The Stupidest Angel : A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror

Rating:
Summary: Funny, but not outstanding
Review: "The Stupidest Angel" is a funny, off-beat Christmas story full of strange characters and dark humor. The funniest parts are told from a dog's perspective, and somehow seem authentically "doggy." But I got the sense that Christopher Moore was trying too hard, referring to his thesaurus too much, and generally trying to make a small California town seem more bizarre than it could possibly be. Generally, I liked the book until the last 70 pages, when the angel's "Christmas miracle" starts to come to life. Past that point, I just couldn't suspend my disbelief; it is too odd a combination of horror and humor, and I found it annoying instead of funny.
I recommend John Grisham's "Skipping Christmas" for a hearty holiday laugh instead of "The Stupidest Angel."

Rating:
Summary: O. Henry with zombies
Review: Do you remember that heartwarming turn-of-the-century Christmas story by O. Henry--a poor couple has no assets except the wife's beautiful hair and the husband's pocketwatch. Too broke to buy gifts, the wife cuts her hair to buy a watch chain, while ironically the (unknowing) husband sells his watch to buy a set of hair combs.

Christopher Moore's "The Stupidest Angel" is a hallucinatory version of that holiday tale. Molly, the former star of a warrior-princess TV series, has given up taking her anti-psychotic meds in order to buy her darling Theo the world's finest....bong. Lack of meds causes her to take her inner Warrior a little too seriously. Theo, having promised to give up the Weed, surreptitiously grows a patch of it to finance the purchase of a Warrior sword for his Molly.

It's touching, isn't it? Like O. Henry if he'd gotten a hold of some weird mushrooms.

Meanwhile, swarming around this subplot, an addled angel, in an attempt to grant a child's wish to resurrect Santa, unintentionally brings the town's entire graveyard back to life. Theo, our friendly pothead, also happens to be the town's sheriff, so must defend everyone against the possibility of having their brains sucked out by a former (MUCH former) neighbor.

If you are a Moore aficionado, this combination of sentiment and comic psychosis will be happily familiar (many of the characters have appeared in previous Moore books). If you are new to Moore, you can step right into the fun even if you haven't read the earlier books. In his own sick and twisted way, Moore has written a Christmas tale in classic form, with a zombie twist.

Rating:
Summary: Yet another Christmas return.
Review: I bought this book last night based on an NPR interview which billed it as hilarious. And the premise did sound hilarious.

However, two pages into the book, I thought "uh oh". I kept thinking "Geez, I could have written this."

The zingers don't zing. I think I snickered at one thing later in the book (I began skipping forward to see if it got better later).

There also doesn't seem to be a cohesiveness to the book. Things just seem to be thrown out there, with not much build up.

Seems like it was knocked out in a hurry to get it out for the Christmas buying season.

Save your money. I'm going to get mine back tonight.

Rating:
Summary: not worth it
Review: I tried to read this book, and tried and tried. I couldn't bring myself to finish it. There were a few great lines, I'll give it that. However, the occasional bon mot does not a good book make. It's a rather short book, so even though I didn't like it, I thought I would finish it anyway. I couldn't do it: I read up until about 1/2 to 3/4 of it and realized there are way too many other books I want to read for me to waste any more time on this one. I think it depends on the reader; I know someone who loved it. I'm just not one of those people.

Rating:
Summary: Laugh out loud hilarity!!!
Review: Moore never ceases to amaze me! Just when you think he couldn't write a funnier book than [Lamb] he goes and does it again with "The Stupidest Angel". Of course, the stupidest angel is none other than Raziel...who else could bring a dead man back to life and unwittingly unleash holy hell!? I cracked up the entire time I devoured this book and I can't wait for Moore...


Rating:
Summary: A Twisted Christmas Tale
Review: Moore's twisted Christmas tale is yet another book that will make you laugh out loud, prevent you from putting it down, and always wonder what sort of crazy things must pop into his head. His idea of the holidays involves a clueless angel, a crazy little town, and zombies. What more could you ask for?

