While I liked the idea of this book and it was well written… it was just weird and confusing and I’m not sure what even happened.

I honestly don’t know what I listened to and it was like a hazy dream. I didn’t read the synopsis and went into it blind and this was put simply: confusing. I didn’t realize until reading a few reviews that this was actually set in a future America where there’s a drought; supremacy and then there’s the theme of toxic friendships, the modification of women’s bodies.

There are a lot of layers to this and the connections that the new girl Ivy, the girlfriend Tammie, the boy Ash and Fern and how interconnected and complicated they are. I always realized this was a retelling of The Great Gatsby gender flipped and We Were Liars wish it could be & a thriller wrapped into one.
The TWIST at the end…WOWW…I’m still trying to grasp at what I just listened to.

The Great Gatsby is one of my favorite classics, and I love a YA thriller; sadly, this gender-swap retelling (that’s more slow-burn psychological suspense than conventional thriller) didn’t do it for me. While parts of the story positively sang (especially the beginning) in other places, the narrative felt disjointed. That’s not to say that there aren’t things to love here. Tell Me My Name delves deep into mental health issues (massive plus), queer exploration, and current issues like global warming. The novel itself is set in a near-future dystopia in which the climate crisis has wreaked havoc on the world, and only the rich and powerful still have ways of escaping its effects. Overall, a quirky psychological suspense that will appear disjointed to some but like music to others.

DNF at 30%. The synopsis that Tell Me My Name is a gender flipped Great Gatsby retelling is what drew me in, since Gatsby is one of my favorite classics. While I wouldn't expect a retelling to live up to the original, I could not keep reading this book. The plot was sloppy and is ultimately what made me stop- are we in the future? The past? There are vague references to major natural disasters and the "class of 63," but technologically, little seems different from the present. Almost half of a chapter is told in the hypothetical, but in a way that had me rereading it over and over because it is written in the present tense as though it's currently happening.

Maybe I could have looked past this if the characters were interesting, but they were insufferable and underdeveloped. I'm really not sure who this one is for, but I would not spend your time reading it.

This mind altering YA novel will have you at the edge of you seat as you turn each page. This is one I am so excited for my students to get their hands on ASAP!!

I felt like I had mental whiplash from this. I never really understood what was happening fully. Then when it all came out in the end...it almost didn’t make sense? I wanted it to. I really wanted it to make sense. It just didn’t to me. The split reality and the two people at once...it was just too chaotic. This was definitely not my favorite.

Honestly, I could not get into it very well. It had a good plot and idea behind the story, but it was very slow and I did not feel as connected to it as I hoped I would be.

Tell Me My Name is a modern, gender-flipped retelling of The Great Gatsby set on wealthy Commodore Island, off of the coast of Washington State. It’s a pretty loose retelling, so one not need be familiar with the source material to appreciate it. I read The Great Gatsby in my grade 11 English class a whole half-decade ago and have since forgotten most of the details and wasn’t confused. I do not, however, remember it being nearly as trippy as Tell Me My Name was.

The book is narrated by Fern, who is a self-professed ordinary girl–she comes from a middle-class family and deals with typical teenager problems. Somehow, she captures the attention of celebrity and socialite Ivy Avila, who takes her under her wing. Fern’s interactions with Ivy show how much of a pushover she is, and it is frustrating at times, but I can’t blame her. I was a teenage girl once, and I definitely allowed myself to be wrapped around the little finger of more powerful, more popular girls under the guise of friendship. Ivy isn’t the bad guy, though; her side of the story comes out at times and it provides powerful commentary on child exploitation, particularly in the entertainment industry. It soon becomes obvious that Ivy is the way that she is because her mom lived vicariously through her, and it’s heartbreaking.

Tell Me My Name gets really trippy when the reality of the story begins to blur, and it becomes difficult to tell what is the truth about Fern and Ivy and what isn’t. It’s hard to explain without giving a lot away, but I will say that I usually have a hard time with trippy books but this one was so well written.

This gender swapped retelling of The Great Gatsby was one that I was fairly excited about. It did follow the original story with a few things in it to separate it from it. Those aspects I really did enjoy. The mental health addiction made this one stand out. I enjoyed some of the characters, but others were just ugh. Sadly the story itself just didn't work for me. I felt that while reading this one it was just so confusing and a lot of the story felt very random like it wasn't sure what was really going on.



