A Once Upon a Tale: Reawakened

Yep, we're still carrying on the Once Upon A Time book reviews with this novel, released back in 2013! It's probably going to be shorter than the others & there's no illustrations, so this one will probably be a quickie compared to the graphic novel reviews and I apologise in advance!

The story when getting down to it is pretty much one big season 1 recap, but we really see everything from Emma and Mary Margaret's perspectives in the Storybrooke scenes and Snow White's in the Enchanted Forest scenes (as evidenced by the cover only showing Snow and Emma). There are also some changes here & there including the addition of deleted scenes from the show like David with Archie in the bar in Skin Deep and August going to Jefferson's house in Hat Trick, along with some additional scenes like Emma out with Henry talking in Skin Deep during the bit where Mr Gold reveals he remembers who he is to Regina and more of the superfluous affair subplot from Mary Margaret's perspective. And the backstories of the other characters that aren't Snow are mostly mentioned by Henry like Rumplestiltskin, Cinderella and Charming's (bit odd though cos in the show it was implied he didn't figure out Mr Gold was Rumple) to Emma when talking about the curse.

However, I do have a few problems with this book and they are pretty big, in particular with the perspective soley being on Emma & Snow and because of that, characters we know & love, in particular Mr Gold and Regina, aren't given the same dimensionality as in the show and their stories are only mentioned as throwaway lines by Henry talking to Emma about them. Not only that, but despite the chapters being named after the episodes they take place in, they skip a few which contribute a bit like The Shepherd, Fruit of the Poisonous Tree and The Return along with switching up events and those focusing on other characters like Desperate Souls and The Stranger are hardly given any time to get to know them, making them one dimensional as a result. And it really bothers me because there are so many lovable characters in season 1. I can understand kind of why the author went this route since Emma and Snow were the main focus in season 1, but the thing is that another one of season 1's greatest strength was it gave other characters equal time and dimensionality. In this however, recurring characters like Kathryn, Granny, Leroy, Belle and Ashley hardly appear and barely have any personality because of the time constraints in this! I really feel disappointed with the story because season 1 is beloved to me, but this book makes it lose all the magic of it, and it honestly felt like a chore to read!
The writing itself, I didn't particularly like as only the basics are included with hardly any dialogue and only describing what the characters are talking about instead of what they actually say, along with a severe lack of description of the surroundings, which pretty much forced me to remember the locations in the show (which thankfully are ingrained in my brain cos I've seen every single episode & have a photographic memory), also showing that this really isn't great as a stand-alone book, let alone one for a TV series. But the biggest problem is there's no charm to it! Everything I have mentioned is partly why and I can't be emotionally invested in the characters because this never goes into who they are or how they feel along with how their backstories affected them, especially with Mr Gold because he just comes across as an unlikeable asshole in this with his very tragic backstory being insultingly glossed over!
I know I'm rambling on, but I did notice quite a lot of flaws in this, but it's not 'bad' per se because it felt kind of nice to remember events in season 1 & looking back at how much has changed now (the half added onto the rating is purely for nostalgia goggles of season 1). Honestly, for a recommendation to anyone like fans or newcomers, I say just go and rewatch season 1 because it's much more fun, most if not all of the characters are well developed & loveable and it's much more emotionally engaging to watch rather than just reading a laundry list of what's going on with hardly any emotional depth and adding in cut scenes which don't contribute anything in the grand scale of things. Sorry, this really was a disappointment to read, and I'll just finish right now and give my rating!
Rating: ** 1/2