Okay, I’ll admit when I first heard of the Descendants movies involving Kristen Chenworth way back in 2014, I had made fun of it. Especially the unimagenative names given to the children of the characters. I mean Evie – Evil Queen, Jay- Jafar, it just seemed so lazy.

But then I read the first Isle of the Lost book by Melissa De La Cruz. It immediately captured my imagination/ Not only in how she described the almost dystopian kill or be killed mentality of an island filled with the worst villains imaginable, and their kids living in various states of neglect, abuse and starvation. But also the good side, Auradon where all the Disney heroes live happily ever after in a democratic bucreatic kingdom which has its own problems as Prince Ben (of Beauty and the Beast) finds out.

The strength lies in the Core 4, Mal, Jay, Carlos and Evie who each face their own abusive parents, have those pedestals broken and learn friendship is better than living up to an evil legacy. It is a steady growrh, highlighting their flaws and their strengths (though because they’re among villains, it would be vice versa like compassion is considered a flaw while greed is praised etc.) and their journey to find Maleficent’s dragon staff provides plenty of time for them to bond and give each a chance to shine.

As it is a prequel, De La Cruz isn’t hampered in making things exactly like the movie. While she has had a look at the script so it isn’t a completely different medium, she has liberty give each quirks, a certain voice, explain the geography of the Isle and Auradon, show the Isle’s school Hex Hall and provide plenty of cameos from Disney characters (Gaston teaches wrestling, Gothel teaches Selfies and Vanity etc.) and their spawn-Anthony Tremine was a particular treat that I wished he appeared more.

Then the movie came, and it was a hit which necessitates a sequel both for the book and movie.

Now that the movies are churning out, De La Cruz is obligated to keep it within the universe, and thus the side adventures are kept in a limited scale since readers know no one is going to die or anything big will change because that would be dismissed in the movie. However, De La Cruz is also obligated to keep things within continuity and use her books to explain plot holes, change things she had previously written to be more in line with the movie (including killing off cameo characters) and having to forgo plot/character development in order to set up the next movie.

Which brings up whole new continuity problems.

That’s why I always hold Isle of the Lost as the best book in the series as the first books tend to be, mainly because it still holds the wonder of a new creative world (and perhaps a bit of nostalgia since it’s been 7 years now) but it isn’t bogged down by movie.

Now here’s the thing, while I enjoy keeping things in continuity, when does it begin to interfere with author creativity? Is it really that important since the things that occur in the book have no bearing on the movies? Would it be better to consider it a different continuity all together or does everything have to be connected?
Answer below or comment with your own thoughts.