*3.5

content warnings: child abuse (emotional), child endangerment, manipulation, bullying
representation: latina main character, biracial main character, arabic main character

It's no secret that I love Disney Channel Original Movies, and the Descendants movies are my second favourite (they would be first but no other work of film can top the brilliance that is the High School Musical trilogy). So I was excited to pick up the trilogy of tie-in novels Melissa de la Cruz wrote, while also being a bit scared that they would be garbage and ruin the movies.

Thankfully, they're not. Or at least, the first one isn't.

This book is set literally days before the first movie starts and it follows the four VK's as well as Ben. I'm not going to lie, for the first two-thirds of the book I was annoyed that Ben was getting a POV because his chapters, despite infrequent, always felt disjointed from the rest of the plot. They continued to feel disjointed after, I just happened to like the way that his character was approached later on.

The plot is a fun adventure and the writing makes me want to read more of Melissa de la Cruz's work, but the characters and their relationships are the real stand-out of the book.

The book addresses something that had always bothered me about the first movie, which is why the VK's sometimes seemed like they trusted one another but also as if they barely knew each other. Turns out, when they were six-years-old Evie had a birthday party that every other child in the Isle was invited to other than Mal, causing Maleficent to curse Evie and her mother to stay in their castle forever. Mal and Evie became "enemies" due to this, though as you can probably guess it doesn't stay that way.

Mal and Jay have a brother-sister relationship in the book, though they would still betray each other at the drop of a hat, and I was really glad to see that because they're friendship was one of my favourite things about the second movie. Carlos is easily the most removed from the other three characters at the start of the book, just being a scrawny nerd Mal and Jay occasionally pick on.

The four going on their quest meant that they became sort-of friends who sort-of trusted each other, explaining their strange relationship in the movie. It's also continually established that the four of them have nothing but platonic feelings for each other which was also a relief due to the media's tendency to turn male and female friendships into love.

I also really liked that this book explored the abuse the VK's face a little more, as that was one of my favourite aspects of the film. It shows the verbal abuse they all suffer from and how neglectful the villains are of their children, particularly Cruella.

The book also added depth to Audrey and Ben in the few chapters they appeared in. I always thought Audrey was underrated because she actually had legitimate reasons for hating and being wary of the VK's, and this book further establishes how much what happened to her parents in their fairy tale has affected her. As I mentioned, Ben's chapters did annoy me at first, but then later in the book he becomes the character we see more of in the movies as he decides to essentially reject toxic masculinity and realises that it's okay for him to be more soft and kind like his mother. From that point on, his chapters annoyed me significantly less.

A massive downfall of this book is the continuity errors it invites, such as why Maleficent and the Evil Queen are so chummy in the movie even though it's set shortly after the book.

Other than that, this was an enjoyable book that I would definitely recommend to those who like the Descendants franchise.