Carol

MARNIE IS DEAD, TO BEGIN WITH.
There is no doubt whatever about that.
So who the hell sent Carol this text?
Born Christmas Day eighteen years ago, Carol Davis is known for anything but holiday spirit.
Sharp-tongued and self-centered, she's made her way to the pinnacle of high school by walking over anyone who stands in her way, be they enemy, friend, or even family.
Visited by the ghost of her best friend on the anniversary of her December drowning, Carol learns that a horrible fate awaits her and only by facing the Spirits of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet to Come can she avoid the coming darkness.
With each spectral visitation, she's taken down a familiar yet fresh path of discovery, uncovering the innocent girl she used to be, accepting the bitter young woman she has become, and yearning for a future where she can dare to love again.
As the clock strikes midnight on Christmas Eve, Carol has one last chance to turn her life around, but have the Spirits come too late to change the course of destiny?

Darin Kennedy, born and raised in Winston-Salem, NC, is a graduate of Wake Forest University and Bowman Gray School of Medicine. After completing family medicine residency in the mountains of Virginia, he served eight years as a United States Army physician and wrote his first novel in the sands of northern Iraq. His novel, The Mussorgsky Riddle, was born from a fusion of two of his lifelong loves: classical music and world mythology. The Stravinsky Intrigue continues those same themes, and his Fugue and Fable trilogy culminates in The Tchaikovsky Finale. The Pawn Stratagem trilogy, including Pawn's Gambit, Queen's Peril, and King's Crisis, combines contemporary fantasy, superheroics, and the ancient game of chess. His YA novel, Carol, is a modern-day retelling of A Christmas Carol billed as Scrooge meets Mean Girls. His new ongoing series, Songs of the Ascendant, is an 80s-pop-music-themed contemporary fantasy including Shadows of the Night, All Fired Up, and You Better Run. His short stories, particularly those about a certain Necromancer for Hire, can be found in numerous anthologies and magazines and are collected for your reading your pleasure. Doctor-by-day and novelist-by-night, he writes and practices medicine in Charlotte, NC. Find him online at darinkennedy.com.