Gene Kendall's Reviews > The Tale of Krampus

“The Tale of Krampus” starts with a genuinely fun premise: Father Christmas, facing financial trouble, hires Krampus as a business partner only to discover he’s an authoritarian bully who abuses the elves and possesses a dark interest in naughty children. Krampus is one of the more entertaining holiday figures, and I wish more authors would lean into this creepy, mythological beast.

That said, the execution is uneven. Like Gibson’s earlier work, the prose suffers from some clunky phrasing and awkward rhythms. There’s one joke, maybe it’s a joke, I found puzzling: a line of dialogue crossed out and replaced with another word. That kind of humor works in prose narration, but in speech it raises the question of how someone can speak aloud a word that’s been nixed out?

The illustrations don’t help much either, resembling childlike MS Paint drawings rather than polished book art. Still, beneath the rough edges is an occasionally amusing satire with a strong central idea. With tighter editing, this could have actual potential.