Conceal, Don’t Feel by Jen Calonita
Series: Disney Twisted Tales #7
Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult, Retellings
Pages: 320
Published By: Random House/Disney on 1st October, 2019
Format: Hardcover
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Book Synopsis:
What if Anna and Elsa never knew each other?
As the future Queen of Arendelle, Princess Elsa’s life is full of expectation and responsibility—not to mention, questions. What type of ruler will she be? When will she have to pick a suitor? And why has she always harboured the feeling that some critical piece of herself is missing?
Following the unexpected death of her parents, Elsa is forced to answer those questions sooner than she’d hoped, becoming the sole ruler of her kingdom and growing lonelier than ever. But when mysterious powers begin to reveal themselves, Elsa starts to remember fragments of her childhood that seem to have been erased—pieces that include a very familiar-looking girl. Determined to fill the void she has always felt, Elsa must take a harrowing journey across her icy kingdom to undo a terrible curse . . . and find the missing Princess of Arendelle.
Book Review
I love the Disney Twisted Tales series and have read several of them, including Mirror Mirror and Go the Distance, also by Jen Calonita. This one however, I enjoyed less than those and I will explain why.
The other books in this series are definitely more twisted versions of the original tales. However this one just felt the same as the movie except a few scenes were different… The author used a lot of the dialogue straight from the movie too. I personally would’ve liked a little more creativity overall for this book. For the most part it felt like I was literally reading the movie. Like the main twist of the story, wasn’t even really a twist.
The pacing of the book was decent overall. Although it seemed to start off quite slow, it did pick up as the story went on which is was happy with. This book felt like just the right length and didn’t take me long to read at all.
I enjoyed reading the story from both Anna and Elsa’s perspective as this helped move along the storyline. It was nice as well to have a sprinkling of chapters from Hans and Kristoff’s perspectives too!
Overall, this was a fun time but I think I went into this with too high expectations. The book let me down and left me wanting so much more from it. That being said, if you’re a big fan of the movie then I’d say to give this one a go and see what you think. However, if you’re wanting a big twist when looking for a Disney retelling then I would say to maybe avoid this one.
To conclude, I want to reiterate that this is not a bad book. I just think with a little more creativity and imagination this could’ve been so much more…
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