The Stupidest Angel

[sawyl]

For no terribly good reason, other than needing something to read on the journey north, I picked up Christopher Moore's The Stupidest Angel, a comedy-horror Christmas novel.

The story starts when Lena Marquez accidentally kills her ex-husband, who just happens to be dressed as santa at the time. Tucker Case, who just happens to be out exercising his fruit bat, sees an opportunity to get into Lena's pants and offers to bury the body. All of this is witnessed by a passing child who, not understanding what he has just seen, prays for santa's resurrection. Enter Raziel, the titular stupid angel, who has been tasked with making a child's Christmas miracle come true and who somehow manages to touch off a zombie epidemic whilst trying to bring santa back to life. All of this makes for a confusing Christmas for Theo Crowe, the local constable, who has fallen back into being a chronic stoner just as his wife has stopped taking her anti-psychotic meds — she plans to use the money she's saved to pay for an artisan glass bong for Theo.

While I rather enjoyed The Stupidest Angel, especially in the opening sections where everything felt fresher, some of the humour felt a little repetitive towards the end. That said, Moore had a lot of fun sending up the staples of zombie horror and the characters are good fun. Special mention must be made of Molly Michon — especially the way her psychosis manifests itself via a narrator who, as her grip on reality loosens, gradually starts to become a voice of reason! — and Tucker Case, who sees an unnatural death and immediately sets about working out how he can use it to get a shag.

Still it was fun and passed the time, and that's all I really wanted out of it...