In the Spirit of Christmas: A Christmas Carol

Grabbed this on kindle for another Christmas spirit read. As a big fan of A Christmas Carol, I was curious how this would hold up and be different.

This novella is a retelling of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. The start shows us Scrooge in a more modern world, his work partner, Marley, is a woman, and also his partner in life. And although he was always the more frugal of the two, after her death is when his heart really started to turn to stone. And that stony chill is even frigid towards his daughter and son in law, not even having met his grandson. There was a scene early on between Scrooge and the daughter, where internally, he remarks that he wishes it wasn’t so and shows some kind of remorse. I was a bit worried, as it makes sense because it’s family, however at this point Scrooge was not a remorseful person, but the author does a great job of taking things from there.

The visit from Scrooge’s late wife was a nice twist, and the change to not only his behavior, but him being stuck in his grief, as reason for her (and his) chains was a well done addition. The three ghost visits that follow take on much of the same format as the original, but the continued tie in to Scrooge’s family life is the real winner here in terms of changes. His behavior has come between his daughter and her husband, as she simply cannot let him go—he’s her father, it’s a simple as that. But if Scrooge continues on the way he’s been, his family will suffer, his grandson will not receive the medical help he needs, and Scrooge will die in obscurity.

While this is a retelling that pretty closely follows the original, I found the changes enjoyable and enough to read as refreshing. The language used felt close enough to the original, which was a good thing, but I do wish the story featured more of the modernized world. Overall though, I enjoyed this a lot! Great Christmas spirit at the end.