Line #20 Literature/TheStupidestAngel


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/zombiesanta_816.gif]]
2	[[BlatantLies A heartwarming Christmas story]] by Creator/ChristopherMoore.
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4	The [[OurAngelsAreDifferent angel]] Raziel is sent down to Earth to grant the wish of a child during Christmas. As sickeningly sweet as this sounds, the best laid plans of mice and angels [[GoneHorriblyWrong aft gang agly]]. Josh Barker the child whose wish Raziel ends up granting, has just witnessed the death of what he believed was SantaClaus and wishes for Raziel [[SavingChristmas to bring Santa back]] to life. [[WhatCouldPossiblyGoWrong Simple enough right]]?
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6	Long story short, Raziel's attempt at [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor granting the boy's wish ends up having farther-reaching consequences than he had expected]] and brings forth the beginning of what may or may not be a ZombieApocalypse.
7	----
8	!! This novel provides examples of:
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10	* AccidentalMurder: The cause of Santa Claus's death is just a case of domestic violence that got out of control (He was hit too hard with a shovel).
11	* BecomingTheMask: Molly when she's off her meds.
12	* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: To be fair, the wisher is a traumatized child and the wish granter is an idiot.
13	* BrainFood: What the zombies want.
14	* BrainlessBeauty: Raziel. Inhumanly attractive yet dumb as a bag of hammers. The child whose wish he grants tells Theo he thought Raziel was "a retard, or something."
15	* ChekhovsSkill: Thanks to her former movie career and years of practice, Molly is very, very good with swords. This comes in handy against an army of zombies.
16	* ChivalrousPervert: Tucker Case.
17	* ChristmasEpisode: For Christopher Moore's series.
18	* CloudCuckoolander: Raziel, Molly, and to an extent Gabe, who's more than a little disconnected from the normal world. Molly's Cuckoolander status is what prompts Raziel to seek her out, since angels, in his words, are attracted to lunatics because they can reveal their true nature without creating a breach of faith--nobody would believe a crazy person saying they'd met an angel. Fortunately for him, [[spoiler:Molly had already figured out she couldn't kill him, or she probably would have tried. Again.]]
19	* ClusterFBomb: ''Literature/TheStupidestAngel'' is fucking rife with curses.
20	* ContinuityNod: To Moore's other books, in particular ''Literature/{{Lamb}}'', ''Literature/IslandOfTheSequinedLoveNun'', and ''Literature/TheLustLizardOfMelancholyCove''
21	* [[CoversAlwaysLie Covers Always Omit A Lot]]: The part where Raziel raises the dead who attack the church is not really the focus of the book. That doesn't happen until the end. The book is really about following Theo Crowe as he investigates the disappeared Santa while dealing with his marriage troubles. But you would not guess that from all the book's promotional material.
22	* DeusExMachina: [[spoiler: Via ResetButton. At the end Josh explains in better detail to Raziel that what he wants for Christmas is for everything to go back to the way it was before he saw Santa killed.]]
23	* DumbBlonde: Raziel, Raziel, ''Raziel''. According to a character in [[Literature/LambTheGospelAccordingToBiff another novel]], Raziel is the UrExample of the trope, and he definitely lives up to it in this book.
24	* GenreSavvy: When the zombies start attacking the church, Theo says that by now the townsfolk shouldn't question what is going and assume it is the simplest explanation, [[WrongGenreSavvy which he guesses is a robot attack]].
25	** When [[spoiler:Tucker]] is bitten by a zombie, Josh points out that anyone bitten by a zombie turns into one, so they need to cut [[spoiler:Tucker's]] head off before he becomes one. Fortunately it never gets that far.
26	* GiftOfTheMagiPlot: An odd variation. At the start of Molly and Theo's relationship, she finally agreed to stay on her antipsychotic medication, which among other things prevents delusions of being an AfterTheEnd ActionGirl, and in return he finally gave up his pot habit. But when Christmas comes Theo wants to get her a priceless antique sword that would be absolutely perfect for her ActionGirl persona. To afford it, he starts growing pot again to sell it, and falls off the wagon. Meanwhile, she's getting him a massive, elaborate bong. To afford that, she stops taking her meds.
