Cynthia Hand

Before I Fall meets “bah, humbug” in this contemporary YA reimagining of A Christmas Carol from New York Times bestselling author Cynthia Hand. On Christmas Eve five years ago, seventeen-year-old Holly Chase 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 their latest Ghost of Christmas Past. So far, Holly’s afterlife has been miserable. But this year’s Scrooge is different. This year’s Scrooge might change everything… The Afterlife of Holly Chase is a witty, poignant, and insightful novel about life, love, and seizing second (or third) chances, perfect for readers who loved Before I Fall or Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares.

The Afterlife of Holly Chase

★★★★☆
3.50 STARS 

A fun, light Christmas story. I quite enjoyed it more than I even thought I would. It was very feel-good story to read. I liked how this was not about the romantic love itself, but the love in general. The way things settled in the end, I was just so happy it ended that way. I might read this book every Christmas season for the next years not just because it is a perfect read for Christmas but also because it brought so much lessons to everyone.

“Anything’s possible, I suppose. It’s a wonderful fact to reflect upon, that every human creature is constituted to be that profound secret and mystery to every other.”
--
What a fun read for Christmas time!
(Except I read this one after Christmas, but just go with it.)

This year has been a bit heavy on the Dickens side for me; I read quite a few of his major works, followed by a biographical work on the man himself, and then various adaptations of The Christmas Carol. (Apparently, you can't have a holiday book without at least one Dickens reference)

And here we have yet another adaptation. The book is completely based on the Scrooge's story, but it is turned on its head, where we get a glimpse behind the curtain at how the Christmas ghosts work. The characters were fun, the plot was fun, the Dickens references were fun. All around, good stuff. 
Now, time for a Dickens detox.

Vivi

★★★★★ (5)

“But love doesn’t always have to be about the happy ending. Love can be about beginnings, too.”
I just wanted to read a few pages today, maybe get to the 60% of the book? 
But then i kept reading. And reading. 
And i finished it, and i loved it. 

RTC.

Denaiir

3.5 stars
I really enjoyed this book which had a nice Christmassy feeling without being all-out Christmas. So it was perfect for the first part of December to get into the holiday spirit. 
I loved the evolution of Holly throughout the book, all the side characters (the one I liked the least was Ethan) and loved the ending too. 
However, it didn't crush my heart or make me crave the end of the work day to be able to continue, but it was really pleasant to read and I had a good time

beautiful!! enthralling!! excellence!! i finished this in about three hours? as i literally just could not stop reading. it really did thaw my heart. and my body, like i'm actually sweating. i'm making it sound like some kind of pseudo-thriller but it's not. obviously. it had me wheezing, and gasping. it was impactful, definitely. 

the story was just so enchanting. ethan and holly's relationship was just the cutest. holly was right, i did ship them. it can't be helped. 

the ending? oh my god. i did several whisper-yells. (view spoiler)[ as much as i was rooting for holly and ethan, this ending that we got with holly getting a second chance and that this has all been an elaborate scrooge job? fucking brilliant. i loved it to bits and that is possibly the best ending i could ask for for this book. brilliant.  (hide spoiler)]

i liked how it was written. it was written in holly's pov, and so it was really easy to follow. it was one of those books where the simplicity still brought some sort of magic and i thought that was neat. 

overall, i loved it. yes.

lisa roeling 

Mahdis Riazikhah

Ashley Wendt

The Afterlife of Holly Chase was such a cute and heartwarming Christmas story. It had an interesting new take on Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol. It was a quick read, I flew through the majority of it in less than a day.

Bianca

The story and plot are fantastic! It is a well-written novel. However, the story seemed to drag at times with Holly seemingly repeating all of her complaints multiple times. Still a good read for a modern take on A Christmas Carol.

courtney garrison

It just sounds like another Christmas carol book with nothing else happening. I was wrong and I’m so glad I read this book. It is the perfect Christmas book to read every year. I was blown away by the story and over plot twists that happen, I never saw that ending coming.

Your MC Holly Chase is your spoiled rich kid. She is rude to everyone and everything, she only thinks about herself and what she can benefit from the situation. One night her dead stepmother tries to warn her to change her ways and that she will be visited by three spirits. Holly ends up not believing them and dies the next day.

Holly soon starts working for a company called Project Scrooge. They pick one person every year to try and save they tried to save Holly and failed, now Holly is their Ghost of Christmas Past. The Scrooge this year changes everything for Holly. She is thinking of others instead of herself. She is beginning to see things a bit different and hopefully, she can change this year scrooges fate.

The writing was astounding in this novel. I was constantly wondering what was going to happen. It was a great twist on the Classic Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. I love Cynthia’s writing and the way she paces and puts the story together. The ending blew me away with this novel and caught me completely off guard. It was never what I expected to happen, I thought it was going a completely different way.

Overall this was such an amazing Christmas Story and makes your heart feel complete by the end. Have you read Afterlife of Holly Chase? What did you think of it?

