Brom

the Yule Lord

Krampus

Celeste Richardson

Picking up Krampus started out as a bit of a joke. I was reading A Christmas Carol, which has been my Christmas tradition for about a decade now, and decided to balance it out with something completely different. I went into Krampus fully expecting a horror novel that ripped Christmas apart. What I got was wildly different and infinitely more powerful. This book was profound and though-provoking and so much more emotional than I anticipated. Strangely enough, Krampus ended up being one of my favorite books of the year, providing a depth and nuance to famous and infamous figures that surprised me, as well as giving me a cast of new characters to root for. I have never been more pleasantly surprised by a book with such a disturbing cover. Which was also done by Brom. The man is an incredible artist.

This take on Krampus was absolutely fascinating. I had to do some research of my own as I didn’t know much about the origins of Krampus and was immediately taken in by Brom’s Norse take on the myth of Krampus. There’s a good deal of debate over whether Krampus is a lesser member of the Norse pantheon and potentially the grandson of Loki, as Brom supposes in this novel, or if he’s tied more to Germanic paganism. Whatever Krampus’s true origins may be, I found Brom’s Norse mythological take on his story absolutely fascinating. I won’t discuss the other Norse tie-in as it’s a spoiler, but it was a delightful surprise that I never would have considered.

I also loved seeing the funhouse mirror dichotomy of Krampus and Santa Claus. In this book, Santa Claus and Krampus are both far more morally ambiguous than their more commonly known myths portray. Santa is not wholly good, or even mostly good depending on whose perspective you’re viewing him from, and Krampus is far from evil. Krampus was also a very likable character who could be surprisingly kind. I didn’t expect to like him, but he won me over almost immediately. I actually think he might’ve been my favorite character in the entire book. 

Krampus is terrible in the original sense of the word, yes, but he can also be kind.  Crazed, yes, but understandably so after the last half a millennia he’s spent in captivity. But I found him a surprisingly nuanced character. As was Santa Claus, actually. You haven’t lived until you’ve read about Santa armed with a broadsword, facing off against Krampus. It’s even odder when you’re rooting for Krampus. And yet, here we are.

As for characters outside of Krampus and Santa, I initially found Jesse weak and pitiable, if not exactly likable. But he grew tremendously over the course of the story in ways that felt both hopeful and realistic. I liked Isabelle immediately, and found the rest of the supporting cast colorful and varied enough to remain interesting for the entirety of the novel. 

The choice in setting was wonderful and made a strange kind of sense. Instead of the North Pole, the majority of the story actually takes place in Appalachian West Virginia. I love seeing classic characters in unusual settings. But there’s also something kind of mysterious and a little bit mystical about Appalachia, so I thought it was a wonderful choice. In his afterword Brom goes into more detail as to why he chose this particular locale, and I found it a fascinating and insightful decision. 

Krampus is a novel that kept me on my toes, as I never had any idea where the narrative was going. I was absorbed and invested from start to finish, and can see myself rereading this every few Decembers. I feel like I learned a lot, while also being entertained and made to think in equal measures. This is the first book I’ve ever read by Brom, but it won’t be the last. His ideas are incredibly interesting, his characters are sympathetic, and his writing style immediately draws you in. If you want to add a little edge to your Yuletide or Christmas celebrations that also has a lot of heart, you should definitely pick up a copy of Krampus.

You can find  this review and more at Novel Notions.

Sarahi Flores

I Really enjoyed reading something Christmassy with some action pack and mythical twists. It's not a normal Christmas tale, it's more darker and mind blowing with what the author manage to create a different kind of Santa. Aspiring singer, Jesse, is at a loss with his marriage and trying to find a way to provide for his daughter, he became somehow involved with a war between the Santa Claus and a creature who calls himself Krampus.     The author manages to make you feel some sympathy for this Krampus creature and yet also be like omg what a blabber mouth. He sure likes to talk about the good old days lol. For a creature so foul looking, he sure knows how to talk formally.     Jesse is known to be a loser in the story. And I feel so bad for him because nothing is going right for him and he kind of finds a way to mess things up, when there's more options on how to handle a situation, he manages to make it worse. I believe it's his arrogance that got him into some deep trouble with some bad folks and with Krampus.     There's also the one who are bound to Krampus as servants. They all have a story and I feel so much for one in particular, Isabel. She may be look evil but she does not seem to be evil. She has a heart and she is kind.     It's a fast read and there's also illustrations of the characters which is very cool! It was a fun read, very entertaining, and a good book to read during the holidays, which passed but I don't care if I read it all late about it lol. I give this book 3.5 stars.

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Rachel

I am thoroughly surprised how much I loved this book. I was expecting Krampus to be dated in the pre-christian times and read like old timey folklore, but it's not that at all. In this story, Krampus has been in a cave in West Virginia for 500 years due to Baldr, aka Santa Claus, and he is getting out to bring back Yuletide. Jesse gets mixed up when he finds a sack that can produce any toy he can think of, he uses it to give his daughter from his estranged wife toys and to make a deal with a local gang leader that backfires. Santa's and Krampus' minions come after him and he ends up making a deal with Krampus to help them as long as Krampus helps Jessie protect his daughter and wife from the gang.

Krampus is hilarious, he doesn't give a damn and will do what he pleases to remind people of Yuletide. The story pokes fun at Christians getting upset about how people leave christ out of Christmas and "steal" their time and traditions to celebrate the time of the year without it being religious. The story shows how Christians stole a lot from the pagans traditions for Yuletide. The plot does a good job at explaining where Krampus came from, but I would of liked to of read a little bit more about the history. The book keeps you interested through out and the pace is fast moving. Really a great Christmas read.

Krampus the Yule Lord

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