“The Afterlife of Holly Chase” by Cynthia Hand
By: Sarah Keays
Tags: Holiday Read, Bookish, Young Adult Fiction, Book Review, A Christmas Carol

A Book Review

“The Afterlife of Holly Chase” by Cynthia Hand

A Christmas Carol retelling that will give you an inside look on what it’s like to be the Ghost of Christmas Past. Sarah Keays Follow Dec 27, 2020 · 3 min read

Image created by author using Canva, Pixabay, and Goodreads for the book cover.

“The first thing you should probably know is that Yvonne Worthington Chase was dead.” — First Sentence of Cynthia Hand’s The Afterlife of Holly Chase

Cynthia Hand~ Published October 24, 2017 by HarperTeen ~ 400 Pages~ Young Adult Holiday Retelling ~ 4 Star Rating

This story was a wild ride. We have loads of Dickens shout outs (which I’m a big fan of), including a lovely quote from A Christmas Carol that sets the tone for the whole novel:

“Man of the worldly mind!” replied the Ghost,” do you believe in me or not? “I do,” said Scrooge. “I must. But why do spirits walk the earth, and why do they come to me?’ “It is required of every man,” the Ghost returned, “that the spirits within him should walk abroad among his fellowmen, and travel far and wide; and if that spirit goes not forth in life, it is condemned to do so after death. It is doomed to wander through the world — oh, woe is me! — and witness what it cannot share, but might have shared on earth, and turned to happiness!” — Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol

This quote is the pure embodiment of The Afterlife of Holly Chase because this novel is about a failed Scrooge. We, as readers, get to see what happens to Holly Chase after she is visited by these spirits and disregards their message.

A Retelling

As far as retellings go, this one is fairly unique at first glance. Usually, retellings take the original story and then twist it into something modern or using the same elements to create something new. Cynthia Hand took these elements and turned them upside down.

She explored what a different view on Dicken’s classic would look like. Holly Chase didn’t believe what her ghosts were showing her, so she died. She failed as a Scrooge and was asked to join the Project Scrooge team, where she would become Ghost of Christmas Past and help other Scrooges make the changes that she failed to make.

Either she joined the team, or she would cease to exist completely. Being scared of dying, she took the job offer and became Ghost of Christmas Past. There is so much world building when it comes to Project Scrooge and that’s probably my favorite part of the whole novel.

I’m not going to spoil what the inside of Project Scrooge looks like, but it’s very well thought out and drenched in Dickens references. You do not have to read A Christmas Carol to appreciate The Afterlife of Holly Chase, but you should be familiar with key parts in the story.

The love interest is of the forbidden love variety, so if that’s a trope you enjoy, you may like this novel. The ending kind of threw me, as a fan of this trope… so, fair warning.

Romance

If you’re looking for a light and romantic Christmas read, this is not the book for you. I was looking for that when I picked this up and was disappointed in the romance department. The Afterlife of Holly Chase is more about character development and working on oneself instead of finding a holiday romance. If I’d known that going into this novel, I think I would’ve enjoyed it more.

Rating

I was banking on giving this novel three out of five stars while I was reading it because I thought the story was predictable and I really didn’t like Holly’s character. I felt she was a bit flat and one-dimensional, but the ending plot twists pulled it up to a four star rating.