Review: The Nightmare Before Christmas

Title: The Nightmare Before Christmas
Author: Jun Asuka
Publisher: Tokyopop
Genre: NetGalley
Release Date: September 26, 2017
Rating: ★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

Jack Skellington is the Pumpkin King, the ruler of Halloween Town and master of all things creepy and spooky. But he’s tired of his life in the shadows and longs for something new. When he accidentally stumbles upon Christmas Town, he decides this is the perfect chance to try his hand at a brand new holiday and is convinced he’ll have the world yelling “Scary Christmas”! With the young patchwork doll Sally trying to dissuade him and the evil Oogie Boogie waiting in the wings to take over Halloween Town in Jack’s absence, he’d better hurry if he wants to get his plan in place by December 25th! You’ve seen the movie, now read the manga for a new twist on an animated classic!

Review:

I’ve wanted to watch The Nightmare Before Christmas for a long time, but I haven’t yet. So when I saw the manga version, I had to read it. 

I really enjoyed the story. I love that it’s a cross between Halloween and Christmas. Though those two holidays are two months apart, they’re so connected, since as soon as Halloween is over, the shelves are filled with Christmas gifts. 

One problem I had (and I’m not sure if this will be the same in the physical copy) is the colouring. It’s in black and white, and some of the panels were so detailed that it was hard to tell what was happening. When only two colours are used, it’s difficult to distinguish between characters, so sometimes I didn’t know what was happening. Also, many of the speech bubbles didn’t have an obvious direction of who it was coming from, so I couldn’t tell who was speaking. These issues may not be as bad for someone who has watched the movie, but since I wasn’t familiar with the story before, I struggled with these visual problems. 

However, I really liked this story. I’m glad I read this manga edition!

Author: jilljemmett

Jill lives in Toronto, Canada. She has studied English, Creative Writing, and Publishing. Jill is the creator and content producer of Jill’s Book Blog, where she has published a blog post every day for the last four years, including 5-7 book reviews a week. She can usually be found with her nose in a book. View all posts by jilljemmett