The Stupidest Angel: A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror {original}
by Christopher Moore
Pine Cove (3a)
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Twas the night (okay, more like the week) before Christmas, and all through Pine Cove, California, people are busy buying, wrapping, packing, and generally getting into the holiday spirit. But not everybody is feeling the joy. Little Joshua Barker is in desperate need of a holiday miracle. No, he's not on his deathbed. But Josh is sure that 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 hold on! There's an show more angel waiting in the wings. (Wings, get it?) It's none other than the Archangel Raziel come to Earth seeking a small child with a wish that needs granting. Unfortunately, our angel's not sporting the brightest halo in the bunch, and before you can say "Kris Kringle" 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. Only Christopher Moore, the man who brought you the outrageous lost gospel Lamb and the hysterical fish tale Fluke, could have devised a new holiday classic that tugs at the heartstrings and serves up a healthy slice of fruitcake to boot. Performed by Tony Roberts. show lessTags
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The Stupidest Angel is the story of young Joshua Barker, a seven-year old boy who thinks he saw Santa Claus getting murdered. A hapless but well-meaning angel attempts to grant Joshua his Christmas miracle with disastrous results that send the whole town into chaos.
I think you either get Christopher Moore and love him or you don’t and hate him. Oh, how I love Christopher Moore. I love, love, love dark absurd humor that doesn’t make any sense and his books are packed full of it. This book has the best line EVER in it:
“No one knows why, but second only to eating the brains of the living, the dead love affordable prefab furniture.”
I thought about this book for days after I finished it and laughed every time. It’s not a show more traditional Christmas classic and that’s why it’s wonderful. show less
I think you either get Christopher Moore and love him or you don’t and hate him. Oh, how I love Christopher Moore. I love, love, love dark absurd humor that doesn’t make any sense and his books are packed full of it. This book has the best line EVER in it:
“No one knows why, but second only to eating the brains of the living, the dead love affordable prefab furniture.”
I thought about this book for days after I finished it and laughed every time. It’s not a show more traditional Christmas classic and that’s why it’s wonderful. show less
Summary: It's Christmas in Pine Cove, and the festivities are just getting started. Little Joshua Barker is coming home when he sees Santa (really a local real-estate developer) beheaded by a shovel and hastily buried in the woods. Enter the angel Raziel, who has been sent to Earth to provide an annual Yuletide miracle. So when Joshua wishes for Santa to be alive again, Raziel raises him... as well as all of the other bodies in the nearby church cemetery, much to the dismay of all of the partygoers at the Lonely Hearts Christmas party happening inside the church.
Review: Really, The Stupidest Angel is a pretty typical Christmas story: zombies with a penchant for Scandinavian pre-fab furniture, a gift-of-the-magi scenario involving the show more town sheriff who's struggling to kick his pot habit and his wife, an aging B-movie star who's gone off her meds, a talking fruit bat, and the kind of mayhem that only Christopher Moore can provide. "Madcap" doesn't quite do it justice, and there are bits sprinkled throughout that will infallibly make me laugh out loud. ("First we feast, then IKEA.")
When I first read this book in 2005, it was my first encounter with Christopher Moore, and I loved it, and was immediately hooked. Now, having read through most of the rest of his bibliography, I'm a little less impressed. It feels as though a lot of the jokes have been made before (which isn't a fair criticism of a book on a re-read, I realize), and I also noticed threads of the misogyny that I've picked up in Moore's other books - it's not enough to make me throw the book aside, but it does get under my skin after a while. I still enjoyed it, and still found most of it hilariously funny, but it wasn't quite the revelation it was when reading it the first time.
Re-reading after having read the rest of his books did make me catch several jokes that I missed the first time - characters from many of his other novels (including Practical Demonkeeping, The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove, Fluke, Island of the Sequined Love Nun, and Lamb) show up in this one, and references to previous events become funnier for actually knowing the history. These books certainly don't need to be read in order - I certainly didn't, and still enjoyed them all - but I enjoyed picking up on the details that I'd missed previously. 4 out of 5 stars.
Recommendation: If you don't mind some crude humor, The Stupidest Angel is a wonderful, funny, goofball antidote to the typical treacly Christmas spirit, and can easily be read in an afternoon. show less
Review: Really, The Stupidest Angel is a pretty typical Christmas story: zombies with a penchant for Scandinavian pre-fab furniture, a gift-of-the-magi scenario involving the show more town sheriff who's struggling to kick his pot habit and his wife, an aging B-movie star who's gone off her meds, a talking fruit bat, and the kind of mayhem that only Christopher Moore can provide. "Madcap" doesn't quite do it justice, and there are bits sprinkled throughout that will infallibly make me laugh out loud. ("First we feast, then IKEA.")
