From the Bookshelf of Between The Pages…

The Afterlife of Holly Chase

Cynthia Hand

Start date: December 1, 2021

Finish date: December 31, 2021

Discussion: Moderator's BOTM Discussions

Why we're reading this: Moderator's BOTM for December (theme: Christmassy reads)…more
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What Members Thought

Jan 10, 2019 Emma rated it did not like it

I have a terrible habit of marking all my read books as “review-to-come” and then just, well, never reviewing them. I realized that might be somewhat annoying, so here I am-finally posting a review for a book I’ve read. Is the Earth still spinning?

Anyways, The Afterlife or Holly Chase is a cute (?), Christmas-y story. At least, that’s what it was marketed as. I’m not sure how cute it was, but it certainly was perfect for the holiday season. It’s a festive retelling of A Christmas Carol, in whic ...more

15 likes · Like · see review

Nov 09, 2020 elise rated it really liked it

This was addictive!
The audiobook was also great.

11 likes · Like · see review

Dec 25, 2019 Sylvs (NOVELty Reads) rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

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The first time I heard of The Afterlife Of Holly Chase was back maybe last year? And let's just say I was definitely intrigued as to why Epic Reads was a buzz about it. Literally everywhere you looked on that site was just HOLLY CHASE HOLLY CHASE HOLLY CHASE. I decided to catch the Holly Chase train... a year or two later...

It is a book inspired by the classic Dickens novel: A Christmas Carol whereby a girl named Holly Chase was visited by the three ghosts of christmas as a final attempt to cha The first time I heard of The Afterlife Of Holly Chase was back maybe last year? And let's just say I was definitely intrigued as to why Epic Reads was a buzz about it. Literally everywhere you looked on that site was just HOLLY CHASE HOLLY CHASE HOLLY CHASE. I decided to catch the Holly Chase train... a year or two later...

It is a book inspired by the classic Dickens novel: A Christmas Carol whereby a girl named Holly Chase was visited by the three ghosts of christmas as a final attempt to change her selfish ways. She didn't and then she died at age 17 and then became the new Ghost of Christmas Past at Project Scrooge. Five years later, Holly is put onto the case of Ethan Winters the third to change his selfish ways however to her surprise she finds that there could be more than meets the eye to him and ends up falling in love with him.

Let's just say Cynthia Hand is a legend! This book has the right amount of humour and let me just say the narrator's voice was GLORIOUS (yes in caps). Holly wasn't a boring main character who gets good grades and is obedient. SHE WAS GROUCHY AND I LOVED IT! She was flawed in so many ways and you could actually see it. And even Ethan! He was so multi-dimensional! He was a jerk but was soft on the inside. Kind of like a really burnt marshmallow.

And guess what! THE PLOT WASN'T EASY SOLVED! IT WAS GREAT! LIKE YESSSS A COMPLEX SITUATION THAT'S ACTUALLY HARDER TO GET OUT OF THAN JUST E.G KILLING THE BAD GUY!!

In the book. Holly had to constantly hide her relationship with Ethan and this was just fantabulous with all this undercover dating. I was absolutely here for it even though it did seem very love at first sight-y from both sides. I genuinely loved each character and did ship them a lot and guess what?! This was probably the first time EVER and I actually do mean EVER that I genuinely liked the main character a lot. It barely never happens but I just could see my own grouchy self in Holly Chase and it was like a full on euphoric moment.

But even then all of the characters just had something about them. From Dave to Boz to Blackpool and Stephanie everyone just had their own little backstory which was tapped into in completely unique ways. I found myself in love with everyone and loving finding out about Project Scrooge! I was constantly cheering on Holly as she dodged the cameras and monitors of Project Scrooge and she actually did it in a way that made sense. She actively sought out the monitoring times of Ethan rather than just "guessing" and then getting it right in a really weird warped way.

It was great and glorious and okay the ending made me low key sob but I think it did work out well and I was so happy Holly righted a few wrongs and got a second chance. I just hope that Ethan and Holly can cross paths more than once in the future.

Honestly this book just gave me hope in terms of second chances, becoming less grouchy and love. And I don't mean romantic kind of love but more so the love between family and friends which was so evident throughout the novel! I loved how it also showed people growing up, growing apart and maturing especially with the scenes featuring Ro, Holly's ex-best friend. I thought this book as a whole was just done so cleverly well!

ACTUAL RATING: 4.8 STARS ...more

5 likes · Like · see review