The Stupidest Angel

A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror

By: Christopher Moore

Narrated by: Tony Roberts

Length: 6 hrs and 15 mins

Publisher's summary

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 7-year-old has only one prayer: Please, Santa, come back from the dead.

But hold on! There's an 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.

©2004 Christopher Moore (P)2004 HarperCollins Publishes, Inc.

Critic reviews

"This little slice of perverse Christmas cheer is enough to make even the most cynical Scrooge guffaw." (Publishers Weekly)

Lots of funny points. The ending felt rushed.

Totally a goofy story. Sometimes hard to follow. But like any other of the authors books, certain parts are ridiculously funny.

Sometimes you need something just plain silly

I do love Christopher Moore and this book fits right in among my favorites. It’s a fun romp made all the more entertaining by the reader.

At Last

You'll love this Christmas concotion and never know what is around the next corner with the doper sherif, Zina type heroin and goof-up avenger angel (to mention just a few) to make the perfect Christmas tale overlaying sharp intellectual social comentary.

If you have not found the wonder of Christopher Moore yet you are in for a treat and might just wet your pants laughing through this (or any of his) books. Quirky, weird, twisted, hillarious. I hope more of his past works will soon come to audible. I will listen to them over and over (Lamb was one of the best yet). Thanks Christopher we all need to laugh this much every day!

The Stupidest Angel

a twisted christmas tale what a change in holiday cheer, great laughs through out. who needs to read the same old thing! I sure enjoyed it.

Ho Ho Ho!

The best Christmas story ever!
Love Christopher's writing as a rule, but this one is really special.
If you have a sense of humor about the holidays...this one is for you.

Entertaining!

How has this not been turned into a movie? We listened on a road trip to the parents, and it helped make the drive from GA to PA shorter. Very relatable quirky characters with the right amount of funny and touch of horror. It was worth this month's credit!

Fun little book with lots of good laughs

Fun little book with lots of good laughs. As with all Christopher Moore books, he does not take his subject matter too seriously and you can tell he thoroughly enjoyed spinning this yarn.

This is not so much a story about a stupid angel. While there is a stupid angel -- very stupid, in fact -- the story is really about a sleepy California town and its eccentric inhabitants.

I'm not giving much away here so the basic idea is we have an Angel sent to give a holy gift to a chosen boy. Before searching for the boy, the angel asks about town and is naturally considered a child molester. We have a dead Santa who was killed by a wayward shovel and a very insane ex-B-Movie actress that wields a sword to calm her spirits. Other characters like a crazy bat that looks like a dog, a crazed scientist and a pot smoking cop round out the novel nicely.

All these characters have their own little sup-plots and stories which come together in a very forced way toward the end of this novel.

I listened to The Stupidest Angel on audibook and while I love Tony Roberts as the pitch-perfect narrator of the Stone Barrington novels, he was not my favorite for this book.

While laugh-out-loud funny in parts and enteraining throughout, some of the story felt a bit forced, with big awkward words being used for the purposes of creating more humor. If you want a really funny and much more thought out story about a stupid angel, check out Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett.

-Bill

First we feast!

I liked the story and I enjoy the characters from previous stories coming together for this Christmas tale. I listed to the audible version - and I did not like the narrator as much as the narrator in some of his other books. Christopher Moore remains one of my favorite authors.

My Favorite Holiday Read

I love this book and listen to it every holiday season! I lightens my mood and I laugh and laugh...
It's very adult and the author doesn't hold back in the conversations of the characters. If you like Koontz, you love this one.

The Stupidest Book Review

Listened to this while renovating our bathroom in the middle of summer. Great narration. Glad some familiar characters made an appearance. Will audio read again, it gets all the stars, etc etc