Review Detail

Moana has joined the ranks of Disney Twisted Tales, with HOW FAR I’LL GO, which asks the question, “What if Moana broke the heart of Te Fiti?” The answer is a quest into the depths of Lalotai, where readers learn more of the mythology.
I read the story using an audiobook. The narrator sounds like Moana, so it is easy to feel immersed in the story. It was an interesting addition for Moana to meet the spirit of her father’s dead friend, Afa, to help him face what happened and move on. However, I did not enjoy the voice used for his character, so that part was still a bit difficult to engage in.
The spirit of Moana’s grandmother leads her to an ashen girl named Noe to help her heal the heart of Te Fiti. From the beginning, it is easy to know that Noe has secrets, but the book does a good job of keeping you guessing what her story could be. I missed the charm of Maui’s character in this version. Moana learned such confidence in the movie and took that success home to her people, so it was a bit sad to have her filled with shame at the failure to heal the heart that starts this story.
Overall, this book does explore more of Moana’s world and mythos. Some Twisted Disney tales in the series have managed to play around with the story while making it have deeper themes or intriguing takeaways. Without rousing musical numbers and jokes, this alternate story was not as fun to me as the movie. It felt unnecessary to take the triumph of the movie ending and have her feel shame just to end up exactly at the same conclusion by the end of the book. It was a fine story, but I did not feel Moana had the same growth or that the world was impacted in some way that some of the other twisted tales have had.