From New York Times bestselling author Holly Black comes a captivating original novel set between Disney's Maleficent and Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, in which newly-queened Aurora struggles to be the best leader to both the humans and Fair Folk under her reign; her beau, Prince Phillip, longs to get to know Aurora and her kingdom better; and Maleficent has trouble letting go of the past.

I feel like this book was written purely for the sake of easing my bitter disappointment after watching the second Maleficent movie because that heart-wrenching experience of butchering my favorite movie for the sake of a sequel was demeaning. Someone tell Disney, if they were going to make a sequel, they should have used Black’s book as a script. I think I’m just going to pretend the movie never happened, and this marvelous piece of work is the only story of life in the Moors.

I usually dislike doing movie/TV show comparisons in my reviews, (I don’t know why but probably because this is, well a book blog and there are a lot of layers which need to be regarded in order to proclaim an adaptation “good”), but I think it is inevitable to bring some elements from the movies because the foundation of the book was, in fact, a movie. The thing is, while reading this book, it felt like the Maleficent movie never ended at all – the continuation and adaptation of the magnificent tale into a story of recovery were perfect, to the point of my mind equalizing the two parts as the same thing, as they, in truth, should be.

Holly Black managed to amaze me with her stunning writing and intricate storytelling, pulling me once again and hopefully not the last time, in her world of faeries and stories of wicked things and broken souls. This book is full of beautiful things, from politics and union of human and faerie world and messages about love and union, but the heart of the story remained the same – the love between Maleficent and Aurora. It never wavered or faltered and their bond only grew stronger, unifying two worlds and bringing out the best of them both. Maleficent is one of my favorite characters of all time, especially from non-book media; so thoroughly developed and captivated – a force risen from the depths of her despair to seek vengeance, finding love instead which saved her from her own relentless rage. Black picked her character up right where the movie left it and took her to another journey without missing a thing. I even started liking Aurora, whom I found boring and annoying through the course of both movies.

So thank you, Holly Black, for creating a sequel worthy of Maleficent and bringing back these wholesome characters back in the manner they deserve.