Summary: Depicts the lives of the Three Kings of the Nativity, casting them as a set of infamous thieves who accidentally happen upon Joseph, Mary, and the newborn king and help them escape to Egypt.
Booklist Reviews
Blasphemous or brilliant? That was the buzz surrounding Grahame-Smith following his auspicious arrival on the New York Times best-seller list in 2009 with Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, a clever literary mash-up that launched a new "historical revisionism" genre of popular fiction. Blockbuster authors don't grow on trees, so it wasn't a huge shock when Grahame-Smith made headlines last December after Warner Bros. paid him $2 million for the film rights to Unholy Night before its publication. The twisted plot revolves around the biblical story of the Three Wise Men, depicted here as thieving scoundrels who—through a series of outrageous set pieces—end up aiding Joseph, Mary, and the little baby Jesus as they escape from the evil King Herod. There's no way of knowing if Grahame-Smith wrote this would-be epic with the intent of having it become a big-budget Hollywood movie, but it's not hard to visualize someone like Jake Gyllenhaal in the role of the murderous yet charming Balthazar. It's a rollicking, swords-and-sandals yarn that could easily have been subtitled "in 3-D." Copyright 2012 Booklist Reviews.
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