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I created a lemon8! I don’t use insta and this is perfect replacement for it. Come follow me 🖤

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𝙵𝚎𝚋𝚛𝚞𝚊𝚛𝚢 𝟷, 𝟷𝟿𝟸𝟸 𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝙳𝚒𝚊𝚛𝚒𝚎𝚜 𝙾𝚏 𝙵𝚛𝚊𝚗𝚣 𝙺𝚊𝚏𝚔𝚊, 𝟷𝟿𝟷𝟺-𝟷𝟿𝟸𝟹

[ID: February 1. Nothing, merely tired. END ID]

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conversations between a full moon and a heavy heart

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LONG LIVE THE PUMPKIN QUEEN

REVIEW

At just over 300 pages, “Long Live the Pumpkin Queen” is a young adult fiction novel by Shea Ernshaw and serves as the official sequel to Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas. My qualifications for writing this review include a BA in English, my work as a full-time English Language Arts instructor, and a strong understanding of the source material. In order to provide a thorough analysis of the text, commentary on characters, plot points and settings are necessary, so spoilers are unavoidable beyond this point.

The story begins shortly after the events of the film (a few weeks before the Halloween of the following year), and Jack and Sally are married atop the iconic Spiral Hill. Though she is excited about this union with Jack, Sally becomes quickly overwhelmed by the new “Pumpkin Queen” title she carries. Fans of the film will recognize Sally’s partiality to avoid the attention of a crowd, and I appreciate that the author maintained the personality traits these characters.

During this first section of the story, readers are given an immersive look into one of the seven holiday trees in the Hinterlands, as the two rulers of Halloween Town enjoy their honeymoon in Valentine’s Town. This is a defining moment for Sally, because it allows to see a side of whimsy and wonderment that does not exist in Jack - a point that one cannot fully understand until the final section of the novel. While Jack is fascinated by Valentine’s Town (comparable to an archetypal tourist), Sally feels safe, happy, and loved - even in this strange world - hinting that Sally does not quite feel at home in Halloween Town. This point is further proved as she mentions that home is with Jack, wherever that may be. After learning that Sally is not originally from Halloween Town, I was quite impressed by the subtle yet pithy foreshadowing.

After their return to Halloween Town, Sally is immediately overwhelmed by dress fittings, crown try-ons, and planning the All Hallows Eve party, and this experience causes Sally to find a moment of solace in the Hinterlands (followed by Zero). There, she discovers another section of the grove and a tree with the door to Dream World covered in brambles and vines. Zero prevents her from entering the door, and I was thankful that this book did not follow the same “Halloween Town resident enters a strange door” from the film. Instead, Sally leaves the door open and unwittingly releases the Sandman into Halloween Town. On her return, Sally finds that everyone in Halloween Town is lost in a sleep from which they cannot wake.

What follows is a repetitive and unnecessary “mini adventure” as Sally explores all of the holiday realms just to confirm that the Sandman had put everyone else to sleep. While I didn’t mind the idea of her entering and exiting these other holiday realms so quickly, I did not appreciate the redundancy of the events, as each and every land - and her descent into them - was described in detail. Having the scenery, scents, and sounds seven different worlds described one after the other (paired with the panicked narration of Sally) was an unsuccessful juxtaposition of pacing; especially when only one of these realms - Dream Town - would be revisited in the story. I also found it out of place for Sally to visit the human world at all, but this did not take away from the enjoyment of the novel.

Repetition proved annoying in another form as well: Ernshaw’s overuse of the leaves in Sally’s body (her stuffing, as the cotton was replaced by Dr. Finkelstein) as an expression of her emotionality. Every few pages, some variation of “the leaves in my chest rustle” would appear. After it’s fifth appearance, I found myself skipping past the lines. However, I understand that this is a young adult novel, and teen readers may benefit from examples of descriptive language being repeated.

