i had such high hopes for this book. 
it’s quoted on the book as being this funny festive adventure and while it’s certainly an adventure kind of book it’s also extremely over the top and repetitive in its comedy -if you want to call it that. 

i dislike being mostly negative but sadly this book just doesn’t have a large amount of positive things that i can rave about.

for me this book was trying to be something it didn’t end up becoming - magical fun christmas adventure maybe in the same tone as the movie „Arthur Christmas“. 
it never got there. 
this book tried to hard to be funny with jokes that didn’t land and writing that showed it tried to be the current trend but didn’t know exactly how to speak that way and willed with pretty mindless and running round without a real plan.

no character development, no christmas magic and beauty, joy or fun… this book sadly lacked all the things that could have made it a better story.

and in top of that the last 8-10 pages were incredibly rushed because it all of a sudden became clear that all the answered needed to be given that the last 300+ of running around and mindless, over the top jokes didn’t give! 


And okay, maybe it’s just not my type of humor.

 i never enjoyed fart jokes, i don’t enjoy dont find it funny when one of reindeer speaks „like i wouldn’t know, but like it’s sooo super cool, like speaking like this right? because that’s how everyone like talks now like right?“ (which thankfully was one of the ones that spoke the least!)

and look i get that this is a middle grade book and it’s clearly targeted towards a younger age range of that audience but while this is fast paced it’s mostly just stupid. 

having to reduce basically every since reindeer through this entire book for over 200 pages only for the last 4 to have the big reveal, come to a conclusion and finish up? it’s just not paced right.


this story and idea could have been fun but i think it would have been better as a picture book, 50-60 or so pages long, large beautiful illustrations and keeping all the repetitiveness out and utterly ridiculous moments (like a best being described as having „a huge tongue coated in s gooey white slop, two big yellowing teeth jutting up from the front corners of its bottom jaw, head low and lolling from side to side…“ for no reason or with any explanation at all) that i am unsure if they where supposed to be funny or not - i didn’t find them that way. 


also sadly while i found the cover art cute enough with color added, the black and white version inside the book wasn’t for me. 
art is personal and i am sure there are people that will find the illustrations quirky and fun, i found them too simple and sadly lacking the beauty and fit for what they were supposed to show - and again i am unsure if that was done purposefully to show the quirky funny side or not. clearly it didn’t work with me.


overall sadly i wouldn’t recommend this to a large audience.

 if you want a fast paced quirky adventure story? go for its

but if you want actual christmas wonder and fun? i think it’s better to look somewhere else. 

this book is very much focused on running around and trying to land a joke instead of focusing on making thinks cozy and fun in a way i find more fitting for christmas stories.