I received this book for free from NetGalley to facilitate my review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Long Live the Pumpkin Queen by Shea Ernshaw Also by this author: The Wicked Deep
Published by Disney Press on 08/02/2022
Genres: Young Adult Fiction / Fantasy / Dark Fantasy, Young Adult Fiction / Holidays & Celebrations, Young Adult Fiction / Romance / Paranormal
Pages: 320
Format: ARC, Audiobook
Source: NetGalley
Amazon
Goodreads
Read Sally's story in this young adult sequel to Tim Burton'sThe Nightmare Before Christmas written by New York Times bestselling Shea Ernshaw.
Jack and Sally are "truly meant to be" ... or are they?
Sally Skellington is the official, newly-minted Pumpkin Queen after a whirlwind courtship with her true love, Jack, who Sally adores with every inch of her fabric seams -- if only she could say the same for her new role as Queen of Halloween Town. Cast into the spotlight and tasked with all sorts of queenly duties, Sally can't help but wonder if all she's done is trade her captivity under Dr. FInkelstein for a different cage. But when Sally and Zero accidentally uncover a long-hidden doorway to an ancient realm called Dream Town in the forest Hinterlands, she'll unknowingly set into motion a chain of sinister events that put her future as Pumpkin Queen, and the future of Halloween Town itself, into jeopardy. Can Sally discover what it means to be true to herself and save the town she's learned to call home, or will her future turn into her worst... well, nightmare?
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Most people probably don’t know this, because I don’t make it as obvious as I *could*, but I am a huge fan of The Nightmare Before Christmas. It is easily my favorite movie of all time. So when I see there are “sequels” to it, I have to try my best to read them. Or in this case, listen to them.
Now, one reason why it’s taken so long for any sequels for The Nightmare Before Christmas to come out is because Tim Burton didn’t really want any. He was afraid that it would become a big thing with people going through the other doors and he just didn’t want that. At least that’s what I’ve heard – who knows?
Well, if the above reasoning is true, then he’d be sorely disappointed in Long Live the Pumpkin Queen – because there’s a lot of going through the other doors. Granted, the point isn’t the other realms, it’s just there is a lot of going through other doors into other realms involved here. There’s also the complete destruction of Sally’s backstory – which I’m not going to get into in depth, but let’s just say, it’s kind of startling.
I honestly didn’t care for Long Live the Pumpkin Queen. The story takes our headstrong Sally and turns her into an insecure waif who is whiny and terrified to become the Pumpkin Queen. It takes nearly the entire story for us to get the Sally we know and love back and frankly, I found it annoying. I can’t see Sally going from the girl who went to try to save “Sandy Claws” from Oogie Boogie on her own acting the way she does for the first third-to-one-half of this book. This isn’t the Sally we know or love and it just irks me.
The story itself was interesting enough, but I just couldn’t get past some things that happened that made certain characters you’ll meet no better than Dr. Finkelstein. There’s a lot that just didn’t fit well with the original story and I’m just not here for it.
The narration was pretty good, although the narrator didn’t quite nail Sally’s voice. The narration had nothing to do with my dislike of the book – that was solely in the storyline.
Bottomline, if you don’t mind an almost complete personality change on Sally’s part, I’d say go ahead and read/listen to this. Otherwise, I wouldn’t bother with it.
