I love Once Upon a Time, so I was quite excited to read this. It didn't live up to expectations, I think because the book was just too ambitious. I picked it up thinking it was a novelisation of the first episode. Instead, it's a novelisation of the first season. There's just too much to cover. It's basically one chapter per episode, and that's simply not enough. It's not enough to add any extra material, or to go more deeply into the characters. It's certainly not enough to even cover everything that exists, even briefly. Storylines are cut right down; some are absent altogether. Entire flashbacks are summarised in short paragraphs beginning with "Henry explained that...".

Really, "summary" is the correct word. This novel summarises the first season episodes, and it does it as quickly as it can and with as little detail as possible. To be honest, I'm struggling to see the point. Why adapt something if you're going to do it this thinly? Just produce an episode guide and be done with it. The first season of the television show was excellent. This, disappointingly, is not. It's so basic it's barely even adequate.