Go Into This One Knowing: Mental Health, Abuse, Drugs

A retelling of The Great Gatsby in near-future Seattle where the wealthy who work for A-Corp and live in gated communities while the majority struggle and protest outside the walls. Fern lives on an island with her dads and has a pretty blissful experience, even though she feels invisible to the rich people that live in her community. Ivy is a pop star/actress who IS seen, but wants to be loved for who she really is. Then things get really intense when the observer becomes the observed.

When I first saw that Tell Me My Name by Amy Reed was being marketed as a gender bent Gatsby retelling in the vein of We Were Liars, I immediately jumped on board. After reading it I 100% see the comparisons, but I unfortunately enjoyed the book much less than I thought I would.

The story follows a teenage girl, Fern, who lives on a small island off the coast of Seattle. She spends her summer getting caught up in a weird love triangle between her childhood crush, Ash, his girlfriend Tammi, and a new girl on the island, a celebrity, named Ivy. All of them are incredibly unlikable characters, and do follow in the same vein as many Gatsby characters: using and abusing people’s wealth, status, and emotions to get what you want.

The plot is strikingly similar to the original Gatsby, except these old sports are teenagers, there’s a f/f relationship, and some pretty intense forest fires happening in the background. If you’re in the mood for teenage drama, you’ll love this book. It also touches on some mental health themes, and has a bit of a thriller vibe to it, too.

However, overall, I found the book to be somewhat scattered. Other than the very predictable plot, I don’t really understand what happened in this book. It’s a quick, quirky read, and would probably be fun to read if you were on a beach, but it unfortunately wasn’t for me.

Thank you Penguin Teen Canada for sending me a digital ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. Tell Me My Name by Amy Reed came out on March 9, 2021.

This is a YA that’s not really YA. It’s more new adult, but definitely darker than one might expect. It’s heavy. It reminds me a lot of that movie where the innocent goodie two-shoes befriends the wild child and ends up doing heavy drugs, shoplifting and worse. Anyone know what I’m talking about? Imagine that kind of vibe, but in book form, set on a tiny island, with very rich characters.

This is not a feel good story, but it’s heavy, dark, and powerful. The characters continue to make bad choices and fall deeper into the pull of drugs, alcohol and sex. This is a cautionary tale of what can happen with money and greed, coupled with vices and little parental involvement. It’s also presented as a gender bent Great Gatsby, and I could definitely get that feel. There’s a twist that wasn’t presented in a super clear way, but was interesting nonetheless.

Overall a pretty good book that’s quick to read.

(ARC given to me by Penguinteen in exchange for an honest review)

*3.5/5 stars✨*

'Tell Me My Name' is a YA novel and somewhat modern retelling of the 'Great Gatsby', but instead of Nick, Gatsby, and Daisy, we have our narrator Fern, her new, elusive, and troubled superstar neighbor Ivy, and Fern's childhood best friend, Ash. In short, Ivy lives on a wealthy, classist island and doesn't connect with its snobby residents. She finally feels like she has purpose when Ivy moves to the island, and becomes everything Ivy needs to find happiness, even at the expense of sacrificing her own. Eventually, Ivy, Fern, Ash, and those close to them get caught up in a storm of sin, deceit, and tragedy, and if you've read 'Gatsby', you can kind of connect the dots to how this story ends.

As a whole, I did not find this book easy to follow or connected. In parts, though, I enjoyed the writing of several scenes and the parallels to 'Gatsby'. The writing style is very similar to that of 'We Were Liars', but I did get tired of the excessive use of imagery and certain symbolic efforts just fell flat to me. I would have enjoyed the ending and the plot twist if the build-up and reveal hadn't been so confusing. The story did have elements of suspense and thrill, but I didn't really find the themes of adultery between a girl in high school and a married man and insinuated threesomes between teens enjoyable either.

While the book does have some remarkable, quote-worthy lines, and I did enjoy the mind-twists and suspense of having an unreliable narrator, I would not be likely to read it again.

