February 8, 2019
Nerdly Book review Christmas Voices
http://www.nerdly.co.uk/2017/12/27/christmas-voices-book-review/
With Christmas here, it’s time to get into that festive spirit, putting up the Christmas tree, lights and decorations. Writing Christmas cards, letters to Santa, the festive music playing in the shops and those seasonal films on TV. It’s all about traditions which makes it feel like Christmas, although the occasional snowfall would also help to set the mood.
After reading Christmas Voices I can confirm that this is set to join that list, as a quick read for the family to get them in the festive spirit. The book is inspired by A Christmas Carol and a Christmas tradition of the author John callas, who builds his own Christmas Village with his family every other year (because it takes 6 weeks to construct). It really is a heart-warming tale which manages to capture the spirt of Christmas and the belief that if you can believe miracles they really can happen.
John Daily grew up as part of a loving family on their farm, but as they relied on the success of their harvest to get by each year, they struggled in poverty with barely enough money to put food on the table. There are very few luxuries afforded in John life, but every Christmas John would take comfort in building the families own Christmas village, which had been passed down through generations. The familiar characters in the village which John would reacquaint himself with each year had become like friends to John and they would talk to him with imaginary voices, asking for the things they wanted. John listened their requests and promised to each and every one of them that one day he will become rich enough to make all their dreams come true.
John worked hard to achieve his goal, and eventually became one of the richest men in the world, and with his wife and two children it seems as though he finally had everything. Driven by his past, no matter how much he got, it was never enough. John had developed an insatiable appetite for more money with a cutthroat attitude to the business world, all that really mattered in his life was the next deal and how much he could earn from it.
When an accident turns John’s life upside down he realizes that there are things which money just can’t buy. Finding himself now lost he is forced to look back on his passed and in search of a miracle he finds a familiar voice of hope from somewhere he wasn’t expecting
Christmas Voices takes you on roller coaster journey of emotions. We follow John through the events which change him from a caring adolescent, who dreams of one day becoming rich enough to help everyone, to the egocentric millionaire driven by self-gain and greed. It may seem like a familiar story, with John having a more than passing resemblance to A Christmas Carol’s protagonist Scrooge, but it manages to create its own unique story which evolves around the Christmas Village. Bringing its own magic with Johns imagination as a child and when lost as an adult.
Although your feelings towards John change throughout the book, the initial empathy for John and his family’s situations later changes to distaste as he develops his obsession for money. But all the while there is still something about the character which leaves you in hope that he can turn things around.Though it would have affected the flow of the story, I would love if the book had explored John’s relationship with his friend throughout university and the course of events which effected his parents when he moved away. However, this is a credit to the way the characters are developed. Once I reached the end, I felt as though I wanted the story to continue further.
As someone who enjoys the Christmas traditions, Christmas Voices is the perfect addition to the list. It encapsulates the message of A Christmas Carol, but John Callas gives his own unique twist on the story, in a moving tale in which he delivers his own Christmas miracle if you can just choose to believe.
Christmas Voices is available at: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=christmas+voices+by+John+Callas&ref=nb_sb_noss