Angie
I had a very strong feeling that I wasn't going to like this book. The Nightmare Before Christmas is my second favorite movie of ALL TIME, so there was also no way I couldn't read this one. But Long Live the Pumpkin Queen just can't compare to the original. Obviously, being such a huge TNBC fan, I've wondered what happened to Jack and Sally after the events of the movie. Obviously, I want more of Halloween Town and its kooky residents. This book is just not it.
When I started reading Long Live the Pumpkin Queen, I was still in that excited phase, wanting to know where this story was going. I do think the author did a fairly good job of introducing the characters and mostly writing the way they would talk. I could easily read the dialogue in each character's voice, but that says more about how many times I've seen the movie rather than her actual writing. There were times when I had to stop, because what was written didn't quite feel like how the character would say it. Just the wording being a little off. But for the most part, it read true. And there isn't much dialogue from the characters we already know because of plot purposes.
Long Live the Pumpkin Queen starts at Jack and Sally's wedding, nearly a year after the events of the movie. Sally is finally getting her happily ever after...kind of. With Halloween only two weeks away, she and her new husband only get one night away for their honeymoon, before Jack needs to resume holiday planning, since the mayor just cannot do anything himself. My issue with this setup is that it seems like nothing was prepared for the upcoming holiday, when we know that Halloween prep starts the day after Halloween! It was just a convenient excuse to have Jack be busy and Sally feeling simultaneously isolated and overwhelmed.
And that is one of my main issues with this sequel. Sally has one emotion which essentially becomes her only personality trait: guilt. She doesn't feel like a queen and that she doesn't deserve all of this fawning and attention. Understandably, she also just doesn't enjoy it, because it's not her. That's fine. But for the entire book she tells us eleventy billion times how guilty she feels for wishing to be left alone, then getting her wish. And it's all her fault. And she's so terrible. And she did this to everyone. And over and over and over and over...
I actually do think the plot of Long Live the Pumpkin Queen had potential. I loved seeing the other holiday realms as Sally ventures to find help and a solution to this problem. I definitely loved this idea of a long-forgotten door to an ancient realm. That was all fun and cool, and of course it's up to Sally to save the whole world. Again though, because if you recall, she also technically saved Christmas.
Where Long Live the Pumpkin Queen completely lost me and ventured into "oh hell no" territory was with a new origin story for Sally. I love Sally. I wanted to know more about her past, but I did not want this re-imagined weirdness. Does it make sense? Kind of, but only because the author was trying to convince us that it makes sense. Does it ring true? Not to me. Not at all. I didn't like it one bit. It also introduces a confusing time line that doesn't add anything to either story.
I can't help but wonder who the audience for this book is. The obviously answer would be fans of The Nightmare Before Christmas, but I don't think that's entirely true. Diehard fans like me are likely to be annoyed at the changes. It's a classic that simply shouldn't be touched, so any attempt at a follow up or prequel is going to fail. Maybe more casual fans will get more out of it, or perhaps those who just want a fun fantasy story? Although, I don't think the latter would have enough context to get fully immersed in this world without knowledge of the source material.