#lltpq spoilers

[tnbc-thoughtsandheadcanons]

As a fan of LLTPQ + Megan Shepherd’s novel I’m personally excited for what the sequel novel. Do you have any headcanons for what it possibly could about? Also I love your blog!

I'm so excited, too!! I loved Megan Shepherd's novel and her writing, I can't wait to see her sequel to Long Live the Pumpkin Queen!

Personally, with the way LLTPQ ended, I think the next novel *should* either be about the new Holiday Worlds that Jack and Sally uncover + explore, and/or about them starting a family and what that brings to Halloween Town + the holidays.

I've previously made a post for what I also hope to see in the next continuation:

[tnbc-thoughtsandheadcanons]

Well, it's not a comic, but a book recently released in the Disney Twisted Tales series, which have the premises of 'what-ifs' starring the female leads of Disney movies as the protagonists of the books.

Also, hate to correct on this again, but in Long Live the Pumpkin Queen, Sally was the long-lost daughter of governors of Dream Town, not a princess from a Kingdom! There's a whole plot point in the book of Dream Town abolishing their monarchy and banishing their prior King. It definitely still makes Sally born into riches and privileged, but I just want to make sure that's clear.

I'll try not to Spoil much about Sally's Lament since it released only 4 days ago, but the book is more focused on a "twisted"/darker take of Christmas Town (hence 'Twisted Tales), so Sally's discovery of it is a bit more darker than how Jack's went. She does go on a journey of her own initially, but (biggest thing to a Spoiler I'll say here), she and Jack ultimately go on the adventure to Christmas Town together, and he's the only one she tells about it for a reason early on in the book.

I myself and others are a bit miffed on some of Sally's characterization in there though, a sentiment I think you'll share if/when you read the book. I have a post written about it that I plan to release soon. But this tale didn't really retcon anything for Nightmare to the level that LLTPQ did - the story is much different than how it played out in the movie.

TNBC showerthought #10: Sally is her own Doll

((OOC: So I saw because of @tnbc-thoughtsandheadcanons that there's a new comic coming out that's a 'what if' if Sally had been the one to find the holiday doors and not Jack. I'll admit the idea intrigues me...but I'm a little cautious.

Now's not the time to go into it but I get a little peeved with how Disney is utilizing fan-fic ideas and concepts like AUs and mecha crossovers in their spinoff material. But, besides that fear, I'm cautious for another reason. I'm noticing a lot more stuff trying to feature Sally more and more. While I like that, I'm also kind of annoyed with it.

Among the many problems I have with "Long Live the Pumpkin Queen", one of them is I feel like they're trying to make Sally more of a female alt to Jack, rather than her own unique character. LLTPQ had to retcon Sally into being a princess from another kingdom the way Jack is already a 'King'. Which, to ME is deeply insulting.

Part of what makes Sally impressive is that she is 'just' a ragdoll. She was created, not born or 'died', and she also happens to be smarter than her creator and even the king of her town. There doesn't need to be some explanation for her being the way she is and that's what's cool about her. It's very, Ozian, for lack of a better word. It's such a cute idea of an inanimate-object-brought-to-life becoming a ruler and being thought of as their own person. It's cute and even a little empowering in a way.

While I'm not scared that this new comic will retcon anything like LLTPQ did (really, it's supposed to, given that it's an AU), I'm still worried that this new comic will give Sally the exact same reaction Jack has to Christmas and have the plot of the movie try and go on but with Sally in Jack's place...and I really hope that's not what happens.

Sally is not Jack. That's what's adorable about her. That's what we the audience love about her and that's what Jack falls in love with her at the end for. Sally wouldn't do the things Jack does with Christmas because Sally is her own person and her situation and social status is different than Jack.

AUs of this kind really kind of put into perspective the kind of characters you're working/messing with. The whole reason the story of TNBC happens at all is because Jack is the kind of person he is while he finds Christmas; extroverted, peppy, self-absorbed, ostentatious and manic depressive. Jack is the king and everybody wants his approval and attention even if he thinks no one actually listens to him. The only reason Halloween ends up doing Christmas at all is because Jack is the king and is used to doing what he wants and getting his citizens in on his plans.

