I gotta be honest, I only picked this up because I was interested in some other Matt Haig books after finishing How To Stop Time. But all the other ones, highest on the list being The Midnight Library, were unavailable. Also, it was short (5 hours - for comparison, How To Stop Time is 10 hours, and the book I've now jumped into is 32 hours...) Also also, it was near enough to the holiday spirit. So instead of digging deeper into my "To Read" list, I picked it up and cruised through it. If I'm real honest, I didn't even check that it isn't some different Matt Haig. But no regrets.
The basic concept of the book is right in the title, the world is losing hope (wait, is this fiction?) and that means there's trouble for Father Christmas. It's a cute listen, establishes a lovely little North Pole environment, and is fun to listen to. The little things like how the Elves keep time (ie, 5 minutes until quite late), the magic, the pixies, the reminder to love and have hope, all make it an enjoyable romp. Add on top of that, a pretty despicable bad guy, a little historical tie-in, some action and adventure... it's thumbs up all around from me!
Parting Thoughts
