Hour of the Pumpkin Queen

Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas

By: Megan Shepherd

Narrated by: Cissy Jones

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Join Sally on a time-bending adventure to save Halloween Town—and her beloved Jack Skellington—in the hit series based on Disney Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas!

And don’t miss the first book in the series, Long Live the Pumpkin Queen, available now!

Can Jack and Sally’s love stand the test of time?

One year has passed since Sally wed her beloved Jack Skellington and stepped into her role as queen of Halloween Town. Even with her Jack at her side, though, being a ruler isn’t easy, and Sally feels uncertain of her future. Her seams are stretched thin with her royal duties, her newfound family in Dream Town, and a desire to bring citizens from across the Hinterlands together.

Then a simple potion demonstration at Sally’s inaugural Halloween exhibition goes horribly wrong, and things unravel fast: Sally and her new rag doll apprentice, Luna, fall through a mysterious portal, landing in a new realm called Time Town. They discover that someone has tampered with the clock that controls Halloween Town, and Sally cannot return to the present-day version of her home unless she finds the culprit and resets time.

Sally and Luna embark on a journey to unmask the truth, encountering more towns, friends, and foes along the way. But time is ticking, and as Sally fights to save Jack and her hometown, she wonders what kind of future she really wants—and what she must sacrifice to get it.

Critic reviews

"The engaging lore and tense, thrilling race to fix time will engage readers. Reminiscent of fairy tales and full of enchantment." —Kirkus Reviews

thrilling sequel

i absolutely love how this give more depth to Sally as a person and who she is! I look forward to the next one since there a string to tie up at the end of this book ;)

Disney needs to make this into a movie! 🎃👻

This book is absolutely wonderful. The writing, the characters, the narration! Everything is exquisite. My only preference would be third person narrative. I loved the addition of music too. This writer and narrator clearly know the story well and expanded excellently on this world! I love things with time travel so this plot was perfect for me.

(Spoilers) the narrator does an overwhelmingly fantastic job, especially as Sally! And unlike recent Disney works, they manage to uplift Sally, the female, without downgrading Jack, the male. Sally’s love for Jack is stronger than ever throughout this tale. The expansion into the other holiday worlds is excellent and this def needs to be made into a movie! Disney releases such garbage lately, they could change that with this amazing story.

We’re introduced to many new delightful characters, most notably Luna and Scorch. My only dislike of this expansion series is that the doctor didn’t make Sally and instead “stole her” from Dreamland 🙄 not a fan of this twist at all. I think Dreamland still could have existed and been integral without Sally being from there. I think there was enough conflict with Sally needing to restore Halloweentown and embracing her queenly duties while blocking out past abuse without the strange addition of her being from another town altogether. That is the only thing that seems labored to me and I would cut from any possible movies. An alt I would have accepted was maybe Sally from Dreamland wandered into the Halloween door and he then kidnapped her. But I still don’t like it, I prefer her being made by the doctor, escaping his control and then coming to terms with past horrors.

I adored Scorch and Luna and all their adventures with Sally! I loved the line “I am the pumpkin queen and there is no one scarier than me!” All the twists were very well done and had sufficient groundwork. I love the seed planted about the mysterious prince which leaves room open for more books! And it’s very believable that one from Fable Town would view Halloween town as villains. Pilgrim bake baking all the pumpkins into pies was hysterical! Very clever and creative throughout.

Highly recommend to any fans of the og story and this author and narrator. Perfect listen for this time of year! Long live the pumpkin queen!

Its cute

It shows sally being humane and it helps people learn that we don't need to work like machine and its important to do what you love and can take breaks.

Another Winner! So Good!

I loved this story too!! It's another great book to add to the story of Jack and Sally! If you liked the Nightmare Before Christmas, then you will love this! It continues the story in a very good way!! Highly recommend!!

Lovely Story

Love the story and all the characters. The adventure dealing with time is wonderful. Especially love the little dragon.