If Sally finds Christmas Town or any other holiday world and comes to her own self-discovery, she better not go back and try and tell the people of Halloween about it. Sally's whole deal in the first half of the movie is she doesn't want to live with Dr. Fink; she's trying to escape. She'd probably stay in the Holiday worlds because she has no one back home desperately looking for her besides Dr. Fink. She wants to be away. If anything she has a way better reason than Jack or anyone else in town to run away. And, if Dr. Fink did make a big deal and ask people to help him look and then THAT's how Halloween first finds Christmas-- that would be something. I'd really like to see an alt. Jally-romance take that direction; Jack starts a search party for Dr. Fink's missing secretary he's seen once or twice, he follows a party personally to the outskirts of Halloween land, finds the doors and Sally and SHE'S the one to introduce HIM to the other holiday worlds. That'd be so cool!

tl;dr: I hope the 'what if' comic has Sally functionally going on her own journey and being a different character and not her functionally going through the beats of the story Jack did but just Sally in place of Jack. Sally is not Jack.

))

[dragon-cookies]

So after reading Shea Earnshaw's Long Live the Pumpkin Queen, I knew I had to draw Valentines Town leader Ruby Valentino. She is a lovely lady who hit quite a few of my standards. I tried to design her as close to her canonical description as possible, while tossing in a few personal headcanons of my own

[shlofolina]

Jack stirs beside me, reaching out a hand to stroke his fingers through my hair. “Good morning, wife,” he says softly.

[tnbc-thoughtsandheadcanons]

Ahem. *Taps mic*

Albert and Greta are the first Nightmare before Christmas characters to have canonically fucked.

Thank you.

*Walks off stage as tomatoes are thrown at me*

[waifines]

Oh this is so beautiful.

Dream Town Sally from Long Live the Pumpkin Queen! 🎃👑🌙✨

[tnbc-thoughtsandheadcanons]

The fact that Jack Skellington visited the other Holiday Worlds post-movie, to meet their leaders and get to know their towns....EXCEPT Valentine's Town because he wanted to save that specifically for Sally...because he KNEW the holiday was about love and romance...and chose going THERE for their honeymoon so he can experience it with *her* for the first time...

[tnbc-thoughtsandheadcanons]

Hello! Very happy you liked the novel, it truly is the best continuation yet! My question is, without any spoilers, overall what did you think of Jack & Sally’s relationship in the novel compared to what their love was in the film? ❤️

Hello! I'm so glad you enjoyed it as well, anon! <3

I think Long Live the Pumpkin Queen did an outstanding job with Jack and Sally's relationship. I agree with Shea Ernshaw(the author) that we've never really seen them take the next step since Nightmare. There's no media that mentioned them being married or even living together prior to LLTPQ. But the book goes above and beyond with giving us the Pumpkin Queen title we've been waiting to see on Sally for a long time. :)

Their romance in the original film is unmatched; we saw two dearest friends who felt trapped and wanted more out of their lives - only to find that in each other. We watched them come together in the movie, but in the novel, we read about them starting their eternity with one another and finding a new purpose **together**. It builds greatly on the movie's premise for their relationship, in my opinion! To know what they'll be doing and what they eventually want out of their marriage.

[tnbc-thoughtsandheadcanons]

Sally snatching the crown off the Queen like

Can’t believe Sally killed the queen herself

[tnbc-thoughtsandheadcanons]

Long Live the Pumpkin Queen: Dr. Finkelstein & Sally

There's a lot of heavy criticism circulating Dr. Finkelstein’s character in the novel. It’s completely understandable as to *why* - he and Sally are the only two major characters to have their stories/pasts completely rewritten, for Long Live the Pumpkin Queen. And if you’ve grown up with these characters & their tales, you’d be taken by surprise with the spin the novel took regarding their relationship.

Spoilers to Long Live the Pumpkin Queen below.

It’s revealed in LLTPQ that Sally is a ragdoll who was born, and her parents are Albert and Greta, the governors of Dream Town. She is part of a Rag Doll species who serve as dream weavers – in the human world lulling children and adults to sleep. The Rag Dolls we meet are the Governors, who tell Sally she was kidnapped as a child, taken through her bedroom window, by a man with a ‘large head and small eyes’. They show Sally her childhood bedroom, toys, and belongings - which she finds vaguely familiar. 

We later get a confession from Dr. Finkelstein, who claims that he kidnapped Sally from Dream Town and brought her back to Halloween Town, where he gave her a ‘forgetting potion’ so she couldn’t remember her prior family/home. He even replaced her original cotton stuffing with leaves. He did this because he had a book about the Holiday realms, and read about ‘Dream Sand’, wishing to experiment with it. So he went into the woods and found Dream Town. Apparently, he had also been failing to create a Rag Doll daughter of his own at the time, and once he saw Sally, made the decision to take her for himself. 

