THE STUPIDEST ANGEL (A HEARTWARMING TALE OF CHRISTMAS TERROR).

THE STUPIDEST ANGEL (A HEARTWARMING TALE OF CHRISTMAS TERROR) by CHRISTOPHER MOORE.

'Twas the night (okay, more like the week) before Christmas and little Joshua Barker is in desperate need of a Christmas miracle. Josh is sure he saw Santa take a shovel to the head and now the seven-year-old has only one prayer: Please Santa, come back from the dead!

But coming to Earth seeking a small child whose wish needs granting is none other than Archangel Raziel. Unfortunately, he's not sporting the brightest halo in the bunch and before you can say 'mistletoe' he's botched his sacred mission and sent the residents of Pine Cove headlong into Christmas chaos, culminating in the most hilarious and horrifying holiday party the town has ever seen.

....... Outer back cover.

FIRST SENTENCE (Chapter 1): Christmas crept into Pine Cove like a creeping Christmas thing: dragging garland, ribbon, and sleigh bells, oozing eggnog, reeking of pine, and threatening festive doom like a cold sore under the mistletoe.

MEMORABLE MOMENT (Page 178): "It's Christmas! Ah Christmas, the time when all good people go about not decapitating each other."

KEEP IT OR NOT?: Husband dearest's book, I think this will stay on the shelves.

What with Santa being dispatched by a spade, an inept Angel on his second Nativity mission (his first apparently went horribly wrong when, two thousand years ago, he showed up ten years too late, announcing to the by now prepubescent Son of God himself that he would find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manager), a Ray-Ban wearing fruit bat and a bunch of zombies who, after having their fill of brains, plan to go shopping at Ikea, this is hardly your average Christmas read but it is funny, very funny though as we are warned by the author at the beginning it is not a suitable gift for children or your grandma  as it contains .......... 

Cusswords as well as tasteful depictions of cannibalism and people in their forties having sex.

Now as many of you aware I'm not a fan of swearing or overly graphic, over-long sex scenes in novels but to be honest there really weren't that many cusswords and as for people in their forties having sex? Well, this wasn't overly graphic and though I say it myself it was rather funny, the comments from the, err, less than alive residents of the graveyard who witness the event being wickedly funny.

Not a book I thought I'd enjoy so much (Husband dearest who read it first was even more surprised at how much I enjoyed it) this did border on the surreal but it was perhaps the more obvious jokes that I found funniest - things such as .........

"Why are you looking in my window in the middle of the night"

"Because I can't see through the wooden part."

All in all a fun read BUT I was a tad disappointed in the somewhat weak ending. Becoming increasingly silly and totally unbelievable - yeah I know, was a book with Ikea loving zombies ever believable? - it felt to me as if the author himself didn't quite know how to end the story and so took the easiest, dare I say it, laziest option.

The 99th book read for my 100+ Reading Challenge and the 3rd book for the Christmas Spirit Challenge.

PS. Please be sure to visit this years Advent Calendar by clicking on the Christmas tree button at the top of the page - remember only one day at  a  time though.