It Ain’t Christmas Until A Fruit Bat Bites Someone
The Stupidest Angel By Christopher Moore
What’s a holiday story that doesn’t start with bloodshed, cursing, and a little good-old-fashioned graveyard sex? Moore’s holiday tale begins with a bang (eyes) and keeps it up throughout. His trademark quick humor elevates what could have been an ordinary tale of holiday murder and turns it into something special. Despite the often-dark events and themes, The Stupidest Angel manages to stay hilarious, and occasionally heartwarming.
The best holiday tales have a bit of darkness interlaced with cheer and familiarity (A Christmas Carol, Gremlins, the classics). The Stupidest Angel is no exception covering themes of infidelity, biblical miracles and backyard marijuana growing operations. Moore finds and captures his holiday spirit through a cast of characters ranging from a B-movie star on the verge of a psychotic break to a DEA pilot and his Ray Ban-wearing fruit bat. All of Moore’s characters are beyond batshit (except the bat, funnily enough) and watching them interact is an absolute joy.
While the overarching story is predictable in the sense that most holiday tales are, the details were not. The bizarre actions of the characters and the surprisingly high stakes, had me burn through this book in about a week (I’m generally a slow reader). It’s a quick story with some excellent twists and turns that I didn’t expect, and a wonderful antidote to all of the terrible, saccharine, streaming movies that I’ve been binging (we’ve all made our choices).
If you’re looking for a good, sometimes crude, blood-bathy laugh this holiday season, I recommend picking this book up. As with most of Moore’s work, I laughed out loud through most of it and I’m still thinking about the story after I’ve put it down. Moore has cemented himself as one of my favorite authors, and I highly recommend checking out some of his other work: Lamb (the story of Jesus’s life outside The Bible, hilarious) and A Dirty Job (a tale of Death and the many workers who carry it out).
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Ashton Macaulay 