Greta tells us that they searched for her after she was taken. But Dr. Finklestein was the one to completely block Dream Town’s door, effectively making it a forgotten realm. Jack Skellington is furious with this news and sentences him to 100 years of community service for Dream Town.

…As you can see, it’s a pretty big…rewrite for his character. And Sally. 

In the original Nightmare Before Christmas, I always believed Dr. Finkelstein and Sally were a parody of the classic Frankenstein-and-his-creation tale, where she was brought to life by electricity and assembled by the Doctor himself. But the novel tells us that it was simply a trick - that he was lying to her all along, making her believe he created her. That she is actually a living Rag doll who came from her own species.

In a way, I can understand this from a narrative point of view - it brings a complexity into Dr. Finkelstein and Sally’s relationship, having him be her *literal* captor, someone so swept up in his pride and inventing abilities that he claimed to create something that he didn’t. And it would explain Sally’s feelings of being an outcast in Halloween Town, who couldn’t relate to anyone. It works as a storytelling tool – however, there are also…problems with these concepts. 

First off - the Rag doll species. I'm both fascinated and confused by Albert and Greta. The way the novel words it, Sally was ‘born’, and was once a child who grew to the age of 12 before being taken by Doctor Finkelstein. It’s mentioned Albert has graying hair, so we can assume Rag dolls age. But how can it be that they’re born with stitches, assembled and can tear apart? Or, in their world, does ‘born’ mean stitching a baby? Do they periodically build Sally, or does she age naturally? And how do Rag dolls reproduce? Is there any genetic code to them, or do they simply build each other? 

–The novel doesn’t answer these, so I can’t say. 

Another thing to mention – the book heavily villainizes Dr. Finklestein, despite the Sandman being the antagonist until he gets a redemption(a discussion for another post). We’re simply *told* that Sally was taken, and the Doctor was struggling, desperate to keep her – but we don’t get to see the build leading to that. We don’t read about Finklestein struggling to assemble a daughter, failing with his inventions and creations, where it would drive him to do something as extreme as **kidnapping**. This backstory lacks depth because it doesn’t care to spend more time on the Doctor and his intentions, his past, etc. It paints him in the light of ‘man who kidnapped beloved main character from her family, and kept her captive for the rest of her life while lying to her’ — even though it could’ve held so much more emotional complexity if more time were simply spent on him. We’re only ‘told’, not so much ‘explained’, it feels to me.

Dr. Finkelstein isn’t the hero regarding Sally’s story - he has always been her captor, locking her in her room and discouraging her curiosity with the outside world. He’s overprotective. But he deserved more than being heavily demonized for the sake of shock value.

I am divided, personally - I love Albert and Greta’s characters, the concept of Dream Town and Rag Dolls - but Doctor Finkelstein isn’t a one-dimensional character. I can understand the depth to the story Shea Ernshaw gave him - it’s not a bad one on its own, in my opinion - but it lacks genuity in its writing when treated like an afterthought.

[tnbc-thoughtsandheadcanons]

Long Live the Pumpkin Queen: Complete Review

Here’s my entire review of the LLTPQ sequel novel. In this, I’ll be comparing it to other sequel adaptations like Zero’s Journey, Mirror Moon, and Oogie’s Revenge. I’m also going to take a look at the characters, writing style, and plot. This will be a pretty lengthy review, so let’s get into it!

Spoilers to Long Live the Pumpkin Queen below.

As an overall summary, I adored this novel. I think it’s a worthy continuation to The Nightmare Before Christmas franchise, that expanded on the world-building and character opportunities. For a film that’s nearly 30 years old, we haven’t seen the other Holiday Worlds nor any new characters/villains(until the Zero’s Journey 2018 comic book.) LLTPQ finally sheds light on unexplored aspects of the film we haven’t seen until now.

I’ll be breaking into different segments, starting with:

The Writing

The novel is written in a First-person Point of View, from Sally’s perspective. First POV is not everyone’s cup of tea, but I'm personally neutral. Shea Ernshaw’s writing style is descriptive - she makes sure you know what the Holiday Towns look and smell like, while knowing what’s going through Sally’s head. I share a minor criticism that, since the text is so descriptive, we don’t really get into all that much action until the later portion of the book. It picks up -- but you have to read through a lot of setting description to get to that point.

