Once Upon Another Time
by James RileyAlso by this author: The Revenge of Magic (The Revenge of Magic, #1), The Last Dragon (The Revenge of Magic, #2), The Future King (The Revenge of Magic, #3)
Published by: Aladdin on April 5, 2022
Genres: Middle Grade, Fantasy, Adventure
Pages: 336
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher
Storybook characters collide in this first book in a new trilogy of twisted fairy tales from New York Times bestselling author James Riley, set in the world of his popular Half Upon a Time series—perfect for fans of Fablehaven and Chris Colfer’s A Tale of Magic series!
Five and a half feet might seem pretty tall for a twelve-year-old, but it’s not when your parents are giants. Lena has kept the fact that she’s a tiny giant secret, using magic to grow when out in the giant village. But hiding who she is has always felt wrong, even though she knows the other giants might not accept her. Fortunately, Lena has friends down in the Cursed City who understand that looking different doesn’t make her less of a giant.
Someone who knows not to judge by appearances is Jin, a young genie currently serving one thousand and thirty-eight years of genie training that requires him to fulfill the wish of whoever holds his magical ring. In Jin’s case, it’s the power-hungry Golden King. At least the king only has two wishes left, one of which is for Jin to go to the Cursed City and capture its protector, the Last Knight—one of Lena’s closest friends.
What Lena and Jin don’t know is how close the Golden King’s plans are to coming together, between his dark magic and his horrible Faceless knights. If Jin does find the Last Knight and bring him to the Golden King, why, that could doom the entire fairy-tale world.
…This sounds like it’ll end badly, doesn’t it?
Content Tags:
Perfect for readers who want:
- Twisted fairy tales with a unique, new take on classics
- Lots of humor and sarcasm
- Coming of age and growth arcs
- Unexpected twists on old tropes that’ll keep you guessing
- Emotional arc about learning to accept yourself
Many thanks to Aladdin and Turn the Page Tours for an ARC in exchange for an honest, unbiased review. Quotes are taken from an unfinished product and may differ from the final version.
I’ve previously read James Riley’s The Revenge of Magic series and really enjoyed that. Plus, I love twisted fairy tales and seeing what unique, different things authors can come up with for known tropes and characters. So of course I was always going to pick up this book! The fact that there’s a strong-looking female character on the cover doesn’t hurt, too, especially in middle grade books. Yes to strong female leads!
Once Upon Another Time is a twisted fairy tale featuring a giant and a genie, both who have lots of personal growth to do. This book is filled with adventure, humor, fun characters, and an incredibly unique twist to familiar tropes.
This book was so incredibly fun. As I said, I’m a fan of twisted fairy tales in general, but Riley does some fun, unexpected things with these beloved characters. I was constantly guessing who was going to appear next or in what context, and I was always pleasantly surprised! There were times when things were settled a little easily or a little too simple, but given the target audience (and the basis on fairy tales), this makes sense. I doubt middle grade readers will even notice after being swept into this adventure.
The lead character in Once Upon Another Time is a strong (literally!) female character named Lena, who is a tiny giant grappling with where she belongs and who she really is.
If that’s not the most relatable sentence I could type, I don’t know what is. The reason I love Lena so much is really twofold.
First, she’s strong—more than just physically (but also that—remember, giant!). Lena doesn’t back down from the difficult things, and she’s always throwing herself in the fray to protect others. She’s got a very strong moral code about what’s right and what’s wrong, though over the course of this book, as the line between the two blurs, she starts to question some of what she thought she knew.
Second, Lena is absolutely out there trying to be her best self . . . she’s just not entirely sure what that means just yet. Lena is very tall . . . for a human 12-year-old. For a giant, though? She’s tiny. Worse, the bad blood between the humans and the giants means that she doesn’t really fit in either place. She’s too short to be considered a giant (even though she is), but if the humans found out she was a giant, they would be afraid of her (or so she’s been told, even if she doesn’t necessarily believe it). As someone who’s biracial, I really related to this struggle of finding a place to fit in! Part of Lena’s journey is really discovering who she is and who she wants to be.
“He’s not some guy,” the mirror complained. “He’s the one you’ll spend the rest of your life with, happily ever after!”
