My Little Pocketbooks: Review: Unholy Night

Unholy Nights
Author: Seth Grahame-Smith
Genre: Biblical Fiction
Publisher: Hachette Audio
Release Date: April 10, 2012
Audiobook: 9 hours and 50 minutes
Narrator: Peter Berkrot
Source: Free from e-Library

Book Description

From the author of the New York Times bestselling Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, comes UNHOLY NIGHT, the next evolution in dark historical revisionism.

They're an iconic part of history's most celebrated birth. But what do we really know about the Three Kings of the Nativity, besides the fact that they followed a star to Bethlehem bearing strange gifts? The Bible has little to say about this enigmatic trio. But leave it to Seth Grahame-Smith, the brilliant and twisted mind behind Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies to take a little mystery, bend a little history, and weave an epic tale.

In Grahame-Smith's telling, the so-called "Three Wise Men" are infamous thieves, led by the dark, murderous Balthazar. After a daring escape from Herod's prison, they stumble upon the famous manger and its newborn king. The last thing Balthazar needs is to be slowed down by young Joseph, Mary and their infant. But when Herod's men begin to slaughter the first born in Judea, he has no choice but to help them escape to Egypt.

It's the beginning of an adventure that will see them fight the last magical creatures of the Old Testament; cross paths with biblical figures like Pontius Pilate and John the Baptist; and finally deliver them to Egypt. It may just be the greatest story never told.

Review

I love reading Biblical fiction and this was the main thing that attracted me to this story. Second, was the author. Since I really like Abraham Lincoln Vampire Slayer I thought I couldn’t go wrong with Seth a second time.

The prophets have been telling King Harrod for years “the Messiah, the King of the Jews was to come and he will rule over all the Kingdom.” But the story does not center around the coming of Jesus but around one of the Wise Men who came to see the baby Jesus after he was born. Wiseman? Or Criminal?

Seth has done a lot of reading and research for this book. It was very well written and had me hooked the minute the narrator started reading. The reader gets to possibly see the birth of Jesus through the eyes of a non-believer who doesn’t fall so easily for stories of miracles.

There are so many great details in this book but the one thing that is keeping me from giving it 5 stars is the amount and the gruesomeness of the violence. OMG! Everything you can thing of is in here and the images are forever stuck in my mind. Why? Vampire slaying is one thing by baby slaying is something else. Isn’t there another way to write about this? Does it have to be sooo graphic? I know it’s in the Bible too but not in full detail. I can handle (kinda) the beheadings and the torture as well as all the sword fighting but the killing of babies was too much for me. And yet… I was still hooked to see what was going to happen next. How were they going to get out of this situation? I just wish there was a way to tame the graphic violent scenes.

Oh and the narrator was great. I loved his voice and he did a wonderful job of being The Antioch Ghost. He played the part not read it, which is a huge plus for me. If you can handle baby killing and BC violence by the Romans in full detail (blood and all) then read this one. I would be interested is hearing your thoughts.