(Also, Shea describing Halloween Town smelling like ‘black licorice and pumpkin spice’ isn’t the worst thing in the world. Places can have a variety of different smells depending on where you are - I’m sure it has different scents when it rains or the weather changes. This is simply her interpretation, that I felt got overreacted to.)

This is probably obvious, but my heaviest writing complaint is having to read the glorification of Queen Elizabeth II for seven pages(YES, I counted). Considering the controversies, it was uncomfortable reading Sally idolizing her. While Halloween Town is closely mended to the human's world, it almost hits a preternatural line with the Queen in here and the brief mention of climate change. I feel this was Shea’s attempt to throw Nightmare into a modern setting -- but in a questionable way.

There are also some odd choices in the writing, like referring to Jack’s sockets as ‘eyes’ and having Sally literally refer to her ragdoll body a few times (”my soft ragdoll hands” is not my FAVORITE thing I’ve ever read). While I’m not a fan of certain choices, the novel was overall beautifully written, where we get a good understanding of places like Dream Town and Valentine’s Town.

The Characters

Quick links to posts I’ve made, about Sally’s character, as well as her relationship with Dr. Finkelstein.

One of the flaws with this book, in my opinion, has to be Shea’s insistence with rewriting the backstories of Sally and Dr. Finkelstein. This could’ve been done thoughtfully, but she chose to separate her from the Doctor entirely. If you read the links above, you’ll understand why this was a mistake, from my perspective. He’s crucial to her character -- she freed *herself* from him, only to have that invalidated with a “new story”.

I would’ve love to read the difficult process of forgiveness between the Doctor and Sally - or delving into his backstory, explaining to us *why* he made Sally and was so attached to her. Their situation can be looked through the lens of abuse, which would’ve been interesting to explore, how Sally moves on from the Doctor, while he learns to better his ways with this new creation, Jewel. But he’s villainized instead, made into a kidnapper, which sits terribly with me, and many other people. Shea had the opportunity to look into Finkelstein’s character(’fix’ him, if she was insistent), but refused to, in favor of completely separating Sally’s story from him. :/

(Nevermind Jack's friendship with the Doctor being completely dismissed, chalked up to Jack 'never trusting him', despite asking for his help in the movie twice...)

--Besides that, we’re introduced to new characters, including Albert, Greta, the Sandman, and Queen Ruby Valentino. There are minor appearances from the Dream Town citizens and a leprechaun from St. Patrick’s Town. But I’ll focus on the main ones:

Albert and Greta are fantastic characters, governors of Dream Town who helped overthrow the Sandman from his cruel and demanding reign as King. They are also a rag doll species like Sally, explaining they’re Dream Weavers, who help human children fall asleep. However, they’re also presented as her ‘parents’ - which could be a fine idea on its own, if you ignore the whole thing with Dr. Finkelstein. They care about Sally, though I wish they had been held accountable for their actions.

Queen Ruby Valentino is the first new character we meet when Jack and Sally have their honeymoon in her town. I love the description of her appearance(someone taller than JACK) and how she rules her town - I’ve been waiting to see another Holiday Leader. <3 I only wish we could’ve met and seen the other Leaders in detail (besides the small appearance of the Easter Bunny).

The Sandman is the antagonist of the novel - based on a real folklore, except he steals dreams in LLTPQ. He was the King of Dream Town, but banished to the forest after overworking his people. I like his character and how he’s described - though I find it odd Shea decided to give him a redemption. It doesn’t feel like he was held accountable for putting all the Holiday worlds and humans to sleep. I understand the point of his character: he’s suffered the effects of sleep deprivation for a long time, that drove him to seeking dreams and getting rest for himself - so of *course* he felt better after Sally helped him. But why didn’t he face the consequence of his actions, while Dr. Finklestein had to? 🤔 The Sandman nearly wiped out the holidays, since no one could run them while they’re asleep. For something so major, it felt like he was let off easy.

Shea hesitating to do ANYTHING with Jack Skellington's character shows so badly. He doesn't serve much presence beyond fawning over Sally and being swept up in Halloween planning. The original movie was about Jack feeling unhappy with his role as Pumpkin King - surely, he could've offered more to Sally with her situation here..? His role could've been so much larger here, but the potential was never taken...

