OUT OF THE PAST, Kalinda Vazquez & Corinna Bechko

Remember how, back in December, I was going to post a review of Once Upon A Time: Out of the Past as a follow-up to Shadow of the Queen? Yeah . . .

The long and the short of it, there’s a lot of material to cover in this book, and that’s a good thing. Out of the Past distinguishes itself from Shadow of the Queen and has learned a few important lessons. Telling four stories instead of one over the course of 88 pages demands tighter structure and perhaps simpler self-contained ideas. I think the book benefits on the whole. We get to see more characters following their own arcs, spared attempts to entwine them all into one plot that would only stretch them thin. They also each nail a personal, crucial aspect of each character’s development. Shadow of the Queen had a similar goal, but magical shenanigans distracted it from that purpose.

That said, this collection has its share of strengths and weaknesses, and they need to their fair share of consideration. Much as I tried, I couldn’t do the whole book justice in one review. So I’m breaking up Out of the Past into four “short reviews” for your reading pleasure. You can go directly to those reviews here: Dead in the Water (Captain Hook), Truth and Daggers (Rumplestiltskin & Belle), Ghosts (Evil Queen), Tea Party in March (Mad Hatter).

Short Review: DEAD IN THE WATER

Out of the Past opens with Once’s Captain Hook out at sea on the Jolly Roger. Except he’s not Captain Hook yet—this is his time as a pirate before meeting Milah, and before he lost his hand to Rumplestiltskin. The narrative setup neatly fills the 22-page length while trying to unearth some new or interesting elements of the character. Does it succeed? Eh, kind of.

The Jolly Roger is fighting through a storm to get to the Southern Isles (yes, that’s a Frozen reference), and things keep getting worse until Killian spies some calm waters, the only hope for survival. The problem is that said waters are the Leviathan Shoals, a dangerous area haunted by a monster capable of casting illusions to lure prey into its clutches. Despite the warnings of his first mate, Killian sees no alternative and orders the crew to steer the ship to the shoals. Shortly after they escape the storm, he spots a small ship nearby—and who should be on board but his deceased brother, Liam, alive and well.

Short Review: TRUTH AND DAGGERS

For me, this was the most frustrating story to read and review, partly thanks to my bias. It centers on Belle and Rumplestiltskin, my favorite characters on Once Upon A Time. More than that, the story attempts to explore the pair’s relationship while living in the Dark Castle, as well as Belle’s individual past. And it fails so much. What should’ve been a golden nugget of canon expansion, especially for the often neglected Belle, turns out to be fool’s gold.

The beginning has plenty of promise. We see a bit of Belle’s daily routine as she sets out to do some grocery shopping for Rumple’s larder. Rumple is his usual self—snarky, distrustful, and obstinate in hiding his affection for his maid under the previous two traits. Belle engages in teasing banter with him before setting off with a charmed broached that alerts Rumple if she tries to run away. At this point, Belle seems to like Rumple and wants him to trust her. Keep this in mind, as it because a somewhat baffling plot point later.

Short Review: GHOSTS

It’s another Evil Queen story, only this time wholly focused on Regina. The art and tone, not to mention the title, evoke a haunted atmosphere that intensifies when, while traveling through the Forest of the Dead, Regina is injured in her crashed carriage and sees what she takes to be the ghost of her dead first love, Daniel. But the story doesn’t cross into the supernatural—just amazing coincidence.

The apparition is in fact a man, but not Daniel. It’s his brother William (not previously introduced in the show), and he lures Regina into a trap so as to avenge his brother’s death. As informed readers will know, Regina’s mother Cora murdered Daniel, so his death was not her fault; rather it sparked her own quest of vengeance on Snow White. To find out that a living relation of Daniel’s blames her for his demise is a surprising turn for her and the reader.

Short Review: TEA PARTY IN MARCH

The last story in Out of the Past most strongly resembles a typical episode of Once in that it provides crucial backstory on a beloved character, yet it’s by far the most horrifying and would probably not be allowed to air on ABC. All right, it’s not that graphic on the whole. I rather wish this piece of Jefferson’s life could be adapted to the small screen, if only to see Sebastian Stan bring back the character once more and see part of his transformation into the Mad Hatter.

The story begins in Camelot—and doesn’t look all that Camelot-ish. There’s no sign of King Arthur, Queen Guinevere or any of the Knights of the Round Table. So, really, this could be set anywhere with a vaguely period style. In fact, the clothing is closer to late 18^th-century England. Why couldn’t this have been Alice’s world instead? Wouldn’t that have fit the story better thematically? I guess we simple readers were never meant to know these answers.

ONCE UPON A TIME: RED’S UNTOLD TALE, Wendy Toliver

Hey, what’s black, white and Red all over? It’s ABC’s latest attempt to hold on to audience interest in their fairytale franchise—and it’s not too shabby, if I may say so. Certainly a step up from how our beloved Red Riding Hood was utilized in Shadow of the Queen.

Unlike previous addends to the OUAT lore via printed media, Toliver’s novel takes us back to an earlier period in Red’s life, filling in bits of backstory and fleshing out her relationships with Granny, childhood hunk-friend Peter, and other members of her village. It also has a YA flavor, but not to an irritating degree. It follows several tropes of coming-of-age stories without becoming too cliché. You have romantic and sexual awakening, school bullies, weird dreams the hero doesn’t understand but have something to do with finding her true self—yeah, that does sound more overdone when you break it down, but Toliver’s easy, fluid yet intelligent writing style articulates the understandable trials of entering adulthood and makes them feeling organic and visceral to her (well, ABC’s) characters.

CITY OF DARK MAGIC, Magnus Flyte

First of all, let me just say that if you’re going to use a penname, it must carry the epic and mysterious magnitude of Magnus Flyte. Goodness, he sounds like he should be a character in this book! I hope Meg Howrey and Christina Lynch (Flyte’s representatives) go meta at some point and write him into one of their later works. In the words of Shia LaBeouf, just do it.

Also courtesy of Shia LaBeouf, and one of the important lessons of City of Dark Magic: don’t let your dreams be dreams! Unless they involve fire, death and hell portals, in which case, maybe, just let them remain really upsetting dreams. But in case they’re NOT only dreams but actually prophesies, get to stopping them as soon as possible. Kind of a complicated moral, but it makes sense once you get to the end of the book.

Before you start the book, however, you should know that City of Dark Magic isn’t the same kind of fantasy book as most of the other entries I’ve read and reviewed so far. It falls more into paranormal fiction—not even supernatural, per se, because you’re not 100% sure if what causes the strange phenomena are based in magic, science, or simply cosmic forces not understood. So, don’t expect the likes of Harry Potter to show up and zap the problems away, or create them, with magic spells. The “fantasy” in this novel is subtler. Think Da Vinci Code, except with more alchemy, music and sex thrown in.