Customer Reviews

Burn, Christmas! Burn!!

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Dark and angry, and yet hysterically funny, Brian Gage and Jeff Peterson have created a scathing commentary of Christmas that looks like a children's picture book.

Bippy the Elf (whose real name is Eugene Vladimir Von Triton Krinkeltoot), gives us a rhyming tour of Santa's famous "workshop" where the head CEO himself forces the elves to work night and day and where they never get any benefits in return, ("Last year reindeer droppings were the bonus to the staff.") all so that YOU can have a Merry Christmas.

So this year, Bippy and the elves decide to stage an Elven Revolution to get out of Santa's Sweatshop and are planning to come right into YOUR HOME!

Anyone who has overloaded on Christmas marketing and the exploitation of the worldwide labor force will love this little book, even if the symbolism is a bit obvious.

I would recommend one for everyone on your Christmas list...but it is printed in China...

Burn, Christmas, Burn!!!

Finally! A book that sinks it's teeth into the glitter of Christmas and rips out its heart! It's really funny and really dark. The author is a sick person, and I mean that as a compliment. Christmas has deserved this kind of send up for some time, and the elves in this book are just the ones to do it! I haven't laughed at a book this much since Get Your War On! I highly recommened this twisted Christmas tale.

I thought it might be a little strange to order this book during the summer, but hey Christmas in July why not? Although, it's not quite what I expected, I surprisingly got a big kick out of this mean-spirited little book I think due to my own aversion to Christmas festivities.

Particularly well done was the demise of the other reindeer at Rudolph's hands:
"And all the reindeer games at which Rudolph could never play,
He'll be the one who's laughing and name calling Christmas Day."
The illustration that accompanies it is very well done and really sick-minded.

If you like books that are a little out there, and convey a sick sense of humor, then you can't go wrong here. I thought it was really audacious.

While I sympathize with the anti-consumerism ideals behind it, this book is just poorly done. The rhyming scheme is stilted and forced, it's overly wordy, and the narrative is disjointed. It's bad, folks. This book is bad. As Dorothy Parker said, "This book should not be set aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force." Do yourself and those Chinese printers a favor: suppress your consumerist tendencies! DON'T BUY THIS BOOK! May it go out of print immediately. Amen.