The Chosen and the Beautiful

This book is full of 1920s sparkle and longing—I love this classic story more from a queer Asian American point of view. Jordan Baker is everything—a dreamer, supportive, strong, adaptable, sensual. Watching the story play out from Louisville to West Egg with Baker at the center helped me come to some new realizations about Gatsby, Tom, Nick, and Daisy. With gin babies, speakeasies, and demoniac dancing around the periphery, this story stayed true to the class struggle, racism, and grime at the edges of 1920s glitz and glamour. Love this book! And I'll read The Great Gatsby again with new eyes because of it.

this book was really boring. no plot. the character doesn't do anything of her own volition, she's just passive

I want to come back to this but I'd had it out from the library for too long and it just wasn't grabbing me

Again, goodreads needs half stars. This was so close to a 4 for me but I couldn't do it. The writing is beautiful but I wish there wasn't the “magic” in it. It just didn't do it for me, not because of the author, I just don't care for it

debating a 4 or 5 star idk im indecisive

Jordan Baker has always been my favorite character in the Great Gatsby and this retelling from her perspective was quite literally magical. The writing emulates the original so well while also adding something new. Also Jordan Baker and Nick are canonicaly queer

This book needs to have more queerness in the book and make more social commentary. The Asian character needed more time to develop in the book and while I liked seeing a modern take on The Great Gatsby, I wish that it were fleshed out properly.

puts nghi vo on my auto-read author list The writing is so smooth and beautiful. Down the western canon. Give it color and make it queerer

Okay, so this one is a Great Gatsby retelling and I thought I would venture out of my wheelhouse, which is occasionally rewarding. I didn't love Gatsby- Fitzgerald's writing style was pretty dry. But sometimes a retelling can get you way more invested in the original story. Circe is like this for me, or in a different medium, Hamilton. So I thought, let's give it a try! Anddddd I had a bad time.

Look, this book is technically good. It is very well written, and I will definitely check out more of Vo's work. If you love Great Gatsby, it's definitely possible you will really like it. The problem here is me. Either I or the world do not understand the word “retelling”. Because this is without a doubt fan-fiction. A retelling involves telling with some revision. A RE-telling. This is a telling.

There's nothing wrong with fan-fiction. Write yourself into whatever Harry Potter side story you want. But this book kept rubbing me the wrong way. It's exactly the story of Great Gatsby with just a few things changed. It changed Jordan Baker, Nick's girlfriend, into a queer Vietnamese-American woman. Guess who falls into that category? Nghi Vo. And Gatsby was in the public domain for SIX MONTHS before this book was published. She pounced on this at her first opportunity.

Maybe I'm being overly harsh here, I don't know. But I kept thinking that Vo read this book in high school and was like “wow I want to have sex with Nick AND Daisy” and so she went and wrote herself into the story, added a bit of random magic, some casual devouring (PSA: the word devour should not be used in oral sex scenes. Just...no! Go sit in the corner and think about what you've done!) and waited for the minute she could publish it.

This is very much a case of just not for me. Also, everybody in Gatsby sucks!! I had forgotten. They feel extra unlikeable here, but that just may be because I'm experiencing their unlikeability through new eyes.

5.5/10

I was so captured by this re-imagining of the Gatsby story. Jordan Baker and Nick Carraway come to life and the story becomes so much more through thier eyes. Really good writing - I will be thinking about this book for a long time.

Based on reviews and comments I've seen, to me this is clearly a love letter to the Great Gatsby (which I think I read but honestly can't remember). So from a non-Great Gatsby perspective: I really loved Vo's writing in this one, but the plot, character development and fantasy were fairly weak. I was very happy when I finished it I'm sad to say and I didn't appreciate it like many other folks.

As someone who loves THE GREAT GATSBY, I thoroughly enjoyed this retelling from Jordan Baker's perspective. Natalie Naudus was an excellent narrator choice for the voice of Jordan Baker and gave a phenomenal performance.

I found Nghi's version to be just as compelling and heart-wrenching as the original.

The added BIPOC, queer and magical elements felt like they fell easily in line with the dreamy, enchanting quality that is evoked in F. Scott Fitzgerald's writing and storytelling style. Would have loved to seen even more of it, especially the magical aspect. Very intriguing.

It's been well over a decade since my last re-read of GATSBY, but so looking forward to diving into it after being swept up into the world again.

***Thank you to Macmillian Audio for providing me with a copy of the audiobook for free via NetGalley for an unbiased review.

i was interested because this is, as far as i know, the first published ‘remix' of The Great Gatsby since it went public domain last year. (it's also published under Tor, but the Tor name and logo is missing from the book jacket - to try to gain some mainstream market share, i guess?) after reading the publisher blurb, i was like ‘this really could go either way, and nowhere in between...‘

of course most of the book is essentially a crib of the original, but the author's additions are either superfluous or another story entirely. (and needless to say, the new writing is no Fitzgerald.) the ‘magical elements' seemed to be there for textual ornamentation and author's personal interest - they were randomly inserted, randomly referred to and mostly had no real bearing on the plot. but when they did, they could do literally anything at all as the plot devices required, deus ex magica. this seems to be a constant issue with young fantasy-leaning writers - i felt Erin Morgenstern's The Night Circus had the same problem.

the whole purpose of this ‘reimagining' seemed somewhat unfocused and very inconsistent, other than to ‘reimagine' the main character as a stand-in for the modern day version of the author - for someone living in the 1920s, her viewpoints are quite 2020s and almost fourth-wall breaking. it was continually distracting and i just wanted this book to be over, practically from the first few pages.

so why two stars instead of one? as mentioned above, there was another raw dough of a story bulging and bubbling out here and there around the gilded cast-iron original text. this seemed to be the one that the author actually wanted to write, and some of those bits showed potential. perhaps some embroidery scissors/pinking shears/tin snips could be taken to this manuscript and a newly-animated plot inspiration could jump to life.

I was very excited for this one because I loved Vo's writing in her Singing Hills series and I knew this would be awesome too. Turns out this wasn't exactly what I expected. The story sticks too close to The Great Gatsby which was not one of my favorites in the first place, so I felt like the author's gorgeous writing couldn't make up for some of the boring parts. The magical elements were also too few and I guess I just wasn't that much into more of a historical fiction story. But I can't deny that both the writing and the audiobook narration are very good and definitely what enabled me to finish it.

I really enjoyed this! A retelling of The Great Gatsby through the eyes of a minor female character, in a magical alternate 1920s where Jay Gatsby really did sell his soul to get what he wanted. The way the book calls back to the original story is fantastic, and it manages to keep the babyish mannerisms of the women while peeling back the layers to show the person beneath. I loved the way Jordan came to look at her identity over the course of the book as well.

The final twist at the end kind of disappointed me a bit because it returned focus to a character I didn't care much about and the actions involved felt pointless, but the rest was great.

This was INCREDIBLE. I think Vo should rewrite all the classics! The writing is beautiful and dangerous like the demoniac liquor in the story. And Jordan - who was always intriguing - gets a real character and story. So, so good.

Overall, I thought this was a very nice retelling of The Great Gatsby. I really enjoyed Jordan's character and oddly felt connected to her in a number of ways. The writing style was also quite lovely and I do hope to read more of the author's work in the future.

The only thing keeping this from 5 stars is the development of magic in this world. I felt rather confused by it for the most part and wished it played a larger role in the book than it did. In many ways, it felt as though it were haphazardly thrown in there at random times when it felt convenient to fill plot holes or word count.

In all, I would absolutely recommend this book! It's one of my favorite retellings I've personally encountered (and I do love me a good retelling).