The Nightmare Before Christmas: Long Live the Pumpkin Queen is a 2022 young adult novel by Shea Ernshaw and serves as the sequel to the 1993 stop-motion animated film.
Picking up one year after the first film's events, Sally Finkelstein marries Jack Skellington and becomes Halloween Town's first Pumpkin Queen. Sally finds herself troubled over the implications and wishes to be left alone. After escaping from the invasive denizens, Sally discovers an ancient door hidden deep in the woods lost to time.
After she unwittingly opens it, the mysterious Sandman escapes and he begins to cast sand around Halloween Town making everyone fall into a wakeless sleep. To her horror, Sally realizes that the other holiday towns are in jeopardy because of her mistake. As such, Sally embarks on a journey to save Halloween Town and stop the Sandman's rampage.
The book was released by Disney Press and was released in August 2022.
This novel contains examples of:
- Abstract Eater: The Sandman feeds on the dreams of those he puts to sleep. Unfortunately, this is made into a Horror Hunger that turned him into a monster.
- Adaptational Angst Upgrade: Sally’s new title saddles her to be a more public figure in Halloween Town, much to her dismay. After all of the holiday towns are asleep, Sally now has to grapple with the consequences of her actions and tries to find a way to save them.
- Adaptational Expansion
- Sally takes over as the story’s central protagonist, showing that she isn’t fond of the spotlight. When Halloween Town is fast asleep thanks to The Sandman, it is up to Sally to set things right.
- The rest of the Holiday Towns are given a more in-depth description, as well as their rulers, in Sally’s travels as she tries to find any survivors.
- Similar to Santa Claus' ability to know whether kids have been naughty or nice, Jack Skellington has a supernatural intuition towards people's fears. Sally surmises that The Sandman has a similar intuition, knowing when someone is asleep or awake.
- Ancient Realms, towns older than the holidays themselves, were introduced with Dream Town, The Sandman’s old domain and Sally’s place of origin. In the Epilogue, there is an entire orchard with trees representing figures like Father Time, The Tooth Fairy, and Old Man Winter to name a few.
- Adaptational Villainy: While he was already a minor antagonist, it is revealed in the book that Dr. Finkelstein kidnapped Sally when she was 12 and made her lose her memories with a potion.
- Awesome Moment of Crowning: After saving the Holiday Towns and the Human Realm from The Sandman, Sally dresses in the fabrics at the beginning of the story and fully embraces her title of Pumpkin Queen.
- Badass in Distress: All of Halloween Town, including Jack, are under the influence of the Dream Sand, leaving Sally the only one to stop The Sandman.
- Big Bad: The Sandman is the main antagonist of the book, an ancient being who endangers the seven realms upon being released.
- The Caligula: The Sandman was once king of Dream Town. In the human world he would lull people to sleep so that he could steal people's dreams for himself, working his subjects to death to ensure that he would get enough. This led to the people building a wall around the town to keep him out and electing Sally's parents as their new governor and governess.
- Darker and Edgier: Sally inadvertently releases an ancient creature that could spell the end of the seven realms and the holidays they represent. Nearly every character is put into a wakeless sleep including Jack himself. And Sally's true origins are explored with her being kidnapped at a young age by Dr. Finkelstein.
- Freudian Excuse: The Sandman's Horror Hunger towards the dreams of others and his tyrannical behavior towards his subjects was because he himself was unable to sleep, unable to experience dreams of his own and soon being driven mad from it. It's after his brief nap via Sally's potent sleeping tonic does he become more clear headed and less monstrous.
- Heel–Face Turn: After Sally knocks the Sandman out with her sleeping tonic, he awakens refreshed and having experienced his own dreams for the first time. Feeling rested for the first time in centuries, he no longer hungers for the dreams of others and willingly submits to Greta and Albert's authority as governor and governess of Dream Town.
- Humanoid Abomination: While he's described as looking like a decrepit old man in sleeping gear, The Sandman is always referred to as "it" or a "creature" instead of a person. He is able to levitate, is immortal, exhales sand that puts people to sleep and feeds on people's dreams.
- It's All My Fault: Sally spends the duration of the novel regretful of accidentally unleashing the Sandman.
- I Just Want to Be Normal: Sally’s fear of change after the wedding is magnified once she and Jack return from their honeymoon in Valentine’s Town. Even the mere mention of the word “queen” was enough to drive the plot's events when she runs to the Grove of Seven Trees.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: The Leprechaun Sally meets in St. Patrick's Town refuses to help her on her quest, but gives her a four-leaf clover to bid her good luck. Also, a literal case because he is looking for his pot of gold.
- Karma Houdini Warranty: After Jack learns that Dr. Finklestein had kidnapped Sally from Dream Town, Dr. Finklestein is sentenced to 100 years of community service in Dream Town, and he must also allow Sally unlimited access to his lab and garden so she can make potions and craft experiments.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Sally unwittingly kick-starts the plot when she did not close the door to Dream Town.
- Nightmare Sequence: Sally’s vision describes her stumbling in the darkness searching for Jack all across Halloween Town, foreshadowing the town being lost in a dreamless slumber.
- The Perfectionist: Ruby Valentino, Queen of Valentine's Town, is so obsessed with how her town looks that merely seeing a single bleeding heart flower is enough to set her off.
- Posthumous Character: Oogie Boogie is mentioned in passing a few times in the novel.
- Really Royalty Reveal: Sally is the daughter of Greta and Albert, the governors of Dream Town.
- The Reveal: Dr. Finkelstein did not create Sally in a laboratory as he claimed: instead, he visited Dream Town one day to research the dream sand, and kidnapped Sally from her real parents when the opportunity presented itself.
- Unconventional Wedding Dress: As one would expect from Halloween Town, Sally wears a black bridal gown when she marries Jack.
- Wedding Episode: The Prologue of the book is Jack and Sally’s wedding, with all of the Halloween Town flairs.
