Now I’m not talking about the junior novelizations of movies and tv show episodes. I’m talking about books that seek to expand the universe and give side characters their time in the limelight like the dozens of Star Wars books.

However, I never read or seen the full Star Wars trilogy so I don’t have the knowledge to discuss that.

I’m more thinking along the lines of Monster High’s Goulfriends Forever series. I was only 10 when it came out and immediately hooked on the cool designs and puns on famous monsters. I devoured all the webisodes and was so psyched for this book series when it came out. It expanded on the world inside, explored these side characters that are rarely given the limelight in the webisodes with unique backstories, even exes and secret dads plus an underlying mystery beneath it all. It was a great continuation of it all.

However, such tie-ins don’t always work. The YA Monster High series by Lisi Harrison was critiqued for its original character that stole the spotlight, the inclusion of too much human high-school drama and hijinks rather than embracing the freaky fabulous monsters and just not fitting in with the tone of the original.

However, others enjoyed the book for being a more mature, high school take on the characters, a darker and edgier alternate universe if you will.

So instead of the age-old question of whether tie-ins are a souless cash grab to make people buy more stuff, I ask should tie-ins honor the original, adding to the universe and sticking with the original essence and tone of the original content? Or should it explore the original in new creative ways and allow the author to put their personal stamp on it?

Or should it just be used to do the crossovers we all wanted because doing a movie would take too much money and Mattle politics.

Put your thoughts in the comments below!