“Stories let us see and hear and feel what someone else does,” she explained. “They build bridges to the other islands. That’s why stories are so important. They create true empathy.”
Read from December 19th to December 21st
389 pages
Young Adult Fantasy
Synopsis:
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…
I am not typically big on holiday reads, actually... I am not big on the holidays at all. The holidays being Christmas, of course. I haven't really celebrated Christmas in 10 years, since my Poppa died. I tend to avoid Christmas and Christmas related things, a modern day scrooge you can call me. When I read the synopsis for this book and realized that this was a retelling, it appealed to me. I've found myself drawn to retellings, even when I didn't know they were retellings, I still were drawn to them (subconscious mind telling me to grab the tellings lol). So, with this book I threw away my scrooge-ness and I snagged it from the library.
I flew through this read at what felt like lightning speed! The writing so captivating so the words drifted into my mind effortlessly. I wasn't expecting to fall in love with the story as much as I did! I was expecting maybe this to be a 3-star read... something mediocre that I would be glad I didn't spend money on, but honestly, I want to buy it so I can reread it every Christmas.
Holly Chase is your typical rich spoiled rotten brat. In the beginning of the story it is so easy to dislike her character. She is completely un-relatable. She treats people around her like an inconvenience to her life and you just want to reach through the book and smack her. She has her A Christmas Carol moment, she is visited by 3 ghosts, and even still she does not change. What a biiiiiiiiiitch. But, that's not what this book is about. Nope. It's about her growth afterwards. She becomes the ghost of Christmas past pushes the boundaries of her career in an attempt to save the soul of another. THIS IS GROWTH.
In a book that starts out with you angry af about a spoiled rich kid, it wraps up with tears of joy and warms fuzzy feelings and Christmas spirit bursting from the pores of your very being. Trust me. I never thought I would ever utter those words. This book did this to me.
