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Last week, I celebrated the season and Jane Austen’s upcoming 250th birthday with Jane Austen’s Christmas. On her birthday, on Tuesday, I posted my review of the biography Jane Austen at Home by Lucy Worsley. Marg enjoyed the Welsh village setting of Christmas at Hollybush Farm by Jo Thomas and highlighted the food mentioned in the story. Tina shared her thoughts on A Family Matter by Claire Lynch, a dual timeline story set in Ireland in 1982 and 2022.

Book: The Afterlife of Holly Chase by Cynthia Hand
Genre: Young adult fiction
Publisher: Harper Teen
Publication date: 2017

Source: E-book borrowed from library via Hoopla

Summary: Holly Chase, a rich fame-hungry 17-year-old in California, is visited by three ghosts on one Christmas Eve. As a modern American teenager, she thinks the whole thing is special effects and fake scare tactics until she gets hit by a car and killed in just the same way that the Ghost of Christmas Future predicted.

What is the fate of a failed Scrooge? In this imaginative retelling of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, Holly is destined to play the glowing young Ghost of Christmas Past for future Scrooges. Unlike in Holly’s case, most of the people selected by Project Scrooge succeed in making the same transformation as Ebenezer in the original story.

This year’s Scrooge is different, though. Ethan Winters was young, like Holly. And hot. Holly might be dead, but she didn’t lose her ability to recognize hotness when she saw it. Will she able to help him correct his cruel mean-spirited ways in time to save him?

Thoughts: Thanks to Aj of Read All the Things! She recommended The Afterlife of Holly Chase in a Sunday post in October. I added it to a list of possible books to read this month and, after finishing my time with Jane Austen for her 250th birthday, this is the book that I picked up. It was just right for my reading in December. The fast pace of a YA novel suited my need for something diverting while being easy to pick up again when I had to put it down due to family responsibilities.

Since A Christmas Carol was on my mind after taking a virtual tour of London that featured sites related to Ebenezer Scrooge, I was delighted by this modern retelling of the story.

A favorite aspect for me was how Project Scrooge operated like a company with quirky office mates, weird customs, and power dynamics that only sometimes corresponded to the organizational chart — just like real-life offices. Fantasy workplaces are a subgenre that I enjoy. I think my first encounter of that kind of setting was the movie Monsters, Inc with furry creatures carrying lunch boxes and wearing hard hats. Do you have recommendations for me with imaginative settings that retain real-world ways of work?

Appeal: The Afterlife of Holly Chase was a quick and easy read for me. If you’re still looking for something to read this holiday season, I highly recommend it. Does your library have Hoopla? You can probably get an e-book edition to read, right now!