Krampus: The Yule Lord
Ratings44
Average rating4.1
Was hoping this would be a temporary quit, but after two attempts and getting to the half way point, I have no desire to go back to it. This is an official DNF (for now, I love Brom).
Something about the style of the story just didn't catch my reading mood and now we're off season and I really don't feel like finishing it. Maybe pick it up physically someday.
I was really surprised with how moving this story was. I was prepared for a Christmas horror, which this is, but not for the sympathy/empathy I had for Krampus. It really paints a different portrait of other media I've consumed of what Krampus represents.
The middle was a bit mushy for me - started and ended with a good amount of action and the middle slowed way down.
Loves the afterward - kinda wish I had read that first.
“For I clearly see that mankind has not yet forgotten who they are. That deep down thier wild spirit still burns. That they need only a little nudge to be set free.
This was exactly what I wanted and more! This may be a top 5 horror novel for me even though it's more Urban Fantasy than anything. It had elements of Norse Mythology, Horror, great illustrations, and fantastic character development. I cared for every single character, even Krampus.
This isn't the Santa Claus or Krampus that you may know from western culture or even most European cultures but instead he goes back even further to Norse Mythology and finds similarities with Odin and Baldr to Santa which he talks about at the end of the book. (If you're a mythology purest then you won't like this book)
Santa isn't some fat jolly man but thick, massive and muscled like a Norse version of Thor (not Marvel's version).
The story follows Jesse, who is down on his luck trailer trash. His wife left him with his daughter for a crooked cop who wants him dead. He comes across Santa being chased by strange looking people and later finds Santa's bag which will give him any toy he wishes. Krampus has been imprisoned by Santa for 500 years and needs the bag to escape his prison in the Virginia mountains. He wants to kill Santa for his wickedness from a previous life and spread Yuletide across the world. Santa serves the Christian God now and will use his powers to destroy Krampus forever, with Jesse in the middle of it. The story has an awesome cast and has lots of Norse characters like Odin's ravens, large wolves, and Flying Goats (which I never knew was a thing in mythology). Highly recommend this book to anyone unless you're a Mythology purist!
This was really fun! I did take a little too long to finish it and lost the Christmas vibe which kind of made me lose interest at the end but that's on me. I really want to get my hands on a physical version so I can see the artwork too. All in all it was a solid story with some really interesting lore.
Let's head into Christmas with something out of the ordinary, shall we? This was one heck of a dark fairytale, set in West Virginia, in a town where everyone knows everyone and the head of police is in cahoots with the local crime lord.
The story opens on Christmas Eve with Jesse Walker, failed husband and father, depressed, alone, and contemplating suicide, until he sees Santa Claus attacked and fleeing into the sky, leaving behind his magic sack. What he doesn't know is that Santa's attackers are mostly after the magic sack, and what he thinks is his salvation turns out to be what traps him into everything that follows.
And what follows is a thrillride! Jesse is roped into being one of Krampus' servants, along with his belsnickels, people Krampus has lent a portion of his magic to. The magic twists them into fur-covered monsters, but also grants them healing and near-immortality.
Between trying to rekindle the lost traditions of Yule and hunting down Santa Claus to end him for good, Jesse also struggles to save his wife and daughter from the possibly-murderous cop they're living with.
By the end of the book I wasn't sure who to cheer for, other than Jesse and one of the belsnickels, Isabel. But Krampus? He might be right, but is he good? I'm not sure. Similarly, except for his millennia-past misdeeds, Santa is good NOW. But I'm not sure he's right. In an ideal world, the two of them could come to some compromise and apologize to each other, but this is a dark fairytale, so of course that's not the case!
I enjoyed this book, even if there wasn't a lot of happiness in it. It definitely embodies the Appalachia Gothic idea.
You can find all my reviews at Goddess in the Stacks.
3,75 stars, I guess.
So here we have a bit of an oddity. We all know our feel good, syrupy reads about Christmas with cute children, pets, some kind of typical tragedies, then touching resolutions. Brom (Mr. Brom? I'm just weird with this one name thing, you're not Voldemort or Prince) said fuck all that, you'll have blood for Christmas.
In this one we have a failed Southern musician, with a fallen apart family, who somehow ends up in the fight between Santa, who is a Nordic deity and Krampus, who wants us all to return to our old ways of Christmas. Oh, and murder. There is a bit of brutal, splatter-y murder with guts. Enjoy.
This is where my kind of ambivalent feelings come. Our human protagonist, Jesse is not a particularly successful guy, his wife and kid left him, his career doesn't exist, got into some trouble with the local, really corrupt law enforcement. He's a pleasant enough fellow, I guess we wouldn't have much hate for each other, but... sometimes I feel like it's Krampus I want to read about, not him. Then again, it's not a fair thing, because fuck, not many people can compete with a mysterious, ancient creature who freaks children out, then gives them money.
Now Krampus, that is a cool one. You just can't know him. At one point he's scary and all wrong, the next he's actually an almost sweet guy. It's all just a matter of perspective. I guess that is something I loved about this book; when you read Krampus or Santa, you can understand them, respectively. You won't be able to simply, 100% hate either or them. (Yeah, I kind of rooted for Krampus, but I love slightly dark ones, deal with it.) I can really appreciate that.
The only character who felt a bit too sickly sweet and oh so tragic was Isabel, one of the sidekicks of Krampus . Didn't care for her much. Sorry.
The whole book has this mysterious, slightly twisted feel, which works really well with the prose, so I don't think anyone will have a huge issue with that. My only slight annoyance was that at the beginning there was a bit too much “Santa man” and “devil men”. Another GIGANTIC thing (for me, heh) that added a ton to the atmosphere was the art. Holy shit, it's brilliant stuff. You know, our Mr. Brom is a visual artist as well as a writer, so he sprinkled in some artwork, which was really something I enjoyed.
All in all, it was really hard to rate this book and I'm still a bit annoyed that with the updates Goodreads still doesn't allow half stars. I enjoyed it, I put it on my my-jam shelf, but sometimes it felt like not enough of the magical creatures and a bit too much of the humans screwing around and doing their stuff. Loved the change of pace for Christmas, though, especially after the endless wave of typical family movies. Would recommend it to the lovers of weird.
Wholly surprised at how humorous this book ended up being. I was ready for a Christmas-themed horror of monsters and men but it completely appealed to my love of dark humour. Krampus himself ended up being a thoroughly likeable character, and all the characters in the book (apart from the General who I felt could have used more screen time and the Shawnee who don't really speak or do anything other than glare) are well developed. The use of Norse folklore was also a surprise but you really get a sense of Loki in Krampus' character which probably helped in his likeability since Loki is a favourite of mine. I would love to read a prequel of this and get more of Krampus and Santy's back story. Overall, a new favourite and I can't wait to read more of what [a:Brom 172487 Brom https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1302077137p2/172487.jpg] has on offer.