The Story

LLTPQ’s story is great, for what it is. I love seeing Jack and Sally finally getting married, going on their Honeymoon, preparing for the official role as Pumpkin Queen, facing her insecurities, and going on a journey to save her home as well as the Holiday and Human Worlds. This novel does a great job going into light of her character!

However, the story chose to derail into Sally reuniting with her ‘lost parents’, taking a good chunk of the novel. I feel like the book would be outstanding on its own without these parts/concepts - if you removed and/or replaced them. This major subplot has to be the biggest thing weighing it down. Other fans have come up with better alternatives for Albert, Greta, Sally, and Dr. Finkelstein -- that I feel would've ultimately made a better story.

I adore the new addition to the lore and worldbuilding - revealing Jack Skellington knows children’s fears by heart, and the Hinterlands Forest contains trees to many unexplored doors, that expand the further you go. There are so many holidays, celebrations, and concepts the humans have - it makes sense a magical forest dedicated to them houses so many, that have simply never been opened. I LOVE the idea that Jack and Sally Skellington are the ones to be exploring them - as it was Jack who uncovered the doors to begin with, and inspired their connection in the first place.

As a Sequel

LLTPQ brings us the most as a sequel to The Nightmare Before Christmas, that a continuation *should* do, imo. I go with the idea that follow-ups should do a few things: expand the universe, continue the story, expand on themes, and leave an impact on the franchise. Following these requisites, I think the novel delivers. Here’s why:

Zero’s Journey didn’t bring a new major villain to the franchise, while Mirror Moon introduced evil clones/copies that aren’t new characters. Oogie’s Revenge reuses Oogie Boogie as a villain who is resurrected from the dead(as do the Kingdom Hearts games). Long Live the Pumpkin Queen is the FIRST material to truly give us a new Nightmare villain(although this is up for debate, since The Sandman gets redeemed in the end...)

It’s also the only Nightmare media to show us another Holiday Leader not from the film, Ruby Valentino. If you play Oogie’s Revenge, the Leaders were stuffed in bags and held hostage, but there aren’t any dialogue/models of them, so they’re only in...bags. They return to their worlds, so we don’t see or spend any time with them. While LLTPQ only goes in detail about *one* - it’s more than what we’ve been given before.

(Also, this being the only media bold enough to establish Jack and Sally's martial status...taking the next step with officially crowning Sally...)

LLTPQ continues the story and spends time outside of Halloween and Christmas Town, which we’ve been given plenty of. We learn what the other towns look like and how things work in their worlds. The Epilogue alone expands on TNBC’s universe and gives us an impact to leave with - Jack & Sally exploring these unearthed Holiday Doors, and what that can mean for them + their world.

LLTPQ delivers what a Sequel should, with new world-building, themes characters, a villain and impact - though not being the best in quality, it's delivered more than other adaptations have in comparison. Take what you will.

Additional Thoughts / Comments

The Disney and Tim Burton situation with this book is still quite boggling to me. Disney has wanted a Sally POV sequel for years, and Tim + his team approved everything in this book. He read Shea rewriting Sally’s story, but didn’t step in to make any changes. Which means he must’ve thought the story was fitting or either didn’t care. Which is curious to me. But he’s not the writer behind Sally, so I can’t say I’m surprised. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

This book was once delayed due to supply issues, but has continuously sold out multiple times after its release and repeatedly made it on Best Seller's lists. LLTPQ is succesful. Only time will tell if this'll pass, or Disney feels bold enough to do/want more from this franchise. Tim Burton is caving in - so who knows what more may come.

Overall:

As I said, I personally LOVED this book, how it portrayed Jack & Sally's relationship, and delivered so much as a Sequel. It stands as my favorite continuation thus far - but not without my criticisms and nitpicking with it. I still feel like I have so much more to say about it. But, at the end of day, I highly recommend buying this book and reading it for yourself. I had a blast.

It's unfortunate the author didn't like a character, and had the power/freedom to simply write him off in her interpretation of canon. I'm convinced this detail is what is detouring so many people from the book - the insistence on a backstory rewrite in what's supposed to be a continuation. And that it's done with almost...ignorant intentions...?

This book will remain subjective among fans (hell, even I don't consider most adaptations as 'canon'). But I'm glad I got to read it and thoroughly enjoyed LLTPQ, despite its issues.

