The Afterlife of Holly Chase & A Christmas Carol

The Afterlife of Holly Chase

By: Cynthia Hand

Grade: B

When young Holly Chase fails to change her life after being Scrooged she loses it and winds up stuck in the afterlife as the Ghost of Christmas Past. Years later she has one last chance to get it right when she connects with the most recent Scrooge. A handsome young man (naturally) who reminds her more than a little of herself.

While reading Holly Chase I also read Dickens A Christmas Carol for the very first time.

Grade: A

I think the main reason I never picked up A Christmas Carol before was generally you know the story. Man gets visited by three ghosts to show him the error of his ways and the future so that he becomes a better person. Still I enjoyed both that and Holly Chase. Even though Holly generally suffered from the same predictability.

Dickens is a nice too the point holiday classic. Holly Chase is a bit more like a Hallmark movie. She’s not a completely unlikeable character by any stretch. Hand does a good job of getting into her head and garnering her sympathy. (Although she does use the dead parent cliche. A couple of times over in this case.)

Project Scrooge was cute. It had a nice set-up and some good characters- though I thought it was kind of weird Holly was still alive enough to be wandering around New York and not just seen but recognized at one point. The relationship with Ethan walks a fine line but I do like how the whole thing concludes. And you can totally see why Holly would feel a connection to Ethan even if it starts out mostly because he’s hotter and  younger than the other Scrooge’s.

Overall The Afterlife of Holly Chase is a good, yet obviously predictable, fast holiday read.

Recommend A Christmas Carol: Yes. It’s a classic for a reason obviously. And it’s short.

Recommend The Afterlife of Holly Chase: Yes. Especially if you’re a sucker for those types of movies. I could literally see this being adapted in the future. Even though technically the Scrooge story has already been adapted probably more times than anyone can count. But you know what I mean! 🙂