Apparently this is Princess Week so it’s good timing to post my thoughts on the story I never knew I wanted. The Nightmare Before Christmas is one of those movies that was a pretty excellent standalone with a creepy aesthetic and memorable characters that you think its fine as a standalone. But this book expands on the character of Sally revealing new worlds and potential in the Halloween Town universe.

Sally had a pretty good story in the movie going from helpless prisoner to engineering her escape to finding true love with Jack but it’s not a creepily ever after as the movie implies.

Ernshaw kicks the book off with a grand event, Jack and Sally’s wedding, which immediately drew me in. She gave some space to show the caring supportive love between the two while ominously forshadowing that “Sally could never imagine being this happy again.”

And she’s right. After a magical, heart infused honeymoon in Valentine’s Town, Sally’s doubts come in full force. Halloween is approching and now that she’s the pumpkin queen alongside Jack’s king, she is thrust with new responsibilities and expectations by the citizens that once ignored her.

It is a great inner conflict that logically explores Sally’s journey after the events of the movie. In a short period of time, Sally has been jumped from one position as helpless prisoner and thrust into a new one as the Pumpkin Queen. She hasn’t had time to explore who she is just as a person or rag doll in this case. And now she’s stuck with the expectation of being queen, a good queen when she doesn’t quite know how to do that, or more importantly feel queenly enough.

So after a harrowing coronation fitting Sally runs off, she just wants alone time, she doesn’t want things to change, she doesn’t want to change and then she and Zero stumble upon a mysterious new door. A sleep-inducing door that when Sally wakes up everyone else in Halloweentown is covered in sand and dead asleep. Sally accidentally released a monster. . . And now she got exactly what she wished for, to be alone.

And worse, as she journeys to the other Holiday realms, she finds that the monster, the Sandman struck there too so now she must journey to the Sandman’s home realm, DreamTown.

And then. . . well everything after that is a bit of a spoiler so I’ll leave it at that.

As for my thoughts, it was an excellent book that gave Sally some more character development and spotlight as she fights the eerie Sandman to save the world from the dream-stealer miser. Seriously, I cannot emphasize how eerie Ernshaw makes the Sandman with his menacing sweet lullaby, the slow floating through town and the transitions between sinster and lulling. A truly creepy antagonist.

Also I found it well done how Ernshaw took the time to showcase how sweet and supportive Sally and Jack’s relationship is in order to make it more crushing when he is put to a dead sleep. While it would have been nice to have some of that Jack Skellington creativity, it was the best choice in order to challenge Sally. Though on another point I was impressed by how Ernshaw so immersively described how in love they were. That and all the sweets and romantic mood in their honeymoon room in Valentine’s Town I was beginning to wonder, Is she implying what I think she’s implying? Is this going to fade into what I think. . .

It didn’t and perhaps my mind is in the gutter from all the romances I had been reviewing but still I’m impressed that Ernshaw made me believe that it would happen between a skeleton and a ragdoll in Disney-approved book.

Furthermore, Ernshaw imaginatively describes each world, Halloween Town’s ghoulish excitment over horror and gore, Valentine’s Town and its pink romanticism and chocolate rivers, St. Patrick’s Town’s endless greens and rainbows etc. etc. They each have their own cultures like Dream Town residents speaking in rhyme, the leperchauns are more concerned with gold than the Sandman, etc. It makes each world distinct, unique and real as Sally experiences them.

And Ernshaw is wholeheartedly dedicated to putting the reader in this world from Sally describing how the leaves (that stuff her ragdoll state) swirl within her when she’s scared, guilty etc. instead of saying “her breath caught in her throat.” It’s those little details that make the story that more immersive.

Though sometimes Ernshaw gets a bit too into the description that I almost lose the action from the trees. But that technique was also effective in making the Sandman creep up on the reader like a good horror story.

I enjoyed how Sally swings between courage and sliding back to fear, it’s very relatable and asks questions about change, identity and taking control of the role that you’re put into without sacrificing who you are. Also Queen Elizabeth unexpectedly gives Sally a much-needed boost to her confidence crisis. So that’s fun!

Alhough I can’t spoil what happens in Dream Town, Ernshaw does a good job in building suspense and implied red herrings that made me wonder if Dream Town’s governers were really on the side of good or not.

Additionally, Ernshaw adds lots of throwbacks to the movie mentioning Lock, Shock and Barrrel, revealing just how Dr. Finklestein “created” Sally and building on Sally’s perchent for deadly botany. It’s all delightful especially as the latter ties into the bonus content of the B&N edition. It’s a few pages of Sally’s Book of Potions, Home Remedies and Apothocary Cures. While clearly not applicable for real life as ingredients include goblin glob and swamp mist, it’s a cute addition cute addition that fits Sally’s interests.

Long Live the Pumpking Queen is wonderful continuation that will sure to delight fans of The Nightmare Before Christmas. 5 skelatons!