the best). So it's entirely likely that someone picking up this book has already read through most of them. The most clever thing Braswell does with this particular story is adding a framing device. There are several chapters that cut away to a pair of twins: a girl and a boy. The girl has cancer, and is obsessed with Tangled. So the boy, tired of watching the movie again and again as well as reading a novelization/storybook version, decides to retell the story in his way. Braswell uses this to explain why there are various changes, and every few chapters, we go back to the cancer ward and check in on these characters. There's some commentary on the writing process, and a few moments that almost feel like Braswell addressing common complaints of the Twisted Tales series (at one point the girl insists that they still need the magic and the weirdness of Pascal and Maximus; the brother concedes). It's an interesting technique that mostly works. Mostly because it also puts some distance between us and the original characters. Suddenly Rapunzel, Flynn/Eugene, and new character Gina are all once removed from us as readers. The framing makes them a little less real, and it takes a bit more to get into their stories. We already know going in that this is a Disney property and that certain things must happen: good wins, the two hetero leads fall in love, magic abounds. But this frame weakens it even further, which isn't a great move. It's disappointing, as the rest of the book is good. It's well written, and Braswell's wit is on full display. Flynn/Eugene, Rapunzel, and the rest of the already existing cast feel like their original selves, and the various additions blend in well (the Tangled fan in me wishes that Braswell had watched the animated series and worked in some of those elements; Cassandra could have subbed in for Gina without much difficulty. They're almost the same character). The main twist is in the summary: Rapunzel's mom drank a different flower. This makes some interesting changes that more or less work out. The story itself does play slightly differently, a sort of butterfly effect rippling out. I do like the overall feeling of empowering Rapunzel (which isn't hard, she's already a pretty empowered princess unlike some of them; lookin' at you, Aurora), as she has agency and magic of her own, both of which work well. All in all, the book is a very good entry in the series and worth picking up if you're a fan of Tangled or even just looking into a fun YA fantasy. It's not quite perfect, though admittedly that framing might not bother some readers (particularly younger ones) as much as it did me. Personally I'd give it an 8 out of ten; quite good, but with room for improvement. (for more reviews from me, check out my blog: https://fatereviewsstuff.com/ , which focuses primarily on Nintendo Switch games and more).

My kids (age 10 and 12) love this series. They like how they take the original stories and changed things that result in different outcomes.

I really love this book when I first read it I thought it was gonna be like the actual Rapunzel story but Astro like getting into it. The story plot is so much different than the original story and in the movie so I definitely recommend people who are a Disney fanatic to get this book

Interisting read

Adoro :)

These books are photocopied and original books .. but the price is same an original books .Better get them in shops . Bad paper quality and printing is horrible.I wouldn’t recommend this seller

Loved this book and the other twisted tales

Haven’t finished it yet. But the story is very well written. The intermezzos are thoughtful. This is perhaps the best fictional Disney story I ever read.