I received this from Penguin via Netgalley!

More of a 2.5 stars.

This book is a gender-bent retelling of The Great Gatsby. Fern lives on this island with a bunch of snobby, rich people while the world is literally falling to pieces. She ends up becoming friends with her next door neighbor, Ivy, who is a very famous teen actress. Like Gatsby, there is a story of lost love, lavish lifestyles, and great heartbreak.

One thing I really liked about this was the Gatsby parallels. Seeing how a lot of this story came from that starting point was really interesting to me and though this wasn't my favorite read, I can see myself recommending this to students after reading Gatsby.

Something else I really enjoyed were the quotes. There were so many good quotes, and there was one towards the end of the book about money and the lives of people that really made me so sad and I just loved it. That particular quote reminded me of a thought that I have had a lot recently, and although money helps us survive, it can not bring back the people we love.

I really wished I like this book more. The writing style just wasn't my favorite, and as a mostly character focused reader, the characters just didn't really hit for me. I saw that there would be a big plot twist and honestly I felt like it was a bit underwhelming. I think We Were Liars is a good comparison for this book and think readers who enjoyed that may be a fan of this one as well.

Considering I was not a fan of The Great Gatsby, it is not a surprise to me that I did not connect to this one., something I could not separate from the writing itself. I find rich high flying life to be extremely toxic. I liked Fern at first and found the writing to be poetic at times, but almost to the point where it was trying too hard. I was confused at best, annoyed at worst. But that is not to say the author doesn't have promise! I would try Reed's work again, but just need to accept that Gatsby retellings are not my speed.

Well... I never read or seen any of the adaptations of The Great Gatsby, of which this novel is a gender swap, near future kind of retelling. I swiped one last time and I leave utterly confused. What. The. Hell.

It's hard to put my thoughts together on this one. It starts off innocent enough with Fern meeting Ivy and basically so happy she has a friend who is important. I felt for her. I know what it's like to place yourself firmly in the shadow of someone else. And then as I continue reading, swiping page after page, I felt like I was having an acid trip. The writing is beautiful - lyrical and poetic in certain sections, and less so in others which kind of irked me and took me out of the flow. But those moments where it truly flowed, I felt like I was feather weighted and looking down upon each scene.

I did figure out the big twist. You know when you have that moment that goes, "hmmmm... I bet _____ ..." and then it happens and you're just like... ok? Yeah, it was like that. BUT, I did appreciate the genius little clues that were given to get to that. I'm unsure as to whether this actually follows The Great Gatsby or not, and per paragraph one, I clearly wouldn't know... but I wonder if maybe I would've appreciated this more had I been familiar. While I did enjoy the majority of the writing, I just couldn't get into the story itself.

I really wanted to like this book. But it just wasn't for me. I am very convinced that this is a me problem though and not a reflection of the quality of the book itself. For me, the narration style confused me quite a bit and there were very long passages in which I had no idea what was happening.

When I first read the synopsis for Tell Me My Name I was really excited to see a gender flipped Gatsby retelling! However, as seen by my one star rating, this book didn't work for me as I hoped it would.

First, in being positive. The things I liked about this book:
- At first I really enjoyed Fern being an unreliable narrator. It made the story very intriguing and unique.

The things that I disliked about this book:
- As the story progressed it became impossible to distinguish between what was actually happening and was hallucinations.
- The lyrical and metaphorical writing style didn't work for me, and left me feeling disconnected from the story. I also felt a lack of connection to the characters, they all felt inauthentic and glamorized.
- Vague connections for a retelling. I found it very hard to find connections between this story and Gatsby. I could locate some similarities, but it was very little considering that this is marketed as a retelling,
- The ending was confusing. While I thought it was interesting, I was also confused and it felt cut short. I would have loved more explanation.

So, overall, this wasn't the book for me. I had really high hopes going into it and I'm sad that I didn't enjoy it more. I think there are probably readers out there who would enjoy this book, but that wasn't me.

Thank you so much to the publisher for providing me with an E-Arc via NetGalley!

So this one is... Something. It's a book that deals with drug addiction, alcoholism, rape and lots of sexual interactions. Oddly enough towards the end it started giving me Donnie Darko vibes.
The ending was not was I was expecting but interesting to say the least. There were parts I had trouble keeping up with as your do jump around quite a bit.

Thank you to Penguin Teen and Netgalley for the arc.

Thank you so much @PenguinTeen & @NetGalley for giving me this eARC in exchange for my honest and unbiased review (Release Date | 09 March 2021)

SYNOPSIS | Fern is a middle class girl living on a secluded & wealthy island called Commodore. A new celebrity neighbour moves in (Ivy) & Fern is immediately attracted to her privilege, wealth & status.

WHAT I LIKED:
- that both of the main characters had flora/fauna inspired names

WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE:
- the overly metaphoric writing style just didn't work for me
- I am still not entirely sure what I actually read & what was hallucinations or what was real
- the main twist felt implausible (& I didn't like the portrayal of mental health with Dissociative Identity Disorder although I cannot personally comment on its representation in this story)
- every single character was obnoxious & unlikeable
- the insta-obsession with Ivy grated on me

Tell Me My Name is a brilliant, thought-provoking tale with elements of both the contemporary and mystery genres shining through. It places a fresh new spin on the tale it draws inspiration from and creates a book that is pertinent and relevant for today’s audience.