27	* GoneHorriblyWrong: Josh's wish to bring SantaClaus back to life ends up bringing a whole bunch of other people back as well. As zombies.
28	* HappyEndingOverride: Val and Gabe, who got together after the events of ''Literature/TheLustLizardOfMelancholyCove'', have split up by the events of this book, mainly thanks to Gabe's obliviousness and fixation on his work. Gabe is a mess.
29	* HandsomeLech: Tucker again.
30	* HearingVoices: Molly is a schizophrenic actress who hears a voice she has dubbed "The Narrator" (it's not said if it is the same narrator as the book). Unusual for this trope, the voice helps her more often than it gets her in trouble. She can also hear the dead telepathically talking to one another in their graves; when one of them refers to her as a nutcase, she yells, "I am not!"
31	* {{Jerkass}}: Dale Pearson is described as an "Evil Real Estate Developer," and introduced swinging a bag of ice at a salvation army collector(who happens to be his ex wife.) He's also the afformentioned zombie Santa.
32	* {{Lampshading}}: A character remarks that the RedShirts on Franchise/StarTrek always get killed... and of course, the guy with the red Starfleet command shirt gets offed at the first opportunity.
33	* [[LetsGetDangerous Let's Get Dangerous]]: When Theo starts barricading the church doors and windows from the zombies ''while stoned''.
34	* IntoxicationEnsues: Mavis's 'special' fruitcake. In her opinion a fruitcake should have just as much flour and dough as is required to make the pharmaceuticals stick together. Ingredients may include Vicoden, Ecstasy, rum, and whatever other narcotics she might have on hand. Theo tries to ban it because the previous year it had put six people into detox, but that's hardly going to stop Mavis.
35	* MallSanta: The SantaClaus Josh thought he saw killed is of course, a MallSanta on his way home from work.
36	* NinjaPirateZombieRobot: [[OurZombiesAreDifferent Zombie]] '''[[SantaClaus Santa]]'''
37	* OurAngelsAreDifferent: This one is a complete moron, for one thing.
38	* OurZombiesAreDifferent: Type C.
39	* RedShirt: ''Literally'' invoked. One character decides to wear a Starfleet command shirt because it's a festive, Christmas-y red colour. Another character even comments [[{{Lampshading}} on how the Red Shirts always died]] in that series. Guess who gets shot in the head when the zombies walk through the door? Here's a hint. He's wearing a red shirt, and it ain't the guy in the Santa suit.
40	* SavingChristmas: A deconstruction of the Santa's Sick plot, taken to absurd degrees.
41	* ScarsAreForever: Averted. Molly's scar, which ended her movie career, is removed by Raziel as a kind of Christmas present. This actually moves her to tears, but the Narrator naturally breaks the moment:
42	-->'''Narrator''': You complete shit bag of sentimental saccharine.
43	* ShapedLikeItself: The first line begins: "Christmas crept into Pine Cove like a creeping Christmas thing..."
44	** Dale Pearson's statement that his Ex-wife is "A nutcase" is said as if he were declaring water is wet.
45	* TalkingAnimal: Roberto the fruit bat, though the only other person he talks to besides Tucker is Molly, because nobody would believe Molly if she mentioned a talking fruit bat.
46	* TheVerse: The novel takes place in Pine Cove, California, a fictional location Moore is fond of using in his novels. The angel [[Literature/LambTheGospelAccordingToBiff Raziel]] is a RecurringCharacter as well, and Tucker Case and his bat were originally introduced in ''Literature/IslandOfTheSequinedLoveNun''. Furthermore, Officer Rivera, who appears in Literature/PracticalDemonkeeping, later ends up on the San Francisco PD, where he has repeated run-ins with [[Literature/BloodsuckingFiends Tommy and Jody]] as well as [[Literature/ADirtyJob Charlie Asher]]. Asher in turn meets [[Literature/CoyoteBlue Minty Fresh]], now running a record shop in the City, and one of Josh's friends muses that he wishes he could go to Hawaii and become a Rasta like his cousin Preston, who changed his name to Kona and got a job with a [[Literature/FlukeOrIKnowWhyTheWingedWhaleSings whale research outfit]].
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Context Literature / TheStupidestAngel