“Ever after what?” she asked, checking her belt. “What does that even mean?”
“Not really sure, honestly,” the mirror admitted. “It’s just part of the prophecy. Ever is like ‘forever,’ I imagine, so maybe you’ll love him after forever?”
“Sure, I’ll agree to that,” Lena said, tightening her belt and turning to leave. “I’ll love him after forever is over. Deal.”
The secondary main character is a genie named Jin, and he’s a hot mess, but I absolutely love him anyway.
As far as genies go, Jin’s really just a baby. His whole 12 years of existence doesn’t really stack up against the thousands that lay before him. Just like human children, though, genie children need to learn. Sometimes the hard way. In order to teach him humility, Jin has been bound to an item and forced to grant wishes for humans for 1,000 years or until he learns humility, whichever comes first. Most people seem to be betting on the millennia.
Jin is absolutely a hot mess, but that’s sort of the point. He’s extremely sarcastic (which, okay, I love and I’m not going to pretend otherwise) and entirely selfish. Not only does he not have humility, but he thinks he shouldn’t need to do anything for anyone else if it inconveniences him.
Jin also happens to be able to tap into the cosmic knowledge, which in this case is actually an entity that all genies have access to. Jin’s access is limited, because the whole point is for him to learn and not be handed all the knowledge of the universe. Which he does. Slowly and painfully. His arc is fun because he’s easy to dislike from the very beginning, so it’s easy to see where he can stand to grow. That makes it all the more satisfying when he finally does, even a little bit!
For the first wish, we told you about the series of difficult tasks it would take to fulfill the wish, and you—
“Succeeded in every single one!” Jin said.
Ignored us, and instead fulfilled the Golden King’s wish with a series of clever, if not completely immoral, tasks, the cosmic knowledge continued.
“Oh, look who’s suddenly so judgmental, just because they know everything in the universe,” Jin said, rolling his eyes as he flopped down onto a long thin couch that turned out to be even more uncomfortable than it looked. “I got him voted in to the chancellorship, and that’s what he wished for. And all I had to do was start a few rumors, spy on a few people, and generally cheat in every way I could.”
Riley takes familiar stories and characters from fairy tales and twists them in the most delightful way, always with some fun surprises or in a way that subverts expectations.
I don’t want to say too much about this, because that’s sort of the point of subverted expectations. Needless to say, this book is filled with characters that you will recognize but which aren’t quite the way you remember! Puss in Boots, for example, is actually Lena’s cat, who is large enough for her to ride on (which is awesome and I want one) and wears Seven-League Boots (which you may or may not recognize as well).
Part of the fun of this book (other than the sarcasm and adventure, of course) was seeing this reimagining of beloved characters in ways that felt surprising and new, yet still familiar. I can’t wait for the next book to see who else we might discover (especially since there have already been hints at a much larger force at work here!).
“Yeah, yeah, the other humans, got it,” Jin said, nodding quickly. “You act like I set fire to all the other candidates for the chancellorship or something. Only some, and none of them were even permanently hurt!” He frowned. “Well, that one wooden guy lost a toe, but that was only because he ran from the dragon, when he wasn’t supposed to. Dragons can’t resist a hunt, everyone knows that.”
The voice in his head sighed. Not a great sign from the sum total of all cosmic knowledge.
About James Riley
James Riley is the New York Times bestelling author of the HALF UPON A TIME series, the STORY THIEVES series, and the REVENGE OF MAGIC series. Contrary to what previous biographies have stated, he is a) real and b) not the character Nobody from his STORY THIEVES books. Where would people even get that idea? (Spoiler: From him. He totally made it sound like he really was Nobody. He thought it’d be funny. We’re sorry.)
He was born in Connecticut, where he lived for only a short time before moving to … well, quite a few states. He currently lives in Northern Virginia, outside of Washington, D.C., because that’s where his cats are. He has four of them. Other people think that’s a bit much.
James is currently working on getting REVENGE OF MAGIC books out every six months, so he might be a little busy. But feel free to e-mail him with questions at jamesrileythatwriterguy@gmail.com, or ask on his blog. (Please don’t send book or series ideas, as I can’t use them legally!)
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