In Charles Dickens' classic novella A Christmas Carol, the reclusive curmudgeon Ebenezer Scrooge is visited on Christmas Eve by four spirits who force him to examine his selfish ways. When Scrooge awakens on Christmas morning, he is a new man, vowing to keep kindness, generosity, and warmth in his heart all year long.
The story was a hit from its first publication, has never been out of print, and has been adapted for countless stage and film productions...not to mention other books! Below, find a book inspired by Dickens' A Christmas Carol for every day of the 12 days of Christmas.
The Afterlife of Holly Chase, by Cynthia Hand (romance & relationships)
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.
Perfect for readers who loved Before I Fall or Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares!
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Dickens and Christmas, by Lucinda Hawksley (nonfiction)
An exploration of the 19th-century phenomenon that became the Christmas we know and love today--and of the writer who changed, forever, the ways in which it is celebrated. In Victorian Britain, the celebration of Christmas lasted for 12 days, ending on 6 January, or Twelfth Night. Through Dickens and Christmas, you'll come to know what it would have been like to celebrate Christmas in 1812, the year in which Dickens was born. You'll journey through the Christmases Dickens enjoyed as a child and a young adult, and the ways in which he and his family celebrated the festive season at the height of his fame. The book also explores the ways in which his works have gone on to influence how the festive season is celebrated around the globe.
Available as an e-book. Borrow it through the Sora app or at SoraApp.com!
Jacob Marley's Ghost, by Michael Fridgen (historical fiction)
Jacob Marley makes his debut in A Christmas Carol as the first spirit to visit Scrooge on Christmas eve. Greedy and cruel in life, he has been doomed to wander the world in heavy chains since his death seven years earlier.
In Jacob Marley's Ghost, author Michael Fridgen tells the story of a young Jacob Marley. During the years before he met Scrooge, he grew up in London, raised by an adoring father and a horrifying mother. When death comes to his home, a chain of perilous events begins. Marley is sent away from London on a ship, sold into slavery, and forced to work for one of the most detested men in France. Because he's different, Marley is bullied and tortured. Although he makes some close friends, Marley is eventually forced into an impossible and deadly situation. To survive, he must choose what kind of person he wants to be.
Available as an e-book. Borrow it through the Sora app or at SoraApp.com!
Jacob T. Marley, by R. William Bennett (fantasy)
"Marley was dead: to begin with."
These words begin A Christmas Carol. Now, R. William Bennett rewinds the story and focuses the spotlight on Scrooge’s miserly business partner, Jacob T. Marley, who was allowed to return as a ghost to warn Scrooge away from his ill-fated path. Why was Marley allowed to return? And why hadn't he been given the same chance as Ebenezer Scrooge?
Or had he?
Available as an e-book. Borrow it through the Sora app or at SoraApp.com!
The Last of the Spirits, by Chris Priestley (horror & suspense; quick read)
On the bleak streets of Victorian London, Sam is freezing and hungry. When he is rudely refused help by Ebenezer Scrooge, Sam vows to kill the selfish old man.
But later, while Sam is huddled in a graveyard, a ghost warns him of the terrible fate that awaits him if he chooses the path of a murderer. And so, Sam begins a journey, led by terrifying spirits, through past, present, and future, after which he must decide his own destiny.
Available as an e-book. Borrow it through the Sora app or at SoraApp.com!
Lost, by Gregory McGuire (mystery & thriller)
Winifred Rudge, a writer struggling to get beyond the runaway success of her mass-market astrology book, travels to London to jump-start her new novel about a woman who is being haunted by the ghost of Jack the Ripper. Upon her arrival, she finds that her step-cousin and old friend John Comestor has disappeared, and a ghostly presence seems to have taken over his home. Is the spirit Winnie's great-great-grandfather, who, family legend claims, was Charles Dickens' childhood inspiration for Ebenezer Scrooge? Could it be the ghostly remains of Jack the Ripper? Or a phantasm derived from a more arcane and insidious origin? Winnie begins to investigate and finds herself the unwilling audience for a drama of specters and shades--some from her family's peculiar history and some from her own unvanquished past.
Available as an e-book. Borrow it through the Sora app or at SoraApp.com!
