The Stupidest Angel

I have been wanting to read this book for such a long time. I'm glad I finally did. Christmas? Check. Town full of eccentric residents? Check. Half-wit angel? Check. Talking fruit bat sporting miniature Ray-Bans? Check. Zombies? Check. YES, ZOMBIES. Christmas and zombies IN ONE BOOK. This book was definitely a great change from the more traditional holiday tales. Moore also has a great writing style. I think it's definitely one to revisit in the coming years.

Not Moore's best. Certainly an original idea but flat execution, flat characters, and an all-time disappointing ending. The dialog between the dead characters feels more human than that between the live ones. And the ending! I was expecting a literal Deus ex Machina, but it wasn't even that. It was a half-assed hand-wavey there-I-fixed-it that annulled the whole story, the growth and change and redemption in the few characters I cared about.

Here we find ourselves in the sleepy Californian village of Pine Cove, home to retirees, tourists and its frankly oddball assortment of denizens begrudgingly creeping towards Christmas. It's just the sort of place for me right now, a cozy community filled with its share of freaks and geeks set up for holiday hijinks.

This time out Moore gives us a smattering of the undead craving brains, not to mention the functional yet elegant furniture design of IKEA, a former B-movie actress barely managing to hold her sword and sorcery past at bay while completely off her antipsychotics, an ex-stoner cop hiding an absolute bumper crop, a talking fruit-bat, and the archangel Raziel who has found himself dirtside yet again.

Writing is hard, writing humor is trecherous high-wire act that treads the thin line between working and failing miserably. Given the grim dumpster fire of 2020 I'm inclined to be generous in the humor department. This is just the thing for those of you looking for a cozy zombie holiday fable.