The Afterlife of
Holly Chase by Cynthia Hand is
a young adult retelling of The Christmas Carol. It is about teen Holly
who is a scrooge and after having her Christmas Eve visit from the three
ghosts, she refuses to change and dies on Christmas day. So begins the real
story.
I gave this book 4.5
out of 5 stars. This was a fascinating read. I really enjoyed the premise and
the outcome of her story. The plot was very well done, if a bit slow in places. I did find the ending a
little confusing about timelines and all, but was still overall happy with how
she wrapped it up.
The characters were
wonderfully done. Each one unique with their own voice and personalities that
just jumped off the pages. I found the representation of a modern experience like
in The Christmas Carol to be extremely realistic and the character
development felt slow but pretty natural. Holly isn't a likable character (extremely selfish), but that is the point and we want to see her change.
This in no way takes
away from the original piece, but modernizes and expands upon it. Readers might
find it helpful to read the original before reading this one because they do
often reference Dickens work and talk in specifics about characters and their
role in the story, but Hand’s story is still perfectly understandable if you
haven’t read it (it just might add depth to the reading experience).
