This was just okay for me - I really appreciated the author's notes at the end, detailing what was truth and what was fiction. I like learning historical facts, and it can be hard to tell in a story set-up like this. I feel I learned a little truth about Dickens and some of the surrounding aspects of how A Christmas Carol came to be written. 

At the end of the book, there is a list of discussion questions - and just glancing over them, I think I might gain more of an appreciation for the book if I were to dive deeper, and do more of a study (for school/bookclub) than my quick listen (I went with the audio edition) strictly for entertainment. 

I had some familiarity with A Christmas Carol, performing in it for a number of years at a local theater (Fezziwig's daughter/choir). As names and lines were dropped, I did pick them up.  I think having a familiarity with the original is almost necessary to enjoying this book. 

I don't know that I really understood the character of Dickens here ... at first he seems like a pretty good guy. Husband and father ... and then he basically turns into Scrooge, and seems a philanderer (isn't he happily married?) I didn't foresee the twist, and appreciated it here.