"Long Live the Pumpkin Queen" was such an amazing read. I had not gotten a chance to read this book before Halloween but I did get a chance to read this before Christmas and I am so happy I did. While I enjoyed this book. I will say the writing seemed a bit amateur but I am sure with time the authors writing will get 10 times better. While I had a problem with the writing, Shea does an amazing job characterizing the characters we know and love! I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and would recommend this to anyone that loves the Nightmare Before Christmas movie and wants to continue the story.

I've never seen the Nightmare before Christmas. I know shocker. But I did enjoy this sequel focusing on Sally. But not enough to actually watch the movie.

I really wanted to like this book, but it diverts so much away from the original story. While I was excited to learn more about Sally, it felt like this book upended everything we knew about her. Maybe younger fans who aren’t so attached to the movie would enjoy this more, but as a long time Nightmare Before Christmas fan, it left me just confused and underwhelmed.

We really liked the idea and the chance to explore further into the world of Nightmare Before Christmas, but the plot is pretty stereotypical of the "what happens after the happy ending??" and really leans into some of those plot tropes.

Long Live the Pumpkin Queen took a really good idea and premise and unfortunately didnt fully deliver on the promise. I have always longed to see the other worlds behind the doors in the trees and the beginning didnt disappoint with the descriptions of the Valentines Day land. However i just found the rest a little slow and lacking. It definitely reads more like a middle grade than a YA novel, which i think does make the story suffer a little. Still, it was a fun look a the world of the characters post movie.

I really wanted to like this one because The Wicked Deep by Shea Earnshaw was one of my favorite atmospheric reads and at first this one was interesting, but it quickly got exhausting. I really liked the anxiety representation through Sally but at the same time, her worries about being queen were mentioned nearly every paragraph and it was just too much. Similarly, I really liked the silliness and illogical things that Halloweentown people did and it definitely had the same vibes as the movie but after just a few chapters it felt frantic and it wasn't enjoyable to read. It also took a quarter of the way through the book to really get into the actual story and that was just too long for me, especially given the length of the overall book. Mostly, I just felt like this was okay.

I really enjoyed returning back to the world of Jack Skellington and Sally. This picks up right after Sally and Jack are married. I definitely couldn’t stop reading this to see where it was going. This is super cute. Sally has to save all of the different holiday and human worlds from the sandman. She finds out more of her origin. Definitely more of a middle grade book instead of YA in my opinion but still good!
*thank you to NetGalley for an arc in exchange for a review.

3.5 stars. This was a fun way to expand on the world of Nightmare Before Christmas and gave more depth to Sally as a character. I think the characters feel real, and the world exploring is a lot of fun. I think this would go over really well for Nightmare super fans

OMG OMG OMG ! I couldn’t contain my excitement when I recieved this book! I am a massive Disney nightmare before Xmas fan and ugh! This is giving me all the feels! I love spin-off books that are still relevant to the world that the series is in and this was not an exception. This was such a cute fast read! Prefect October or December read!

I really enjoyed this book. I hope the author continues to write more books in the future. I can't wait to see what the author releases in the future.

**I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review***

Overall, I can easily say that I enjoyed this book. I was super excited when it was first announced and finally getting to read it was not a disappointment.

[My only qualm about it was the lack of familiarity? It feels hard to describe, but I wanted to see a bit more of the Nightmare that we are familiar with. I wanted more time with the setting, and the characters, that we have come to love. While I loved finally getting into Sally and her past more and seeing new places in the world, I just longed for a bit of the familiar. Maybe instead of having a single book, this story could have been drawn out as a duology or series, instead of cramming it all into one novel. Sally's discovery of her past and the adventures in the other holiday worlds could have been more drawn out and less rushed/forced. (hide spoiler)]

Sally is the happiest she’s ever been, now that she’s Jack’s new bride. She is unsure of how well she will do as queen even though Jack reassures her. After their honeymoon travels, Sally ventures into Dream Town and accidentally leaves the door open. A monster travels to the different towns causing everyone to sleep. Even her beloved Jack, the Pumpkin King, won’t wake up. Sally feels guilty for causing this problem, especially because she had wished to be alone since she felt too inadequate to be queen. She goes to Dream Town hoping for the community to help her bring the monster, the Sandman, back but no one wants to talk about him. Then she’s summoned to the Governor’s house and her world changes. The descriptions of other towns are wonderful and fun! Each holiday has a town themed around its holiday. Dream Town is all about cozy sleep with its lavender crops, Dream Sand factory and Lullaby Library. I love the description of Dream Sand: a blend of stardust, moonbeams, and a pinch of yawns. Such a cozy, fun read with a bit of suspense and a nice twist! 4 stars!

No swearing.
Violence: PG- the Sandman ripping apart rag dolls and forcing everyone to sleep.
Mature content: PG- kidnapping Sally out of her window when she was twelve.

Man oh man oh man oh man. I wanted to love this. I really did. I am the biggest Nightmare Before Christmas fan on the planet. The cover was beautiful, and getting more from Sally's perspective? Yes! Sign me up!