[tnbc-thoughtsandheadcanons]

Kinda frustrating to see LLTPQ spoilers being tossed around everywhere and it’s not even officially released yet. & I think it’s unfortunate that’s there’s a few who loudly dislike it and are ruining the experience for the ones who haven’t even had the chance to read it yet by announcing the the same spoilers and telling others just how to feel about it… :-( oh well, but I do appreciate you for tagging spoilers.

The unfortunate thing is Long Live the Pumpkin Queen ended up hitting store shelves early, so it got to some people before preorders did. And early-access reviewers have revealed a little *too much* about the story, so spoilers have been...a lot. We still have a couple days until its official release, which we should keep in mind when posting about it right now.

There are some heavy criticisms going around about the book; the fandom already feels divisive. Anyone can have their negative feelings about the novel, but I think they should've been withheld until its release, so people have had the time to read it and have their own opinions about it.

I'm only halfway through LLTPQ, but I'm going to wait before publicly posting my thoughts(Spoilers tagged, under a 'read more'). I want others to read the novel and form their own opinions/thoughts before sharing mine, so discussions can feel more fair. Right now, I don't want anyone taking my word for it blindly. Fandoms are about variety of opinions and views, after all!

[tnbc-thoughtsandheadcanons]

Long Live the Pumpkin Queen - Sally Skellington

I want to share my thoughts on Sally Skellington in particular, since the novel is focused on her character. The book takes an interesting spin regarding her backstory and dives into her thoughts from a first-person POV. There’s a lot to talk about, so I’ll dive right into it.

Spoilers to Long Live the Pumpkin Queen below.

Throughout the book, we get to read Sally’s personal thoughts on the things and people around her. We know her uncertainty with the role as Pumpkin Queen and all the work that comes with it. She feels overwhelmed by demands and expectations from citizens, such as Helgamine and the Vampire Prince, who insist she wear a crown and a dress made in their image, rather than her own. While she briefly discussed her anxieties with Jack back in Valentine’s Town, she can’t seem to get a private word with him since, as the Mayor pulls him back to their work when she tries to express how she feels.

Overwhelmed with the attention, Sally flees into the Hinterlands forest with Zero. The two stumble upon an abandoned tree with a crescent moon door, which leads to Dream Town, where she learns more about her past and where she truly ‘comes from’ & meets her ‘true family’. I will pause here to get something off of my chest ---

The Pumpkin Queen role.

I have been **dying** to get some insight into how Halloween Town’s monarchy and political systems work, to truly *know* what it is that the Pumpkin Queen does and what Sally contributes to the town. Despite LLTPQ being focused on this EXACT THING, we are NEVER told what it is exactly Sally has to do for the town and how she decides to rule it. Sally stresses about what she has to wear, but we never hear about a Coronation(a ceremony where she gets crowned), or see her in action as THE PUMPKIN QUEEN. Something you’d expect to read when you first pick up the novel!!! The ending mentions Sally feeling more confident and how she changed her looks, but it briefly ends before we get to see her in all her glory!!!

It truly feels like the Pumpkin Queen title, something Sally has stressed about since Page 1 and the reason for all the havoc in the first place, doesn’t matter. I would’ve loved to read about how she rules the town, what she does, and how she and Jack reign together, as King & Queen. But the novel didn’t deliver on this. And we were so close!!! It drives me into a wall!!

---  Continuing with the story, when Sally enters Dream Town, we are introduced to the shocking revelation that the Governors, Albert and Gerta, fellow ragdolls who look like Sally, are actually her parents. Now, Sally isn’t quick to believe this and finds that the technicalities don’t make sense(much like we’re thinking, as readers). She argues against it several times - she’s a ragdoll, assembled by the hands of Dr. Finkelstein in a laboratory  - but the plot insists that she was a child who was kidnapped and brought to Halloween Town. And that Albert and Greta are her true parents.

I already discussed my issues with this shock-reveal in another post of mine. Something worth mentioning is that Sally is the heroine of her story, especially in The Nightmare Before Christmas. She set herself free from the Doctor’s tower several times in the movie, by jumping from the window and poisoning his tea, all to help make things ‘right’ by warning Jack and trying to stop his Christmas in time. She was brave, clever, and stood by what she thought was right, even when she was in the minority about it. Some people argue that this brings less meaning to her backstory, when her major reveal is that she was truly born in ‘riches and luxury’. I agree with this point.

