The Chosen and the Beautiful

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.