Marley, by Jon Clinch (historical fiction)
“Marley was dead: to begin with,” Charles Dickens tells us at the beginning of A Christmas Carol. But in Jon Clinch’s novel, Jacob Marley, business partner to Ebenezer Scrooge, is very much alive: a rapacious and cunning boy who grows up to be a forger, a scoundrel, and the man who will be both the making and the undoing of Scrooge.
They meet as youths in the gloomy confines of Professor Drabb’s Academy for Boys and years later, in the dank heart of London, their shared ambition manifests itself in a fledgling shipping empire. Between Marley’s genius for deception and Scrooge’s brilliance with numbers, they amass a considerable fortune of dubious legality, all rooted in a pitiless commitment to the soon-to-be-outlawed slave trade.
As Marley toys with the affections of Scrooge’s sister, Fan, Scrooge falls under the spell of Fan’s best friend, Belle Fairchild. Now, for the first time, Scrooge and Marley find themselves at odds. With their business interests inextricably bound together and instincts for secrecy and greed bred in their very bones, the two men engage in a shadowy war of deception, forged documents, theft, and cold-blooded murder. Marley and Scrooge are destined to clash in an unforgettable reckoning that will echo into the future and set the stage for Marley’s ghostly return.
Available as an e-book. Borrow it through the Sora app or at SoraApp.com!
Miss Marley, by Vanessa LaFaye (historical fiction)
In this prequel to A Christmas Carol, orphans Clara and Jacob Marley live by their wits, scavenging for scraps in the poorest alleyways of London. Every night, Jake promises his little sister ‘tomorrow will be better’ and when the chance to escape poverty comes their way, he seizes it despite the terrible price.
And so Jacob Marley is set on a path that leads to his infamous partnership with Ebenezer Scrooge. As Jacob builds a fortress of wealth to keep the world out, only Clara can warn him of the hideous fate that awaits him if he refuses to let love and kindness into his heart.
Available as an e-book. Borrow it through the Sora app or at SoraApp.com!
Mr. Dickens and his Carol, by Samantha Silva (historical fiction)
Charles Dickens is not feeling the Christmas spirit. His newest book is an utter flop, the critics have turned against him, relatives near and far hound him for money. While his wife plans a lavish holiday party for their ever-expanding family and circle of friends, Dickens has visions of the poor house. But when his publishers try to blackmail him into writing a Christmas book to save them all from financial ruin, he refuses. And a serious bout of writer’s block sets in.
Frazzled and filled with self-doubt, Dickens seeks solace in his great palace of thinking, the city of London itself. On one of his long night walks, in a once-beloved square, he meets the mysterious Eleanor Lovejoy, who might be just the muse he needs. As Dickens’ deadlines close in, Eleanor propels him on a Scrooge-like journey that tests everything he believes about generosity, friendship, ambition, and love. The story he writes will change Christmas forever.
Available as an e-book. Borrow it through the Sora app or at SoraApp.com!
Mr. Timothy, by Louis Bayard (mystery & thriller)
It's the Christmas season, and Mr. Timothy Cratchit, not the pious child the world thought he was, has just buried his father. He's also struggling to bury his past as a cripple and shed his financial ties to his benevolent "Uncle" Ebenezer by losing himself in the thick of London's underbelly. He boards at a brothel in exchange for teaching the mistress how to read and spends his nights dredging the Thames for dead bodies and the treasures in their pockets.
Timothy's life takes a sharp turn when he discovers the bodies of two dead girls, each seared with the same cruel brand on the upper arm. The sight of their horror-struck faces compels Timothy to become the protector of another young girl, Philomela, from the fate the others suffered at the hands of a dangerous and powerful man.
Available as an e-book. Borrow it through the Sora app or at SoraApp.com!
Some Christmas Stories, by Charles Dickens (quick read)
I bet you didn't know Dickens wrote Christmas stories other than A Christmas Carol. Here is a collection of six of his festive short stories to get you into the holiday spirit!
Available as an e-book. Borrow it through the Sora app or at SoraApp.com!
A Zombie Christmas Carol, by David Blanchard (horror & suspense)
The eeriness of spectral visitors is not all that haunts Ebenezer Scrooge. Since his youth, Ebenezer Scrooge’s world has been one of death. The dead roam the land, Scrooge is its most ruthless zombie slayer, and he seeks nothing but to eradicate this plague from the world and the coin with which to do it.
Available as an e-book. Borrow it through the Sora app or at SoraApp.com!
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