I and many others liked Sally’s original story without this ‘reveal’. She set herself free from somewhere she felt trapped, to inspire others in situations like hers. Arguably, *yes*, she STILL does this, after she was kidnapped -- but it dwindles down to her fighting for freedom and becoming a Queen vs being born under Governors. (For the record, I still like Albert and Greta as characters, just not as her ‘parents’.)

I have seen criticisms about Sally’s alleged ‘woe-is-me’ attitude, and how the book focuses more on her shortcomings than anything else. But one can see this as her having anxiety. Overthinking and constantly worrying are usual symptoms. She later feels guilty for ever running away from her problems, blaming herself and feeling terrible for unleashing the Sandman and not ‘putting up’ with the attention. She’s not inconsiderate with her thoughts and actions, at least. But I will admit - her spending so much time searching for help in the other worlds instead of jumping into action to set things right is out-of-character, seeing as she fogged the town and directly tried to save Santa Claus from Oogie Boogie in the movie. She did all of that by herself -- why couldn’t she do so now?

Some minor nitpicking would be Sally’s quick forgiveness of the Sandman and her parents. Albert and Greta, at one point, promise not to chop down their holiday trees without consulting her first, but end up locking her in a room as they continue to do EXACTLY that. This is terrible considering Sally’s past with being locked away from the outside world, and feeling like a prisoner...eventually, she’s freed - but ends up forgiving them instead of pointing out their cruel behavior and what she’s been through. I think she rightfully deserved being angry and her parents would have to earn her forgiveness, to prove that they *aren’t* like Finkelstein -- but that didn’t happen. :/

(On another note....did Queen Elizabeth II have to be the ONLY role model for Sally in the book? There wasn’t, let’s say, a Queen she read about and looked up to? Perhaps, Ruby Valentino of Valentine’s Town instead? This is still a strange concept that didn’t need a few pages...)

Another concept that wasn’t explored -- Sally’s premonitions. We still don’t have a definitive answer as to where and why she gets them. I *think* there was a small mention of her feeling like things will go wrong, but she doesn’t get an outright presentiment or anything. This could’ve introduced some great concepts, but despite it being a special thing about her character, the novel doesn’t dig any deeper into it. Which was disappointing. There also isn’t a lot of exploration with Sally’s limbs moving on their own. We don’t see it in action or learn if this is a special ability for Rag Dolls - which was also a missed opportunity.

. . .

Let me stress that I still LOVED this novel and I appreciate the attention and deep detail to Sally. However, I think Mirror Moon did a better job showcasing what rulers have to do for Halloween Town, why being Pumpkin Queen is much too stressful of a job for Sally, and showed her getting another visual premonition. We don’t get to see those things in LLTPQ, but the novel was a great coming-of-age story for Sally, where she explored the Holiday Towns and even the Human World on her own. She saved everyone and braved through it -- though less like she did in the movie. (Where she took matters into her own hands right away, while in LLTPQ she spends some time searching for someone else to help her. I’m still hung up on that.)

Also also, I love the engraving on Sally’s wedding ring representing freedom. <3

The novel had some promising leads -- mentioning Finkelstein’s treatment of Sally and how that affects her, but it chose to derail into a ‘lost parents’ backstory instead of focusing more on her present role, being the Pumpkin Queen, and exploring aspects of her character that we still don’t have answers to(her premonitions). She feels like a different person to me in this book - not a bad thing, necessarily, but I feel like LLTPQ missed on some opportunities here.

[tnbc-thoughtsandheadcanons]

Honestly, Pumpkin Queen wasn't high literature by any means, and likely has some glaring issues I didn't (want to) catch, but for what it was, I liked it. It was coherent enough, felt like something that could potentially spin out of the film ending, and didn't load up on only new characters taking the spot light from the classic ones and ignoring them. New and old got its due, and more or less melded well.

One moment in the real world did make me double take (Spoiler free, but you know what I mean if you read it), but I'm glad the book exists, and I'd read it again without hesitation.

Long Live the Pumpkin Queen isn't one of the best novels or even sequel to be written, but at the end of the day, I had a blast reading it. It got me back into the TNBC mood(for better and for worse), and I even plan on re-reading it again.

I recently lost an important loved one to me, and it felt like my whole world changed. LLTPQ brought me happiness in a difficult time in my life, and something to look forward to after my grieving. I'm thankful the book came out when it did -- despite its issues. I enjoyed reading (most of) the novel, which is all I could ask for.