I am so impossibly disappointed in this book. Aladdin is second only to the Little Mermaid for my favorite Disney movies, and I was so excited to have the chance to read this re-telling. The premise is that Jafar got the lamp when Aladdin escaped from the cave and the book is about how Aladdin and Jasmine have to save the day.

And it was terrible.

The first 20% or so is just a re-telling of the movie. The only thing that has changed is that you meet Aladdin's mother, but she dies with no explanation, and there is no additional character development or world building that didn't already exist in the movie.

The rest of the book feels like a first draft. It lacks cohesion from scene to scene and the narrative is sloppy. There is not a single conversation that feels organic, and everyone speaks with the same mannerisms: an uneducated street rat uses the word "largesse" in casual conversation, for example, and at the end of the book when Jafar has Jasmine captive after she has fled him and destroyed the city and told him she will never love him, he merely responds "Your honest discourse is refreshing, even if its content is not appealing."

Cannot in good conscience recommend to even the most die-hard Disney fan.