Disney Book Tag

This is a tag I came across on a YouTube video from Katytastic, and I fell in love as soon as I heard the word ‘Disney.’ As a 31 year old millennial, I’m obviously in love with all things old-school Disney (we’re not talking Frozen here, that film was overrated. Sorry, not sorry.) So these prompts naturally spoke to my soul. Read on for some Disney-inspired book recommendations

The Little Mermaid

(A character who is out of their element, a fish-out-of-water)

‘The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle,’ by Stuart Turton

I think waking up in a different person’s body every day and trying to solve a murder that hasn’t happened yet, all while being chased by a plague doctor who might be trying to kill you definitely counts as being out of your element.

If you haven’t read this book yet, why not? Go and do it now, you can come back to this blog post later!

Cinderella

(A character who goes through a major transformation)

‘My Pear-Shaped Life,’ by Carmel Harrington

Greta goes through such a transformation from being body-obsessed, addicted to sleeping pills and generally ashamed of herself and her life to … well you’ll just have to read the book and find out.

This is the book you need if you’re feeling down on yourself. It’s uplifting and emotional without being cheesy and the Wizard of Oz-inspired journey is brilliant. You’ll be with Greta every step of the way.

Snow White

(A book or series with an eclectic cast of characters)

The ‘Thursday Next‘ series, by Jasper Fforde

This is a series that not only has its own original characters like the literary detective Thursday Next, Acheron Hades, the third most wanted man in the world and Landon Parke-Laine. But it also includes more well-known characters like Jane Eyre, The Cheshire Cat (or the Cat formerly known as Cheshire) and Miss Havisham. It even has Mycroft Next, an original character when we first met him, but who ends up living in the Sherlock Holmes series of books and becoming his brother (it makes sense, I swear!) If that’s not an eclectic bunch I don’t know what is.

Sleeping Beauty

(A book that put you to sleep)

‘The Ponzi Man,’ by Declan Lynch

I feel bad about this cos I hate badmouthing books, but I could not get into this book at all and I ended up not finishing it. I just found it so boring. I bought it because the blurb made it seem (to me at least) like it was going to be a heist story where a skilled gambler does one more play to win big. But it’s actually more of a poignant look at a man broken by his addiction to gambling and how it made him lose everything.

Maybe I would have preferred it if I had been better prepared for what to expect. And like I said, I didn’t finish it, so maybe it got more exciting in the second half. But the half that I did read just bored me, so it’s going in the Sleeping Beauty section.

The Lion King

(A character who had something traumatic happen to them in childhood)

‘Gretchen’, by Shannon Kirk

Okay, I’ve talked about this book a few times, but there’s good reason. It’s a flippin’ brilliant book, there are twists and turns and mysteries and puzzles and, for the purposes of this post, a character who was kidnapped as a child and now has to be on the run with her mother so she can’t be taken again. She has to wear contacts so no one recognises her, and if at any point she thinks someone has, her mother makes them pack up and move away. If that’s not traumatizing then I don’t know what is.

Beauty and the Beast

(A beast of a book that you were intimidated by, but found the story to be beautiful)

‘All the Light We Cannot See’ by Anthony Doerr

I didn’t even have to think about which book I was going to use for this one. This is an over 500-page book that I originally bought because I love World War II stories, but it ended up sitting on my shelf for a couple of years. Every time I went to read it I just wasn’t in the mood for such a long book with such a heavy subject.

But when I did finally decide to read it, it was one of the best books I’d read in a long time (and still is, to be fair). The writing is beautiful, the imagery is evocative and the story is amazing. You can’t help but fall in love with Marie-Laure and Werner and want to follow them on their journeys. An absolutely amazing book.

Aladdin

(A character who gets their wish granted, for better or worse)

‘Her Name was Rose’ by Claire Allan

Emily wants a better life, the kind of life Rose had before she was tragically killed. So when she sees the chance to insert herself into Rose’s life, taking the job she left behind and becoming friends (or maybe more) with Rose’s husband, Cian, she goes for it. But it doesn’t go as planned. Rose’s life wasn’t as great as she made it seem on social media and Emily soon finds out that getting the life she dreamed of isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. A great psychological thriller that’s definitely worth a read.

Mulan

(A character who pretends to be someone they’re not)

‘The Best Bad Things’ by Katrine Carrasco

This book follows Alma Rosales, an ex-Pinkerton agent who has been hired by her ex-lover to find out who has been stealing opium from her stock. Since Alma is a woman, and this book is set in the 1800s, she has to dress up like a man to get anyone to take her seriously. As her alter ego, Jack Camp, she has to gain the trust of many different people (men and women) and find out who’s behind the missing opium. It’s an interesting piece of historical fiction, if a little dense at times. But Alma/Jack is a great character, well worthy of being put in the same box as Mulan.

Toy Story

(A book with characters you wish would come to life and be real)

Any Poirot book, by Agatha Christie

I struggled with this one because most of the books I read are murder-mysteries or psychological thrillers, and I don’t really want any of those people to come to life because thy’re generally all terrible people! But I finally settled on one particular character rather than a specific book: Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot. I think the world would probably be a better place if he was real because no murder would go unsolved ever again. He might be a bit pompous and full of himself, but he’s damn good at his job. Plus he’d be so interesting to sit and chat with over dinner.

Disney Descendants

(Your favourite morally ambiguous character)

‘Wicked’ by Gregory Maguire

I read the book before I saw the musical, and I’m glad I did because I don’t think I would have liked the book if I was expecting the musical. They are completely different! Don’t get me wrong, I like them both, but they have such different tones and even endings that reading the book because you like the musical is a terrible idea.

But anyway, Wicked gives us one of the best morally ambiguous characters in Elphaba, or as she’s better known, The Wicked Witch of the West. The book gives us her backstory and why she was ‘evil’. What made her the way she was when Dorothy turned up on a tornado. It’s a dense book with a lot of political undertones and dark backstory, but Elphaba is a great character who’s worth trudging through all of that to get to know.

So there you have it, my Disney books. Let me know what books you’d use for this tag.