I have so much affection for The Nightmare Before Christmas that I kind of don't know what to rate this. I have some problems with this so I'm gonna have to do a kind of compliment sandwich energy.
So to start with, Sally is very cute in this. I of course being a little edgelord child loved her to bits when I was a kid so it's nice to be able to see this iteration of her. I like her energy but it seems different to what I would have expected from the movies in some instances; her affection for Jack is very sweet. She's someone that's very easy to root for!
But... I don't know if this is me not really vibing with YA vernacular but a lot of this writing is very...repetitive. Dead leaves, thread, rag doll - I felt like I read those particular words at least 50 times. The plot points were kind of...repeated back and forth? A lot of tell and not show. I'd even argue at times this felt more akin to reading something aimed at someone younger than YA. Perhaps even burgeoning in on Fanfiction quality territory.
The doors! I liked that we got a bit more of a visit to each of the holiday towns! Dream town itself is very aesthetic. The concept of The Sandman being the villain, alongside him putting literally everyone to sleep in order to steal their dreams? Cute, weird and kind of out of left field in terms of what I expected going in blind. It turned out that just letting him sleep was all that he wanted - same bro ngl.
But... I don't know if I really liked a few things here: Sally's parents. Kind of cute in concept but felt very shoehorned? I preferred the strained relationship she had with her creator in the original not this odd 'Professor Finklestein is ASS at science so he kidnapped a kid' plotline. He literally made himself a wife after he realized that Sally was too willful to be of any help to him? I understand that for in order for her to undo what she did (accidentally freeing The Sandman) in the first place, she needed a boon in order to fight him but I'm also going to call bullshit on her 'I don't look like everyone else' rhetoric - literally the whole town is random monsters, what are you on about I understand the angst of being 'different' but that was more that she wasn't easily caught up in Jack's enthusiasm in the movie not that she was seen as weird or different for being a ragdoll??? I'm neither here nor there on the worry she had about being a Queen, I'm also not sure how to feel about her feeling relieved after meeting The Queen of England? Kinda cute. But uhh, Sally, you only have one Queenly duty and that's planning a party on All Hallows' Eve and wearing a dress - I'm pretty sure Halloween Town doesn't have to deal with diplomatic visits or the like, calm down.
This felt like a fun choice to break up some of the absolutely horrific things I've been reading over October, I mostly just want to rewatch the movie now or maybe even somehow get my paws on the game. It was low-stakes fun Halloween/Autumn vibes. It only took me a day to read (while I was also reading The Bee Sting before Libby took it from me , it has massive text too. Though I can't lie, I don't think I can rate this anything higher than a 2.5 ⭐ I had a little fun but it was a bit of a chore to get through.
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