A common complaint found in other reviews of Ernshaw’s sequel is her choice to make Sally a former resident of Dream Town. As described in the text, the twelve-year-old Sally was stolen from her two rag doll parents by Dr. Finkelstein, brought to Halloween Town where he gave her a forgetting potion, replaced the cotton in her body with dead leaves, and convinced her that he created her. Technically speaking, this does not alter the lore provided by the source material because more information is provided about her past instead of changing it. Since I am a big fan of The Nightmare Before ChristmasI was sure to pay attention to and be critical of any details that might have changed the already-established plot. I am happy to say that this novel does no such thing. In fact, this works to confirm her personality from the film, as Sally never seemed to fit in with the other residents of Halloween Town. For example, while the others were rejoicing in the horrific Christmas they created, Sally felt it was wrong and actively tried to prevent it. Learning that she is a rag doll from Dream Town whose role would be to lull children to sleep helped to further establish her motivations as a character. And though Fans might feel conflicted over the nature of this backstory (and the negative light Finkelstein now finds himself in), I personally loved following Sally through her self-discovery.

My final criticism is in regards to the Sandman himself. I would imagine that when providing a canonical sequel to a well-known piece of media, the task of imagining a new character should not be taken lightly. I do not know the image of the Sandman Ernshaw had in mind while writing, as it does not come through in the writing. From description, the reader is unable to describe the Sandman beyond “an old, tired man who floats.” I struggled imagining the Sandman as a character from Burton’s world, and that is disappointing.

In all, I found this quite an enjoyable read and will certainly read again. Despite the grievances listed above, I believe that Ernshaw was successful in delivering a satisfying sequel to the beloved story. The ending was endearing and heart-felt, leaving readers satisfied and that much more obsessed with the world’s most famous rag doll heroine. For the Disney company to provide the sequel as a novel is something I absolutely adore, and would rate the novel eight out of ten stars.

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Summary:

Despite Shea Ernshaw’s occasional redundancy and momentary pacing issues, her novel “Long Live the Pumpkin Queen” serves as an exciting and successful canonical sequel to Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas. Fans will appreciate that the characters and lore alike maintain their pre-established qualities, and many will enjoy the truths learned about Sally’s past. To provide the sequel in the form of a novel is a creative endeavor in itself, and I enjoyed it thoroughly enough to want to read it again.

8/10 ⭐️

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Euripides’ Alcestis (tr. Richmond Lattimore)

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Let’s ring out 2020 keeping its most important reminder in mind, shall we?

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I can feel this so deep in me...

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December 12th 2020

Final Exam Crunch Day #1

The finals studying has begun. This year I have three papers, and a final exam. I made a schedule and then immediately became overwhelmed by the amount of stuff I have to do everyday. Why I didn’t start earlier is the question of my life.

Anyway, the goal today is to finish watching lectures for the last unit of neurobiology, make the according study guides, and possibly fit in some Indian philosophy readings and essay editing.

Currently reading: all the PowerPoint lecture slides I neglected :/

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27/10/2020 | 42 & 43 / 100 Days of Productivity

I've been so swamped Ive barely had a chance to breathe. It's just wake up, work, eat, work, dance, play among us, sleep. I have 1 of the 3 essays written, just need to cut out about 300 words, and one about 1/4 written, and this morning I'm just starting on the research for the last one

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“The moment you feel like you have to prove your worth to someone is the moment you absolutely and utterly have to walk away.”

— Alyssia Harris (via surqrised)

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Vladimir Nabokov, letter to his wife Véra, Letters to Véra (ed. Brian Boyd & trans. Olga Voronin)

[Text ID: “I love you. Without end.”]

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“I think part of the reason why we hold so tight is because we fear something so great won’t happen twice”

— unknown (via hatin)

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October notes 🎃🖊

#notes #exam notes #lecture notes #school notes #study motivation #studyblr #studying #studyspo #study notes #studyspiration #studywithme #university #pens #sharpie #october #candles #spooky #fall #autumn

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02.10.20

studying for yet another literature exam (this time on sylvia plath's ariel and pat barker's regeneration) ft. some pretty dried flowers a friend gave to me a while ago <3

♪ 今日のおすすめ: projector - EDEN

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