When I first read this book in 2005, it was my first encounter with Christopher Moore, and I loved it, and was immediately hooked. Now, having read through most of the rest of his bibliography, I'm a little less impressed. It feels as though a lot of the jokes have been made before (which isn't a fair criticism of a book on a re-read, I realize), and I also noticed threads of the misogyny that I've picked up in Moore's other books - it's not enough to make me throw the book aside, but it does get under my skin after a while. I still enjoyed it, and still found most of it hilariously funny, but it wasn't quite the revelation it was when reading it the first time.
Re-reading after having read the rest of his books did make me catch several jokes that I missed the first time - characters from many of his other novels (including Practical Demonkeeping, The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove, Fluke, Island of the Sequined Love Nun, and Lamb) show up in this one, and references to previous events become funnier for actually knowing the history. These books certainly don't need to be read in order - I certainly didn't, and still enjoyed them all - but I enjoyed picking up on the details that I'd missed previously. 4 out of 5 stars.
Recommendation: If you don't mind some crude humor, The Stupidest Angel is a wonderful, funny, goofball antidote to the typical treacly Christmas spirit, and can easily be read in an afternoon. show less
Take a Carl Hiassen novel, and set it in coastal northern California (Pine Cove, to be precise). Add in suitably twisted Christmas tropes. Throw in the plot from a zombie movie. There, now you’ve got “The Stupidest Angel: A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror,” by the inspiringly warped Christopher Moore.
Much like in your average Hiassen book, you’ve got a cast of complete misfits. Not the literary kind who are introspective and have poetic angst. No, these are the stoner sheriffs, disgruntled ex-wives and mean ex-husbands, the schizophrenic B-movie actresses, the single Moms and useless boyfriends. In “Stupidest Angel’s” equivalent of “The Gift of the Magi,” the loving husband and wife have sworn to each other that show more he’ll stay off pot and she’ll stay on her anti-psychosis meds. For Christmas he starts growing pot to sell to buy her a beautiful sword for her other persona, and she goes off her meds to buy him an objet d’art bong.
By the time the ex-wife kills her ex-husband while she’s stealing Christmas trees from his lot and he’s dressed up as a Santa, you’ve already got a wonderfully funny book. The angel wandering around looking for a child’s wish to grant, and so spectacularly failing to blend in that half the folks are convinced that he’s a child molester and some others think he’s a Terminator robot, just adds a delightful icing of surreality. The conversations that the dead are having in the church graveyard are worth the price of admission alone.
This is a very short book, and it reads really fast. It’s certainly funny, but I actually enjoyed “Fluke” a little better from Chris Moore. That almost certainly has to do with the fact that I’m a scientist and that book was about scientists, though. I can’t imagine that anyone who isn’t easily offended could fail to enjoy this “Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror.” show less
Much like in your average Hiassen book, you’ve got a cast of complete misfits. Not the literary kind who are introspective and have poetic angst. No, these are the stoner sheriffs, disgruntled ex-wives and mean ex-husbands, the schizophrenic B-movie actresses, the single Moms and useless boyfriends. In “Stupidest Angel’s” equivalent of “The Gift of the Magi,” the loving husband and wife have sworn to each other that show more he’ll stay off pot and she’ll stay on her anti-psychosis meds. For Christmas he starts growing pot to sell to buy her a beautiful sword for her other persona, and she goes off her meds to buy him an objet d’art bong.
By the time the ex-wife kills her ex-husband while she’s stealing Christmas trees from his lot and he’s dressed up as a Santa, you’ve already got a wonderfully funny book. The angel wandering around looking for a child’s wish to grant, and so spectacularly failing to blend in that half the folks are convinced that he’s a child molester and some others think he’s a Terminator robot, just adds a delightful icing of surreality. The conversations that the dead are having in the church graveyard are worth the price of admission alone.
This is a very short book, and it reads really fast. It’s certainly funny, but I actually enjoyed “Fluke” a little better from Chris Moore. That almost certainly has to do with the fact that I’m a scientist and that book was about scientists, though. I can’t imagine that anyone who isn’t easily offended could fail to enjoy this “Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror.” show less
Con la advertencia más divertida que hay al iniciar la historia nos adentramos a la historia de un pequeño pueblo afectado por las estupidez de un ángel...que no es la primera vez que se equivoca
"No era su primera misión de natividad. No, de hecho, había sido el encargado de la primera de todas, pero como se había entretenido echando una partida de pinacle, llego con un retraso de 10 años y había anunciado al propio hijo prepubescente que encontraría un bebé envuelto en mantillas en un pesebre"
Si bien su primer error fue vergonzoso el segundo es mortal. En su afán de cumplir el milagro de navidad termina metiendo en terribles, y graciosas, dificultades. Aunque siendo sincera el enfoque de este libro no radica en ese "milagro show more navideño" sino en las acciones que llevan a ese milagro y en los personajes involucrados; estos últimos un catalogo de personas extravagantes que se ven reducidas por los personajes bastante raros, y que terminan siendo opacados por el murciélago Roberto.