TW // drug and alcohol use, adultery, cheating, depression, self-harm, domestic violence

DNFed at 42%

I was so excited for this book solely based off the tag line: a gender-flipped YA Great Gatsby.

Yeah, this was nothing like that. Now, I know taglines are used for a comparison and not indicative of what actually happens in the book, but this feels so off the mark. 

I read to almost 50% of this book and I feel like the most I got out of it is that rich people are sad and not stable with any part of their life. Oh and drugs are bad. Our main character, Fern, has the personality of playdough, which means she's great with molding into the person people want her to be, but she provides no other substance. Then we have Tami who is a stereotypical "bad bitch" rich girl who only cares about sex and drugs. Oh and Ivy, a TV star with a substance abuse problem looking to break free and get clean, but is also obsessed with a guy she barely knows and thinks its love.

This book is a disaster. I was waiting for the psychological thriller aspect of this book to start and nothing. At almost 50% through the book, it was basically a high schoolers fad dream: be rich, have sex, and do copious amounts of drugs at endless parties. The only sane characters were Fern's dads who couldn't decide between themselves whether they were comfortable with their only daughter partying into the night or not, and generally went with not. 

The whole catalyst of this book is Ivy moving to their town, stirring up gossip and turning heads. Tami, who hated Fern and wanted nothing to do with her, suddenly becomes her friend after Ivy shows an interest towards Fern. Tami, who is genuinely a horrible person, is also dating Fern's childhood best friend and secret love interest. How cliche. 

Honestly, I wasn't sure what the plot of this book was. It didn't seem to be going anywhere except trying to be edgy as everyone does what they hate then complains about it. This clearly wasn't a good book for me.

This is a wonderfully unique story with so many twists and turns, I didn't expect a single one of them. The eerie and creepy vibes of this book were just chef's kiss. It matches the unnerving narrative of The Great Gatsby to a T which is just amazing.

My full review can be read here: https://twincitiesgeek.com/2021/04/tell-me-my-name-puts-a-modern-spin-on-the-great-gatsby/

Fern lives an idyllic life on an island for the rich, with her two dads. But when a teenage celerity arrives on the island to deal with her demons, Fern is sucked into a life she never dreamed of and may cost her more than she anticipated. Tell Me My Name is a gender swapped Great Gatsby bursting with drugs alcohol and seduction. Reed dips into the outsider prospective in this fast paced whirl wind. In all the Great Gatsby glitter and shine, the plot lacks structure in order for the reader to follow the story and narration. The author does indicated that there are DID disorder characteristics in the protagonist and this would have been a great detail to the plot but the follow through was not well done. Through out the book there is narration that is linear and gives detailed and lyrical world building, Yet, the prose and unstructured narratives break down what the world building and the characters involved. This could have added to the overall story but the characters are never really flesh out and all seem to have paper thin personalities. The love square... triangle.... what ever it is is never explained fully or why Fern has an attachment in that state. Overall, I was disappointed when the book did not mirror the great Gatsby and again when it did.