The story was simple enough. Disney books do this thing where the protagonist is suddenly a queen, but they don't want to be queen, so they spend the entire book dealing with that. That was fine. Sally is a timid character, anyway, and I can buy that she wouldn't want to be thrust into the spotlight. She and Jack chose to get married two weeks before Halloween, his busiest time of the year, so they didn't really have much page-time together at all. Sally accidentally opens the door to Dream Town, releasing the Sandman, causing everybody across all of the holiday realms and the human realm to fall asleep, and of course, only Sally can wake them. It was a cute, simplistic story. My biggest problem with this book was the writing style.

Every so often, an author can write a sentence following another sentence that isn't really a sentence. For emphasis. (Like that). This book is 50% real sentences, 50% emphasis sentences that aren't real sentences. I wasn't even sure this book had an editor before I read the author's thank you to the editor in the acknowledgements. It drove me crazy.

All in all, a cute story with poor writing, but I'm not sure how much kids and teens will care. It would definitely make a cute movie.

Sally is the newly crowned Pumpkin Queen of Halloween Town, but she’s finding it an uncomfortable fit. As happy as she is to be married to Jack Skellington, she’s not prepared to be the regal queen the town expects. When her exploring takes her to a new door outside the circle of holiday trees, she accidentally releases a monster that threatens not only her own world, but all the holiday towns and the human world as well. I received a free e-ARC through NetGalley from the publishers at Disney Press. Trigger warnings: kidnapping/captivity.

There are so many things wrong with this, it’s difficult to know where to start. I’m a longtime lover of The Nightmare Before Christmas, as I suspect are most of the people who would pick up a book like this, so let me just get this out: prepare yourself for disappointment. Of all the things I hate about this book, I hate most what’s been done to Sally’s character. Our quiet but brave ragdoll, who almost single-handedly saves the day in the film, is reduced to a weeping doormat in this novel. All the angst. Truly, I’m not sure a chapter goes by where she isn’t crying and feeling sorry for herself, and that’s not the Sally that I love–the Sally who stands up to Dr. Finkelstein and Oogie Boogie when everyone else is too afraid to go near him. By comparison, the new villain isn’t frightening or compelling at all.

I’m not over that character assassination, but let’s move on. If there was something I did like, it was a chance to see a bit more of this world and the other towns. However, there’s an inherent issue with this novel: it’s marketed as a YA book, but it’s based on a children’s story and film. It’s awkward as all get out to try to transition from that, and most of the world-building is as juvenile as one might expect. While that’s charming and quirky in media that’s made for children, one has to assume it’s adult and YA readers reading this novel, and it comes over grating and simplistic. What might work quite well for a sequel film doesn’t work at all here. It’s also wildly overwritten, and I’m not a fan of Ernshaw’s sloppy, overabundant descriptions. Disappointing across the board.

I review regularly at brightbeautifulthings.tumblr.com.

Being a huge lover of the Nightmare Before Christmas movie, I was excited to see a story centered on the heart of Halloween Town, Sally. This extension of the film that casts Sally as the protagonist was interesting. It mimicked the curiosity that Jack Skellington had in the original film and follows the consequences of Sally's own choice to explore past the boundaries of Halloween Town. It was a page-turner that I enjoyed from beginning to end!

A fun deep-dive into a beloved character from one of my favorite movies of all time. I really enjoyed this take on Sally; I think it added a lot of interesting depth to her character. While the book didn't quite contain the magic that the movie does, it still felt really atmospheric and I loved the time I spent in this world. I would definitely recommend for fans of the original movie or anyone looking for a fun, spooky, atmospheric read.

This doesn’t feel like the Sally that I know and love from the original movie. She just seems off. The story seemed really long and not too interesting, which is so disappointing given the wonderful place this story is set in. I feel like so much could have been done with this story and it felt like it was going nowhere.

I listened to the audiobook while reading along and some areas weren’t verbatim to the novel, which was odd. I did think the narrator did a nice job trying to grasp that voice and character of Sally but since I listen to this at a faster speed, the breaths really got to me, which was distracting.

Overall, I just can’t imagine a child’s attention being kept entertained while reading this.

This was a cute continuation of the Nightmare Before Christmas story. It takes place just after Sally and Jack are married. Jack introduces Sally to the grove where the door to the other holidays are, and they have a nice night out in the land of Valentines. Unfortunately, Sally is feeling very insecure in her new role as the Pumpkin Queen.

Upon returning to Halloweentown, Sally becomes overwhelmed and runs off into the forest and stumbles on an ancient door, accidently leaves it open and releases the Sandman into Halloweentown (and then rest of the holidays and the mortal world!)

This was a sweet, fast read. Sally finds a bit out about her history and she find her voice as Queen (and herself)..

Thank you to NetGalley for providing and ARC in exchange for an honest review.

As a lover of Shea Ernshaw's books, I had to pick this up. I am in love with Sally and she's a very relatable character. I enjoyed this book. I think that the author did a really good job expanding on Tim Burton's world of The Nightmare Before Christmas. So if you love that movie you would also love this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with this ARC and audiobook.


Description from NetGalley:
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 -- albeit gilded -- 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?

I loved Nightmare Before Christmas growing up, so I was excited when I saw this book was coming out. I think it is fun. I don’t think that I need it. It was nice to see Sally find out where in the holiday worlds she fits in now that she is the queen of Halloween. It was interesting to see how the different worlds are portrayed. It is well written. It just wasn’t quite what I as an adult was looking for. I enjoyed it but don’t think I’d reread it.

Overall: 3/5