Of Swords and Parasols

Golden is an adaptation of "Rapunzel" in which Rapunzel has no hair.

Indeed.

It starts fairly close to the original story with the garden thievery and bargaining away the unborn child, but then Rapunzel is born with no hair and Rapunzel is raised by the witch (here a sorceress named Melisande) in a nice little cottage, and Rapunzel always knows her origins. When she's 16, Rapunzel learns that Melisande once had a daughter, but that her daughter, Rue, was cursed by a sorcerer 20 years ago and confined to a tower, but that she believes Rapunzel could free Rue. Only 1 day a year has passed for Rue, though her hair has 20 years worth of growth.

The changes area bit out there at times and there are parts that aren't nearly as developed as they should be (including the method used to break the curse) but overall it comes together well and is pretty entertaining. And the second half is basically "Girl saves girl and boys look on and give moral support and try to help save the day with Love."

There is, though, one major problem that I have with it.

In the original story, Rapunzel ending up with the witch goes about like this:

RAPUNZEL'S MOM: Gosh, I'm having major craving for some rapunzel. our neighbor has some beautiful rapunzel.
RAPUNZEL'S DAD: You and your cravings!
RAPUNZEL'S MOM: Can you get some from our neighbor's garden? i swear I'll just die if I don't have some.
RAPUNZEL'S DAD: Gosh, this clear moon sure is helpful when it comes to garden theft!
WITCH: WTF ARE YOU DOING TO MY PLANTS?
RAPUNZEL'S DAD: OMG NO DON'T KILL ME!
WITCH: I'm that scary, huh?
RAPUNZEL'S DAD: I'll do anything if you don't kill me! My wife's pregnant! Take the baby!
WITCH: Well, that was easy...
RAPUNZEL'S MOM: I sure hope our neighbor isn't too upset at being woken up in the middle of the night.

Here's how that goes down in Golden:

RAPUNZEL'S MOM: This pregnancy thing is SO annoying! It's completely ruining my figure! And my hair isn't as shiny as it should be. Maybe if I brush it for the 15th time today.
RAPUNZEL'S DAD: Sweetie, about that ivory handled brush. We could really do with the money we'd get for selling it, what with the baby and a-
RAPUNZEL'S MOM: What next, you want me to sell my soul? Anyway, I'm hungry. Go get me some rapunzels from next door.
RAPUNZEL'S DAD: I don't think our neighbor is ho-
RAPUNZEL'S MOM: Just get some! She won't care! Go go go!
MELISANDE: What are you doing in my garden?
RAPUNZEL'S DAD: I'm sorry! She made me do it!
MELISANDE: I see that you are a poor, innocent man whose life is miserable due to a vain and selfish woman, so I'll take this up with her.
RAPUNZEL'S MOM: Oh, please, it's just some plants. Do my cheeks look puffy to you?
MELISANDE: Theft is theft, and should be repaid.
RAPUNZEL'S MOM: Oh, whatever. I can't wait to get this thing out of me.
MELISANDE: Tell you what, if you love your kid when it's born, we're even. If not, you give her to me.
RAPUNZEL'S MOM: As if I could give birth to anything less than stunningly beautiful.
RAPUNZEL: Hi!
RAPUNZEL'S MOM: OMG IT IS HIDEOUS!
RAPUNZEL: I have no hair! Not even baby down!
MELISANDE: And that won't change. Ever.
RAPUNZEL'S MOM: It is hideous! Take it away! I never want to see that ugly thing again! Where's my brush?

I wish I'd made that up. The general decency and entertainment of the rest largely makes up for it, but the "Rapunzel's dad is pure and virtuous and her mom was vain and selfish too, only her dad really matters" thing pops up again.

This is based on the opera The Magic Flute which I’m not familiar with.

Mina (Pamina) is the daughter of the Queen of the Night and the Mage of the Day. Though her parents live in the same palace, it’s strictly divided, and Mina has never met her father, though she’s required to marry the man of his choosing when she turns 16. Her father, though, abducts her early, and Mina joins forces with Gayna, a young woman raised by the mage and in love with the man selected to be Mina’s husband, to escape, while Mina’s friend, Lapin, sets out to rescue her, soon joined by a prince.

The story has a lot of mythic and narrative elements I love, but unfortunately, the book…isn’t that good. It’s split between five first person narratives, and none of the voices are very distinct. There’s also no clear identifier for narrative switches, so it sometimes takes a paragraph to figure out whose head you’re in now, and the book simply isn‘t long enough to fully carry both the plot and five POV characters.

The narrative voice is also frequently annoying, with a cloying “look at how clever and witty I am” approach at many times. About halfway through, I realized that Dokey also wrote The Storyteller’s Daughter, which had the same problem for me.

Does anyone know of any good (and available to me) versions of The Magic Flute? Because, while the book didn’t impress me much, I am very curious about the story now.