more than a 4 star but less than a 5 star such a fun holiday kind of horror read it’s not scary but there is some depth there’s some dark topics discussed but still a fast paced memorable holiday read love the illustrations dare i say brom is a autobuy author

oh how i wanted to love this. BROM HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO ME.

tldr; this reads like a worse version of slewfoot (even though this came out before slewfoot SHUT UP I READ THAT FIRST)

now here’s the long story: i really didn’t like much about this book. let me go over what i did like. which is mainly isabelle. simply because she is pookie pie. she is the love of my life and she could get it. also i am a sucker for “eternal being being mesmerised by things we find boring in the modern day” trope. krampus is a himbo at times i said what i said.

there were also a few scenes i really adored. namely the moment in the general’s hideout. you know the one. also the little moment with krampus at the bar???? did not expect that in this book but wow was i happy to read about it. i loved those two scenes A LOT.

ummmm and that’s about all i can say i really loved about this book. so let’s go over what i didn’t love 😟

jesse. what an asshat. yes i recognise the story is very likely supposed to give him a strong redemption arc where he goes from an unlikeable protagonist to someone the reader roots for. but i did not give a flying fart about what happened to him. honestly there were many times i kinda wished he died. and so many situations jesse got out of seemed incredibly unrealistic. like it just threw me out of it all. idk it feels like his redemption arc… didn’t exist? where was his being a good guy? oh wow he helped krampus? therefore he is redeemed? nah im gonna need more than that actually. 

krampus felt very much like samson from slewfoot. almost too similar for me to not keep referring back to samson and thinking “oh he was written so much better”. like at least samson’s motives made sense there. why the fuck is krampus doing anything beyond his own goals. actually scratch that, he isn’t doing shit, which brings me to another issue — it felt like most of this book was filler. nothing ever fucking happened. and if something massive was built up, it either was incredibly disappointing in reality, or instantly reversed by the necessity of the plot, making what i had just read pointless. like yes we’re doing this massive showdown where we’re supposed to be worried for krampus….. but also he’s fucking immortal. so why do i care if he gets hurt when you’ve sent up he kind of can’t die. 70% of this book is krampus bitching, 20% is jesse bitching, and the remaining 10% is where anything actually interesting happens. the plot is literally this: krampus and gang go to a location. they encounter shenanigans. they rest up. jesse winges about dillard. krampus and gang go to another location. wash rinse repeat. and krampus’ motivations beyond “spreading cheer” and “killing santa” don’t exist, meaning you have no idea why the fuck he’s just pissfarting around for most of the story.

can you tell i didn’t like the plot?

so much of this book is just slewfoot but written by someone who has never written a book ever in their life and has also never been taught fundamentals in literature. because why do both books feature a human who is first an unbeliever and is hard on their luck when x supernatural creature appears and decides to help the main character get revenge on all those who have wronged MC,

then supernatural creature turns MC into one of them, murder murder, lots of lore dumps about their origins in folklore

hell, even the way krampus & samson’s dialogue appear are so earily similar i wouldn’t have been surprised if a twist was that they were straight up the same guy.

i am so thoroughly disappointed and annoyed. disappointed because i know brom can do better, as evidenced by my love for slewfoot, and annoyed because i wasted so much time on a book that could’ve been like…. 100 pages shorter.

i’m actually pissed what the fuck was that. 

This was so not what I was expecting….. also the stark contrast of loving Slewfoot to reading this next………. I’ll give it to Brom his writing has definitely really grown since this lol.

Positives:
- I genuinely really loved the Krampus Folklore and Norse Mythology in this. It was interwoven in really interesting ways & I ended up learning a lot about Krampus that I didn’t know or expect & that was really fun.
- how genre-bending this is??? Sure, one could call this fantasy horror technically to categorize it, but to it’s core this is an action movie vibe not unlike John Wick??? Lmao???
- I was invested in the story & all my incoming hatred aside, I did actually have fun reading this

Negatives
- first and foremost, the racist characterizations of Indigenous people in here. It made me question Slewfoot as well, as Slewfoot also had some dodgy moments that at the time I attributed to “white man pitifully attempting technical historical accuracy but instead being unnecessarily kinda racist,” but this had like very explicit racism in that was pretty wild. I do still think it was coming from a place of ignorance and stupidity, and not violent intentional hatred per say, but that still doesn’t excuse it. The Indigenous characters in this are absolutely characterized as “savage” & “creature like,” are only really called “Indians” the whole time, & at one point are even referred too as “injuns” which feels crazy for 2012. His writing has definitely grown a lot since this, but I scoured the Internet and could not find him acknowledging his racism at all & I’m left feeling very 🤨🤨🤨. 
- secondly, the misogyny & “written by a man vibes.” How disappointing this was after how brilliantly he wrote his female characters in Slewfoot…. I had so much blind faith and trust in this man after reading that book I just bought the majority of his backlist because I needed more from him. The male protagonist in this is actually so insufferable; his whole personality is just “ :( I’m a bad husband, and a shitty dad…. Poor me.” & we’re just supposed to sympathize with him??? And the other man in this book is even worse (though he is actually characterized as a villain at least.) The women in this are written as extensions of, and accessories for the men & have not a whole lot of depth (one of them is kind of interesting, but even she felt very written by a man.) I’m not going to lie, in the end this really just gave white trailer trash soap opera & I can’t even say it “has Ethel Cain vibes” cause it’s just men being horrible, for no reason, written by a man. Even Santa and Krampus kinda sucked and were shitty men lmaaaao.