“𝐓𝐡𝐚𝐭’𝐬 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐝𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐲 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐬. 𝐘𝐨𝐮’𝐫𝐞 𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐧 𝐨𝐧 𝐚 𝐩𝐚𝐭𝐡 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐢𝐭 𝐝𝐨𝐞𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐝𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐠𝐞. 𝐍𝐨 𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐦𝐮𝐜𝐡 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐢𝐭 𝐭𝐨. 𝐈𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐚 𝐥𝐚𝐰 𝐨𝐟 𝐬𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐬𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐨𝐧𝐞. 𝐀 𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐥𝐰𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐢𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐩𝐚𝐭𝐡 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐨𝐜𝐞𝐚𝐧. 𝐈𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐞𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐚𝐥𝐰𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐞𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐛𝐫𝐢𝐮𝐦. 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐚𝐥𝐰𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐛𝐚𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐞.”⁣⁣
⁣⁣
I really do not like giving bad reviews because I get this is hard work to make a book. From writing to editing and all the other crazy aspects of publishing a book. And of course the author wants their creation to be loved. So I don’t take reviewing lightly.⁣⁣
That being said I just couldn’t love this one.⁣⁣
⁣⁣
It’s supposed to be a young adult, gender swapping retelling of The Great Gatsby. And it did follow it pretty well except for a couple twists that distinguishes it from the original, weaving a story with mental health issues a plenty. ⁣⁣
⁣⁣
Fern is the mild mannered kind of loser main character, who Ivy Avilla, a big movie/pop star (think Selena Gomez..that’s who I pictured anyways..lol) that just got out rehab, moved next door to. Ivy takes an interest in Fern right away and eventually asks Fern to reacquaint her with Ash, whom she met a couple of years ago on a vacation. She moved onto the island off of Seattle to restart their romance. At the same time Fern is also pining over Ash. But he has a horrible, beautiful and rich girlfriend Tami. Tami also has a side piece, just like her male counter part in Gatsby.⁣⁣
⁣⁣
Seems easy enough to understand right? ⁣⁣
But no it is not. The story is so hard to follow with statements like “Maybe now is when I would look at Ash and he’d be staring right at me, our eyes would meet, and Tami would fade away.” But Ash is not even around and Fern seems to have had a full conversation with him and you find it’s all in her head. But these “conversations” happen quite a bit and it made me confused and just irritated at times. I get Fern wanted these situations to happen but it just didn’t flow well to me. ⁣⁣
And the characters were all assholes, every single one of them and worse with no real depth. I did feel sorry for Ivy I as the reader learned some of this things that happened to to shape her and probably why she landed in rehab in the first place. But it wasn’t enough to give her true character. ⁣⁣
⁣⁣
What I did really appreciate was the authors note which helped me understand what this story represented to her and to be honest helped bump up it to a 2. ⁣⁣
⁣⁣
This story may not have been for me but not everyone has the same tastes. And I have seen several good reviews so if the synopsis appeals to you I say take a chance and see what you think.⁣⁣
⁣⁣
𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝗪𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠:⁣⁣
𝐃𝐫𝐮𝐠 𝐀𝐛𝐮𝐬𝐞, 𝐕𝐢𝐨𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞, 𝐌𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐥 𝐇𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐭𝐡 𝐈𝐬𝐬𝐮𝐞𝐬⁣⁣
⁣⁣
𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬 𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘗𝘦𝘯𝘨𝘶𝘪𝘯 𝘛𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘮𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘦𝘈𝘙𝘊 𝘪𝘯 𝘳𝘦𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘯 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘮𝘺 𝘩𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸.

This book is described as a gender flipped, psychological thriller, Gatsby retelling, and that premise had me so excited, but I was not a fan of this after all.
The story is set in a dystopian future where climate change and wealth inequality have made a mess of the world. Our main character Fern lives on an island near Seattle, which still has some semblance of charm and nature, for those wealthy enough to afford it. One summer, superstar Ivy Avila moves in next door and befriends her, and Fern becomes intensely fixated on her, spiraling into a whirlwind of parties, drugs, and sex, and begins to lose herself in the process.
Honestly, I think this was a solid premise, but the execution just got really wonky for me. I love the idea of a Gatsby retelling from a teen girl POV, and with an emphasis on more modern social commentaries. I also thought this book captured the essence of the characters and issues in The Great Gatsby very well.
Unfortunately, it seemed like this book wasn't sure what it wanted to be, in several respects. There were times when it read like a very young YA dating drama, and other times where it felt like it wanted to be gritty adult post-modern lit-fic that an english teacher would force you to analyze, and other times where it felt like it wanted to be a hard-hitting exploration of issues like climate change, wealth inequality, addiction, neglect, abuse, etc. etc. For me, this was not a good mix of moods, and it just came off as sloppy and indecisive. The psychological thriller aspects didn't come into play until the very end, so the majority of this book was just a drama, despite it's description as a mystery/thriller. The writing tried too hard to be smart and deep, while actually not really saying anything new or insightful and ultimately just feeling nonsensical. The "teen" angle of this book was all over the place, as the characters fluctuate from fretting over being grounded or if their crush likes them back, to weirdly adult depictions of them like, having affairs with married people and doing drug-addled threesomes? Long story short, this just wasn't my jam.

Fun, twisty, opulent. 16+ readers. Interesting reimagining of Gatsby sure to hook young readers. Be sure to check TWs if needed.