While nothing Moore has written has been as good as <em>Lamb</em>, this book shares the same odd humor and writing style. It's a story based in Pine Cove, a little town that was previously written about in <em>The Lust Lizard of Meloncholy Cove</em>, with the return of Theo Crowe and Molly Michon. Also, Moore has included characters from his other books, such as Gabe Fenton, Val Riordan, Mavis Sand, the Mastersons, Tucker Case and his fruit bat Roberto, and most importantly, Raziel, the clueless angel from <em>Lamb</em>.

The quirks of a small town come into play as well as the craziness of marriage, divorce, and new relationships. The characters are interesting, as always, and Moore always finds a way to make you lose yourself in the book, stopping only to chuckle out loud, regardless of whether you're reading in the company of others or not.

It's a quick read at under 300 pages, but well worth the time. The ending is fantastic, and without giving it away, it involves the angel Raziel's inability to interact with the human race (sound familiar?). And zombies.

If you haven't read any of Moore's other books, grab as many as you can and get to it. Just as the year is coming to a close, you'll be ready to read <em>The Stupidest Angel</em>, just in time for the holiday season. Or skip all the Christmas hubbub and read it now.

Rating:
Summary: Downright Stupid ... In A Good Way.
Review: My first Moore book and a Christmas miracle story none-the-less. The first chapters of the book had me extremely annoyed - I had picked it up having read a review that read "Christopher Moore deserves acclaim on the Dave Barry/Christopher Buckley level, or even beyond that, for he's better than either of them."

Moore couldn't accomplish as neat and clean a twist and tie-out for a thought or story in 200+ pages - while Barry performs such tasks with skill in single paragraphs. Moore is no Barry.

Further annoyance came over the writing - which was hyper... frenetic - and the first chapter seemed especially plagued by the author dropping as many clever things as he could mash into the text - tripping over himself with obvious amusement at his own cleverness. And similes.

This tone calmed down as the book progressed - and made it possible for me to get to the last page. And to actually - begrudgingly - end up liking a lot of Moore's style and especially his characters and their relationships to and with one another.

No smoothies came out of my nose, and while some lines and ideas were smirk-worthy, there was nothing in this book of enough originality or sharp substance to get me howling uncontrollably...

So, instead, I will say that it was a bright and cheery read - and some enjoyable characters such as Molly the Warrior Babe, Tucker Case and his sidekick Roberto the Fruit Bat - who may or may not speak English with a slightly Spanish accent.

Rating:
Summary: Not a Speed Read
Review: The characters are all neurotic and lack the usual assortment of inhibitions found in most of us. The author takes us on a journey light on plot, but story lines are not the point - relationships are. Meanwhile, one, two, and three-liners abound. On the first page, "She was as inviting as a drunken prom queen." These are not isolated jokes. They are on every single page, and some of them are laugh out loud funny.

Warning: This is not speed read material. I can't speed read Vonnegut, and I couldn't speed read this book. The pace is too schizo and the jokes might be missed.

For best results, I recommend this book (highly), taken with a receptive mood and possibly the alcoholic beverage of your choice.

Rating:
Summary: Moore still makes me laugh
Review: This really needs to be a 4.5 star rating. It is not on par with Moore's best stuff (Bloodsucking Fiends, Love Nun, Lamb), but it is very entertaining. Moore fans will enjoy seeing many of their old favorites pop up in this book, but new Moore readers would be better served by starting with some of the older work.

Rating:
Summary: Laugh until tears run down your face
Review: Unbelievably funny, the M in Moore must stand for Master of characterization, clever dialogue, irreverance, and outrageous vignettes. I would have given it 5 stars except that the plot was a little cliched (brain-eating zombies) and predictable in spots but didn't detract from the hilarity. I hate to share any of the scenes as they are best read directly from the book (and you can read the plot synopsis above). I actually ordered via express mail copies of this book for each of my 2 sisters for Christmas (I had just read it), something I have never done before. It's that entertaining. If you like sarcastic and bawdy humor that pokes fun at life, I highly recommend it!