Si bien la historia da muchísimas vueltas antes de llegar al climax, todo el transcurso antes de ello es divertido, cargado de humor negro y personalidades cuestionales, que van juntando las piezas para llegar la batalla final, aunque todo ese trabajo es reducido a nada por una resolución por demás decepcionante, con un deus ex machina en toda la regla y que no puede más insatisfactorio sí lo intentará.
A pesar de la historia no es nada del otro mundo, en ningún momento aburre dado que se desarrolla en un 70% humor y 30% en acción holliwodense, y no hay más que eso, los personajes están poco profundizados y el pueblo no es excesivamente descrito, de hecho estos aspectos están tan presentes que me atrevo a decir que este es un libro únicamente para una tarde lluviosa en la que no haya nada que hacer porque a pesar de que no es un libro del tipo profundo pero es tremendamente entretenido. show less
"No era su primera misión de natividad. No, de hecho, había sido el encargado de la primera de todas, pero como se había entretenido echando una partida de pinacle, llego con un retraso de 10 años y había anunciado al propio hijo prepubescente que encontraría un bebé envuelto en mantillas en un pesebre"
Si bien su primer error fue vergonzoso el segundo es mortal. En su afán de cumplir el milagro de navidad termina metiendo en terribles, y graciosas, dificultades. Aunque siendo sincera el enfoque de este libro no radica en ese "milagro show more navideño" sino en las acciones que llevan a ese milagro y en los personajes involucrados; estos últimos un catalogo de personas extravagantes que se ven reducidas por los personajes bastante raros, y que terminan siendo opacados por el murciélago Roberto.
Si bien la historia da muchísimas vueltas antes de llegar al climax, todo el transcurso antes de ello es divertido, cargado de humor negro y personalidades cuestionales, que van juntando las piezas para llegar la batalla final, aunque todo ese trabajo es reducido a nada por una resolución por demás decepcionante, con un deus ex machina en toda la regla y que no puede más insatisfactorio sí lo intentará.
A pesar de la historia no es nada del otro mundo, en ningún momento aburre dado que se desarrolla en un 70% humor y 30% en acción holliwodense, y no hay más que eso, los personajes están poco profundizados y el pueblo no es excesivamente descrito, de hecho estos aspectos están tan presentes que me atrevo a decir que este es un libro únicamente para una tarde lluviosa en la que no haya nada que hacer porque a pesar de que no es un libro del tipo profundo pero es tremendamente entretenido. show less
The Stupidest Angel is a humorous novel by Christopher Moore, set in his fictional town of Pine Cove. I wasn't aware until I was well into the book that it is technically part of a series, but I did not feel like I was missing much of anything by not having read the previous books; this book seems to stand up well enough on its own. It appears that while the Pine Cove books are interconnected, they are not necessarily strictly linear.
At its core, The Stupidest Angel is about a handful of people in this small town and how they react to the events going on around them. These people include Lena, a beautiful realtor who is in an embittered feud with Dale, her ex-husband and the town's "evil developer;" Theo, the small town's pot-smoking show more constable, and Molly, his mentally unstable wife who sometimes has difficulty distinguishing her real self from her B-list movie "Warrior Babe" persona; Tucker, Lena's new beau and self-described "geek in a cool guy's body;" and Gabe, Theo's heartbroken biologist friend. Also stalking the town is Raziel, an angel sent to perform a Christmas miracle, but who has such ridiculous social skills and understanding of humanity that he is doing a horrible job. Things get worse when Dale - dressed in Santa suit - ends up dead, and the kid Raziel corners wishes for Santa to come to life again. Raziel royally messes up this wish, resulting in the town having to come together to fight off the zombies he awakens.
