Krampus: The Yule Lord by Brom

Title: Krampus the Yule Lord

Author: Brom

Published: Oct. 30, 2012

Publisher: Harper Voyager

Pages: 373

Genre: Horror/ Christmas/ Mythology 

Review: ebook library

Buy Links: Amazon, Amazon.uk

Set in Appalachia, Krampus the Yule Lord is a twisted fairytale about a failed West Virginia songwriter who gets ensnared on Christmas Eve in an eternal war between a not-so-saintly Saint Nick and his dark enemy Krampus, aka Black Peter, an ancient trickster demon. Krampus the Yule Lord is Gregory Maguire (Wicked) meets Susanna Clarke (Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell) in the realm of Guillermo Del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth, as Clive Barker (Mr. B. Gone) works his dark sorcery from the shadows. Once again featuring Brom’s chillingly beautiful artwork throughout, Krampus the Yule Lord is a feast of wonder straight from the kitchen of Sweeney Todd.

So I was looking around for a book that would scare me and I assumed based on this cover that is what it would do. Well the story was far from scary but it was a neat read. So imagine everything you know about Santa being considered a lie and Krampus who is considered a demon wants to get rid of Christmas and bring back the worshiping of Krampus. That is how our story happens. Krampus has been locked away for centuries and Santa has been making Christmas about love and sharing. So when Krampus breaks free it will be a battle between Santa and Krampus and who gets to pretty much own Christmas time along with the red bag. While all this is going on we are introduced to Jesse who loves his little girl yet really can not provide for so his wife leaves. With Jesse dealing with trying to get his family back together in some way he ends up finding himself in trouble with the bad guys within the town. This leads to a whole other battle of Jesse trying to do right and getting revenge. Honestly I ended up liking Krampus I never thought I would. I figured he would be this horrible creature and just be the worst villain ever. He just wanted to bring back where he was in the same category as Santa. Where he got the treats in shoes and worshiping of Mother Earth it seems he sorta had a kind heart somewhere. I think the author did a great job with this tale, to the reasoning on how Santa became Santa to the powers that Krampus holds. I believe the author also did a good job with Jesse's character. 

Gerald Brom is an American gothic fantasy artist and illustrator. Brought up as a military dependent he was known by his last name only, and now signs his name as simply Brom.
An Army brat, Brom spent his entire youth on the move and unabashedly blames living in such places as Japan, Hawaii, Germany, and Alabama for all his afflictions. From his earliest memories he has been obsessed with the creation of the weird, the monstrous, and the beautiful.
At the age of twenty, Brom started working full-time as a commercial illustrator. Since that time he has been working feverishly for every facet of the genre, from novels (Michael Moorcock, Terry Brooks, R.A.Salvatore, E.R. Burroughs), Role-playing (TSR, White Wolf, WOTC), comics (DC, Chaos, Dark Horse), Games (Doom2, Heretic, Diablo2, World of Warcraft), and film (Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow, Galaxy Quest, Ghosts of Mars, Scooby Doo, Van Helsing). Brom's powerful and haunting visions can be found in his two art books "Darkwerks" and "Offerings" and also his illustrated novel "the Plucker".
Most recently, Brom has turned his hand to writing a series of illustrated novels. His first novel "The Plucker" (a twisted children's book for adults) has over 100 paintings and received numerous nominations and was awarded a Chesley. His latest edition "The Devil's Rose" (a western set in Hell) is due out summer of 2007.