When it comes to reading fairy and folk tale retellings, I’m going to be
blatantly honest: I really haven’t read any so far, unless you perhaps count Witches
Abroad by Terry Prachett. I absolutely consume them in series and movie forms,
though. I’m a Once Upon A Time fan, and films like Into The Woods and even Snow
White and the Huntsman really speak to me.
Enter The
Forbidden Wish by Jessica Khoury. This book is a retelling of the classic tale
of Aladdin from the Book of One Thousand and One Nights. I was given this book
for free and decided to give it a read! So let’s see how it fares. Spoilers
ahead!
This book
is told from the point of view of Zahra, who is the jinni of the lamp. It
starts out with her meeting Aladdin. They pretty much go through the folktale,
but with some things changed. Zahra slowly starts to fall more and more for
Aladdin, which is forbidden. Zahra is given a choice: will she win her own
freedom, or will she stay true to her heart and stay with Aladdin?
The
Forbidden Wish probably isn’t for me. I’m just going to preface this by saying
that I’m not a romance-reading type. I do read books that have it, but I’ve yet
to read one where it is one of the absolute main focuses of it. Until this one.
And I didn’t particularly enjoy it.
While I do
think Zahra is a well-rounded character, I just for the life of me couldn’t get
into this story’s interpretation of Aladdin. He just left no impact, so I
really didn’t see what our main character saw in him, to the point of even
being willing to give up her freedom for him. It’s also kind of iffy that Zahra
is hundreds if not thousands of years old, yet Aladdin is continually referred
to as “a boy” in the book, giving us the impression that he’s really young.
That just really rubbed me the wrong way. I just didn’t buy the romance, which
is one of the main aspects, if not the actual main theme, of this book. And
that is a flaw.
There were
some things I really liked, though. First of all, the way of writing was really
easy to get into. I could just sit down and completely get lost in this book pretty
much instantly, and it was a quick read because of that. It just felt very
accessible.
I also
quite liked the pacing. Like with the writing style, it was quick, yet not too
fast, either.
Finally, I
do absolutely like some of the things the story updated from the original
folktale. First of all, the jinni being female was a positive change. The
original story has little to no female characters safe for the princess, who is
also very passive. Speaking of her, the princess also is a really active player
in this story, and in the end she ends up getting the throne for herself, which
was just really great to see. I appreciated a lot of the nods to the original
story, such as the magical ring.
Overall,
while it did have some positive elements to it, the romance just was too
bothersome and blandly written for me to get into. If you love romance and you
can look past it, I’m sure this is the book for you. However, for me it simply
wasn’t. I’m giving The Forbidden Wish three out of five stars. If it works for
you, great. Just not my thing.
Rating: 3/5
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