Between the book's hilarious title and the description of it, I was really looking forward to reading this humorous book, expecting it to be hilarious. I was right ... and wrong. The characters of Tucker Case, Gabe Fenton, and Gabe's dog Skinner were all ridiculously funny. There were definitely some great witty lines in here and Moore can really skewer all kinds of social issues with some snarky comments. On more than one occasion, I found myself laughing out loud. However, these lines could have been better packaged - i.e., story itself could have been better. A lot of the story seemed to be build up to the zombies finally being raised, yet it still felt like some explanations were missing within all that introduction. I think it would have been good to learn more about Raziel's botched attempts to perform his Christmas miracle than of Molly's increasingly worsening mental breakdown. The zombie apocalypse part lead to a showdown battle scene(s) that dragged on a little too long for my taste (and for that of my book club members as well). The ending was perhaps a bit twee, but I did enjoy it and thought it was the best way to wrap up this story.
The audio book version featured Tony Roberts as the reader, who did a good job with the various voices and accents. However, I did not really appreciate his overall reading. I felt that the tone he used for much of the narration (a rather monotone one in my opinion) did not give the book - and its humor - much justice. It was as though I was finding the book funny despite his efforts to remain bland. Other reviews (professional and lay) indicate otherwise, but my two cents is that I would have preferred a different reader. show less
At its core, The Stupidest Angel is about a handful of people in this small town and how they react to the events going on around them. These people include Lena, a beautiful realtor who is in an embittered feud with Dale, her ex-husband and the town's "evil developer;" Theo, the small town's pot-smoking show more constable, and Molly, his mentally unstable wife who sometimes has difficulty distinguishing her real self from her B-list movie "Warrior Babe" persona; Tucker, Lena's new beau and self-described "geek in a cool guy's body;" and Gabe, Theo's heartbroken biologist friend. Also stalking the town is Raziel, an angel sent to perform a Christmas miracle, but who has such ridiculous social skills and understanding of humanity that he is doing a horrible job. Things get worse when Dale - dressed in Santa suit - ends up dead, and the kid Raziel corners wishes for Santa to come to life again. Raziel royally messes up this wish, resulting in the town having to come together to fight off the zombies he awakens.
Between the book's hilarious title and the description of it, I was really looking forward to reading this humorous book, expecting it to be hilarious. I was right ... and wrong. The characters of Tucker Case, Gabe Fenton, and Gabe's dog Skinner were all ridiculously funny. There were definitely some great witty lines in here and Moore can really skewer all kinds of social issues with some snarky comments. On more than one occasion, I found myself laughing out loud. However, these lines could have been better packaged - i.e., story itself could have been better. A lot of the story seemed to be build up to the zombies finally being raised, yet it still felt like some explanations were missing within all that introduction. I think it would have been good to learn more about Raziel's botched attempts to perform his Christmas miracle than of Molly's increasingly worsening mental breakdown. The zombie apocalypse part lead to a showdown battle scene(s) that dragged on a little too long for my taste (and for that of my book club members as well). The ending was perhaps a bit twee, but I did enjoy it and thought it was the best way to wrap up this story.
The audio book version featured Tony Roberts as the reader, who did a good job with the various voices and accents. However, I did not really appreciate his overall reading. I felt that the tone he used for much of the narration (a rather monotone one in my opinion) did not give the book - and its humor - much justice. It was as though I was finding the book funny despite his efforts to remain bland. Other reviews (professional and lay) indicate otherwise, but my two cents is that I would have preferred a different reader. show less
If the dead rise up again at the end of the world, do we have any guarantee that they’re not going to be zombies? Let’s just hope the Archangel Raziel isn’t in charge of that - he’s easy on the eyes, but not so much in the brains department, so it’s best that he not be given any important jobs. And the “not so much in the brains department” thing would make him pretty useless as zombie food....
Raziel - previously introduced in Christopher Moore’s Lamb - is the title character of The Stupidest Angel, but he doesn’t actually appear very often in the novel. He does make an impact when he shows up, though.
This seriously funny short novel is one of my favorites by the author, partly because it’s a greatest-hits collection show more of characters - including one I’m especially fond of, “geek in a cool guy’s body” Tucker Case - and a return to the setting of his earliest books, the postcard-pretty Central Coast town of Pine Cove. But like many postcard-pretty small towns, it’s occupied by some less-than-pretty people. Pine Cove’s notable residents include a former B-movie actress best known for her “Warrior Babe” character - she may lapse on her anti-psychotic meds, but she keeps up her martial arts training; her husband, the pot-smoking town constable; and, of course, the evil developer. When said evil developer has an unfortunate mishap during a disagreement with his ex-wife after a Christmas party, and a small boy accidentally witnesses said mishap, events are set in motion for the weirdest, scariest holiday this town - which has seen a lot of weird, scary stuff - has ever had.