Anna Oeltjenbruns

Omg...so precious. This is gonna be a Christmas tradition for me to read.

Stacey 

I really loved this! It’s a really interesting take on The Christmas Carol. The only downfall was the cringey way Holly Chase talked and narrated. The ending was extremely heartwarming and filled me with emotions. Even though it’s a ya book, I still enjoyed it.

anderson elizabeth

read 3 was as per usual a blast

read 2 was also a 5/5 time

Lincy

Julija M

I finished this book late last night because I just couldn't let myself go to sleep without finding out what happens at the end. And I must say, it was pretty damn good.
At the beginning,we are introduced to Holly Chase who is a rich,arrogant and selfish 17 year old. She is aware that she is spoiled and that she isn't the best person,but doesn't care about changing. That's also the reason why she lost her best friend. On Christmas Eve she is woken up by loud banging and the ghost of her stepmother. Three ghosts then visit her to try and convince her to change her ways or else she would die. Holly doesn't believe what they're saying ,so she gets hit by a car a week later and dies. And that's where the story of her afterlife and working at 'Project Scrooge' begins.
Holly is a failed Scrooge who after dying becomes the new Ghost of Christmas Past to try to fix other people,and along the way,herself too.
This is a retelling of Charles Dickens' 'A Christmas Carol' which I didn't read before reading this book,so if you too haven't read it that's okay as everything needed to know is explained in this story.I really enjoyed this as a Christmas read,although I wasn't planning on reading it.I stumbled upon it somewhere online and thought it sounded too interesting to pass on. So I got an e-book and read and read.It really is one of those books you can't put down for more than 5 minutes because you're always wondering what is going to happen next. I really liked the writing style,even though the books of hers that I read before were a lot different to this one. I would recommend it as a Christmas read but I think it can be enjoyed the same anytime of the year. All in all,this is a great book to finish off my reading year with,as I don't think I'll be starting anything new this year :)

Milo Jean

I really enjoyed this! I should probably start by saying I’m a big Christmas Carol fan, so I loved the existence of Project Scrooge! This was a very unique retelling of a Christmas Carol that I wasn’t expecting going in, but I’m so glad it was unique! 

This book was really cute and the perfect type of read for the Christmas season. I’m a sap so I did tear up a couple times and I really felt the Christmas Spirit while reading this.

Andy Bayliss

lets just say, i want to read this again. 
absolutely in love with this book, i’m so glad i finally finished it !!

definitely a christmas read that i’m glad i picked up.

Marisa

A charming holiday read that's perfect for the Christmas season. I just felt very happy while reading it and even laughed out loud a few times. I really had a lot of fun with this book. 

Tatiana 

Not everyone receives a happy ending… 

On Christmas Eve five years ago, seventeen-year-old Holly Chase 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 their latest Ghost of Christmas Past. So far, Holly’s afterlife has been miserable. But this year’s Scrooge is different. This year’s Scrooge might change everything… 

Since its the holiday season, I had to at least read ONE holiday themed book, and I think I chose right for this one.

Originally, I had boughten this to read for a book club a couple of years ago. Now it had been sitting on my shelf for a while hehe. 

I really enjoyed this retelling. I’m a sucker for retellings (can you not tell?). It was sweet, and original.

The whole secret company was  adorable and interesting, reminding me of those secret spy agency’s hehe.

Holly - loved character arc, but found annoying at a lot of parts. Some of the stuff she said was cheesy too.

Had some romance, but wasn’t really the centre. It was more about her character development.

Loved the ending.

Happy holidays,
Tatiana

Charlotte Rayfield

So I wasn’t loving this book and then the last thirty pages hit-I’m crying now

Zoey 

Really good plot, a modern book on a readaptation of The Christmas Carol. Not typically like how normal books are where the boy and girl end up together. This is more realistic and not that cliché

Candyce Kirk

This was a cute take on A Christmas Carol.
Full review to come: thebookdutchesses.wordpress.com

Viry

”So that was me. Holly Evangeline Chase. Sixteen—almost seventeen—years old, five foot seven, 115 pounds, brown eyes, blond hair, killer fashion sense, and a perfectly horrible human being.”
  

OH. MY. GOD. I haven’t felt the need to review a book in so long but this book was so amazing. It was perfect to read during Christmas and not going to lie, i got a little teary eyed and had goosebumps with this book. WOW!

update: second read and i still got goosebumps

Heather Heaton

The spirit of Christmas is alive in this one. It put me right in the mood for the holidays. This book is a modern day twist on A Christmas Carol in which a company called Project Scrooge chooses a scrooge to help each year. They learn as much as they can about their scrooge and plan all year long to help their scrooge turn their life around for the better. The themes of family and friends and that there's more to life than money is ever present in here and I feel like that is what Christmas is about. Pick this one up to get you right in the mood for giving and goodness.

https://youtu.be/tLSeF10EXsg
holiday reading vlog where i read this book and discussed it...check it out

The Afterlife of Holly Chase

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