12.5.2020 | Saturday

The Afterlife of Holly Chase

Item: The Afterlife of Holly Chase
Rating: 5
Author: Kim

category: Book Reviews
tag(s): young adult
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title: The Afterlife of Holly Chase
author: Cynthia Hand
published: 24 October 2017
publisher: HarperTeen
genre(s): paranormal
pages: 386
source: bought
format: eBook
buy/shelve it: Amazon | B&N | BookBub | Goodreads

rating:

the blurb

On Christmas Eve five years ago, Holly was visited by three ghosts who showed her how selfish and spoiled she'd become. They tried to convince her to mend her ways.
She didn't.
And then she died.
Now she's stuck working for the top-secret company Project Scrooge--as the latest Ghost of Christmas Past.
Every year, they save another miserly grouch. Every year, Holly stays frozen at seventeen while her family and friends go on living without her. So far, Holly's afterlife has been miserable.
But this year, everything is about to change. . . .

my review

The Afterlife of Holly Chase was such a great read, holiday or otherwise! The synopis of the book doesn’t do it justice.

There is so much to appreciate about this book. At the top of the list is the fact that it’s a reimagining of Charles’ Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, a reimaging with a twist in the form of Project Scrooge. The way in which the original story is entwined into this story, becoming central to the plot, was so unique. It made for a lovely balance between the classic and the new.

I loved the premise of Holly’s afterlife so much. There is something hopeful about the idea that there are those, even unseen, that care enough to try to help others. At one point, one of the characters makes a comment about never giving up on a Scrooge, and that was really beautiful. And I loved the messages of the original were also present in this, and without any preachiness or overly saccharine platitudes.

And the characters… they were so diverse and interesting. Especially interesting for me was the affinity I felt for Holly and Ethan. Normally, I don’t adore an unlikable character, much less two of them, but there was something about them that really drew me. Both of them felt less like true “bad” people than they did broken people. And that made me heart ache for them. They were each deeply flawed, but it was the paths that led them there that got to me. It created an intriguing tug-of-war between sympathy and angst for them.

There were moments when I couldn’t help but ugly cry, especially as I neared the end. I loved the way it ended, even if I was sad to see it end! If you love a holiday read, especially a unique one, this is a fantastic one to try!

About Cynthia Hand

Cynthia Hand is a native of southeastern Idaho and currently lives with her husband and two small children in Southern California, where she teaches writing at Pepperdine University. She has graduate degrees in creative writing from Boise State University and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Instead of a muse, Cynthia has a guardian angel named Buster. He wears a Stetson in place of a halo, prefers a beat-up pickup truck to flying, and loves to correct Cynthia’s grammar.

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