I keep my copy of The Stupidest Angel with our Christmas decorations; I put it out, along with several other holiday-themed books, every year. I decided that this year it wouldn’t just go on display, though - it was time for a re-read. There’s not a lot of substance here; while novels like Lamb and Fluke (and even, to some extent, A Dirty Job) show that Moore does sometimes weave bigger themes into his fiction, this one’s just good, quirky fun - a fast and frequently laugh-out-loud funny read. If there’s any lesson here, it’s a twist on “be careful what you wish for:”
“Be careful to tell your wish to someone who won’t misunderstand what you’re wishing for, or else your Christmas miracle could go very, very, wrong.” show less
Raziel - previously introduced in Christopher Moore’s Lamb - is the title character of The Stupidest Angel, but he doesn’t actually appear very often in the novel. He does make an impact when he shows up, though.
This seriously funny short novel is one of my favorites by the author, partly because it’s a greatest-hits collection show more of characters - including one I’m especially fond of, “geek in a cool guy’s body” Tucker Case - and a return to the setting of his earliest books, the postcard-pretty Central Coast town of Pine Cove. But like many postcard-pretty small towns, it’s occupied by some less-than-pretty people. Pine Cove’s notable residents include a former B-movie actress best known for her “Warrior Babe” character - she may lapse on her anti-psychotic meds, but she keeps up her martial arts training; her husband, the pot-smoking town constable; and, of course, the evil developer. When said evil developer has an unfortunate mishap during a disagreement with his ex-wife after a Christmas party, and a small boy accidentally witnesses said mishap, events are set in motion for the weirdest, scariest holiday this town - which has seen a lot of weird, scary stuff - has ever had.
I keep my copy of The Stupidest Angel with our Christmas decorations; I put it out, along with several other holiday-themed books, every year. I decided that this year it wouldn’t just go on display, though - it was time for a re-read. There’s not a lot of substance here; while novels like Lamb and Fluke (and even, to some extent, A Dirty Job) show that Moore does sometimes weave bigger themes into his fiction, this one’s just good, quirky fun - a fast and frequently laugh-out-loud funny read. If there’s any lesson here, it’s a twist on “be careful what you wish for:”
“Be careful to tell your wish to someone who won’t misunderstand what you’re wishing for, or else your Christmas miracle could go very, very, wrong.” show less
This was the first Christopher Moore book I read, and it had me giggling from start to finish. It's silly, over the top, and more than a little sacrilegious, but tons of fun. Hey, who doesn't like fruit bats and zombie santa claus? Mayhem all the way.
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Christopher Moore was born in Toledo, Ohio in 1957. He studied at Ohio State University and Brooks Institute of Photography. Before becoming a full-time author, he worked as a roofer, a grocery clerk, a hotel night auditor, an insurance broker, a waiter, a photographer, and a DJ. His first book, Practical Demonkeeping, was published in 1992. His show more other works include Bloodsucking Fiends, Island of the Sequined Nun, Lamb, A Dirty Job, You Suck, Fool, Sacré Bleu: A Comedy d'Art, and Secondhand Souls. In 2014 his title, The Serpent of Venice, made The New York Times Best Seller List. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- The Stupidest Angel: A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror {original}
- Original title
- The Stupidest Angel, Version 2.0
- Alternate titles*
- Tutta colpa dell'angelo
- Original publication date
- 2004-10-12
- People/Characters
- Theophilus Crowe; Molly Michon; Tucker Case; Raziel (Archangel); Lena Marquez; Dale Pearson (show all 25); Mavis Sand; Josh Barker; Roberto (fruit bat); Robert Masterson; Sgt. Joe Metz; Gabe Fenton; Skinner (dog); Vance McNally; Betsy Butler; Emily Barker; Bess Leander; Arthur Tannbeau; Malcolm Cowley; Marty in the Morning; Jimmy Antalvo; Sam Applebaum; Brian Henderson; Ignacio Nuñez; Valerie Riordan
- Important places
- Pine Cove, California, USA
- First words
- 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.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)"What are you looking at?" said Roberto.
- Disambiguation notice
- This work is Christopher Moore's original edition of The Stupidest Angel: A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror (ISBN No. 0060590254), published in the U.S. as a hardcover with pale yellow dust jacket by William Morr... (show all)ow, NY (2004), which contains only the original novel.
The "enhanced" Version 2.0 (ISBN No. 0060842350), published in the U.S. as a hardcover with red dust jacket by William Morrow, NY (2005), includes a short story that doesn't appear in the original edition.
The Kindle edition (ISBN 1841496189; 2009) contains "Bonus Material" from Sacré Bleu: A Comedy d'Art.
Please do not combine these various editions having different content.
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
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