Disney Frozen Polar Nights: Cast into Darkness

By: Jen Calonita, Mari Mancusi

Narrated by: Andrew Eiden

Length: 6 hrs and 27 mins

Publisher's summary

Anna, Queen of Arendelle, has been tirelessly preparing for the Polar Night's Celebration that is held every year to welcome the time when the sun doesn't rise in the Polar Circle. She has been working so hard, her fiancé Kristoff suggests she take a night off to visit her sister Elsa, the Snow Queen. Anna loves the idea. Accompanied by Kristoff, Sven, and Olaf, Anna reunites with Elsa in the Enchanted Forest. After telling spooky stories around the campfire, Olaf swears that one of the creatures of their tales has come to life! Who else is responsible for the sudden onset of storms and the earlier than normal darkening of the skies? Why else is everyone starting to become so forgetful?

Anna and Elsa join forces to determine what is going on. Together they recall Kristoff's terrifying tale about a princess who turned into a draugr—an undead creature that steals memories in an effort to make others forget the misdeeds it committed when it was alive. Is it possible that Kristoff inadvertently unearthed memories of a draugr, and thus unleashed the monster upon Arendelle? Anna and Elsa must uncover the real story behind the tale before everyone in Arendelle forgets who they are and is cast into darkness forever….

©2022 Jen Calonita,Mari Mancusi (P)2022 Disney Press

A sister's love...

This page turner never left my hands. It was so riveting & truly beautiful. Polar Nights brought out the power, dedication, & magic behind the love between sisters. I was so stricken by this beautiful story that I immediately brought more copies just to send them 6 sisters especially my youngest sister because like me she absolutely loves Disney. So much so that she begged my mom to keep my grandparents 10 self bookcase that held nothing but Disney movies & she even added on to it. My mom called me 3 days after they received their copy of this & said that my sister also read it in 1 day. So she decided to read it as well & told me she also loved it. She loved the fact that I was still keeping my sister's love for Disney going while sharing books like these with her. So thank Jen & Mari for not only all the work in this but also keeping Disney alive & breathing. This book will forever be in my collection which I plan to hand down to my sister. From 1 sister to another...thank you.

Kids said scary

kids said they didn't like it because it was too scary. they did not want to go to sleep because they were scared

Scary for some young children

I can’t write a full review because we only made it to Chapter 6 before my 7yo declared it was going to give her nightmares. I listened along, thinking she was being silly, but no, the monster in this story is quite creepy and the descriptions are detailed. Think sharp fingernails and worms in eyes.

Absolutely outstanding, should be Frozen 3 ❄️♥️

I absolutely loved this book, I wish it had been longer. It was so dark and it was great to see these epic sisters on yet another adventure to save Arendelle. I was a little skeptic and annoyed when I saw this book was narrated by a male, I initially felt a female would have been more authentic but he did a fantastic job with the voices. I particularly enjoyed his Olaf and Kristoff. The voice he made for the creature was sooo creepy and cool! I def would not recommend this book for young children but it is a spectacular read for like 14 and up. I’m in my 30s lol.

This book takes place right after Frozen 2 and it had me on the edge of my seat from start to finish. Jen and Mari are both such amazing writers and they have a clear grasp on disney lore and magic. I really wish this book could be the script for Frozen 3 or at the very least maybe they could condense it into some kind of Halloween special. The possibilities are endless!

(spoilers) The action starts immediately in this gripping tale and I was delightfully surprised how dark disney allowed them to go with this. The description of the undead creature was incredible, I found myself gripping the steering wheel to and from work. It was so vivid, I really felt like I was there with Anna and Elsa! I had a feeling that there would be more to Inger and Cecil’s tragic story but the details were parceled out brilliantly.

I can totally understand why Ana originally thought Cecil was after her. Anna and Elsa are like sister detectives in this tale, doing everything possible to uncover the mystery of the poor Vesterland sisters before Arendelle falls to ruin. This book also explained much more than Frozen 2 did about the memory river and Elsa’s growing powers. And they previously solidified their grandfather as an unscrupulous king so this story only adds to that.

It was so heartbreaking when Kristoff couldn’t remember Anna and when Arendelle began to fall into disarray. I suspected that the pirate queen was Inger but I never expected her to actually be alive! This story is full of delightful twists but with proper ground work laid out. I never thought disney could manage to incorporate another sister team to pull at our heartstrings like Anna and Elsa!

I was bawling at the end when the creature sees Inger and turns back into Cecil when her spirit is free. I did wonder if Cecil’s spirit only turned into the undead creature once Kristoff ignited it by telling the false tale on the anniversary of her death. I think her spirit was in limbo the past 50 years but I think she only recently rose as the creature. I also wondered if Cecil had devoured anyone while in creature form but it seems like she was just a marauding ghoul trying to clear her sister’s name.

It’s so sad that Inger’s life was essentially ruined by the ordeal but it was also beautiful that she managed to woo and tame the heart of a pirate and had a family and life at sea with him. Her primary life ended the day Cecil’s did but she still managed to find some happiness, which only grew when Anna and Elsa reunited and freed the sisters. Such a touching, clever story!

In closing, I hope Disney considers this for frozen 3 or at least an animated short! It is too epic to remain just a novel. I hope disney gives these ladies more opportunities to shine with their fantastic writing. Highly recommend this book to any and all Frozen fans but use discretion with very young kids as it is pretty dark and sad though Olaf provides a lot of comic relief lol. Can’t wait for more! ❄️♥️

Very sweet story and a good mystery too.

I enjoyed Frozen 2: Dangerous Secrets and when I saw this was by the same author, I knew I’d enjoy this as well.

Another Anna story

The book was a bit predictable. It was overall great. Queen Elsa has no character growth from the movies. And Anna is the center of attention. I did love that Queen Elsa is able to keep her queen title despite Anna holding the crown as well.