The Great Gatsby and I go back a long way, so as soon as I knew the author of the fantastic and underrated The Nowhere Girls was gearing up to write a modern reinterpretation, I wanted in. This is a book all about getting in. It centres around a world steeped in immense wealth and privilege, while also exposing the hollowness and isolation of it all. Like Fitzgerald before her, Reed exposes the darker side of this really well, with a greater focus on the corruptive nature of privilege. This is not a book that carbon copies the original and that makes it all the better. Instead, Reed uses the familiar echoes and beats of the classic, but reworks them through a completely different lens that’s updated for a modern audience.

There’s a clear sense of the bubble of privilege that shelters and allows for ignorance to grow. In the backdrop of Reed’s setting, there’s atrocious realities being hinted at, but wealth allows for a certain few to gloss over them. The gap between this fantasy and reality is portrayed so well, giving you this uneasy and almost sickening feel the entire time. You know that the money being poured into this glamorous lifestyle comes from some sort of murky place, but you’ll have to wait to find out the whole truth.

A key theme of the book is mental health and the lasting effects of trauma. This felt well-developed and played out. There’s surprising elements to this theme, but it never feels like they’re just cheap reveals for the sake of it. Rather, it feels more nuanced and thought out, delving into a fractured and complex psyche.

Reed’s writing style is just gorgeous. She perfectly walks the line between realism and more flowery prose. It’s descriptive and utterly immersive, but never feels like too much. It’s that sort of measured decadence that characterises the entire story and feels like a knowing nod to the classic tale. Here, it becomes an authentic conversation between the reader and Fern. She was a clear highlight of the book, with a great voice that really drew me in. A lot of the characters are deeply flawed and unlikable, but that’s an interesting change to the rest of the market. You can appreciate their complexity and they’re certainly not two-dimensional caricatures, but they make awful decisions and are often influenced by their bubbled mindset. It’s refreshing to actually be able to dislike certain characters and indeed be invited to by the author, but also learn to understand them. Reed makes it clear that this does not absolve them, instead it just paints a bigger picture that’s rich in detail and scope.

The central mystery is very cleverly done and Reed paces everything to a tee. You get sucked into this decadent world and slowly uncover the true events. The twists are well-executed and genuinely shocking. It’s like watching a jigsaw slowly piece together in that once you finish, you’ll want to race right back to the start and marvel at all Reed’s little hints.

Tell Me My Name is a captivating, unexpectedly emotional story that digs deep into the bones of the classic tale and revitalises them with a poignant and necessary story for today. Reed captures the very essence of The Great Gatsby, yet this is a tale that stands on its own two feet.

Tell Me My Name is a YA Gatsby retelling, and it's the first of many Gatsby-related books that I hope to read now that it's in the public domain! I initially enjoyed this book, but my interest started to wane after a while. It felt like there were two different books happening, and things got unnecessarily complicated for the sake of a twist. I liked the concept more than the execution.

CW - racism, classism, domestic abuse, addiction, cheating, mentions of rape

I tried my best to understand what was going on with this book! I sadly couldn’t. Guess all the hype from starred reviews got me. DNF’d at 20%

I sat down and wrote this ‘review’ at 1am shortly after finishing Tell Me My Name and have thought about rewriting it more coherently... but then I decided the frenzied nature of it was the best way to describe this book in a sense.

And so...

This was a mind twist. It kind of feels like running through a labyrinth. Right when you think you have it all figured out, more twists and turns abrupt out of nowhere and you’re left anxiously racing towards an unknown end.

It was consuming to say the least. I don’t think I took a single breath from the moment I started until I finished and even after finishing I still don’t think I did take a single breath. It was a rollercoaster ride and it was glorious. So very rarely does a book imprint itself into my mind the way that Tell Me My Name has. So very rarely does a book have me so emotional I can’t even remember how to function.

I am a mess. Emotional. Distraught. A bit rattled. This book is powerful. There’s so much to unfold, so much to explore. It is the most memorable book I will probably ever read and the most unique.

I can’t accurately or even begin to sum up this book but there’s a section in the authors note that explains this book far better than I could ever articulate and here it is:

“My original intention was to follow The Great Gatsby’s story line pretty closely, while expanding its themes based on our evolution as a country and culture in the hundred years since its publication: How have the shadows of the American Dream darkened even further since then? What happens when we look at it through the eyes of young women rather than men—when we add climate change, the further consolidation of wealth and power, white supremacy, the corporatization of politics and media, the commodification of young women’s bodies?”

Thank you to PenguinTeen and NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I honestly feel terrible for giving this two stars, but I have no idea what I just read. Tell Me My Name started out weird, but I assumed it would because it is compared to We Were Liars. I actually enjoyed the beginning of this and getting to know Fern.

Fern has a nice life, but she is seen as a loner she doesn't have many friends. A huge superstar moves onto the same street where she lives and from the first moment she sees Ivy she wants to be friends with her and would do anything for her. Fern also starts hanging out with Tami who she has known her whole life. Tami is dating Ash who Fern has been in love with for years. Fern starts spiraling out of control once she starts hanging out with these people.

Honestly, I hated every single character in this book so much. Ivy was horrible and just used people over and over again. Tami was actually crazy and loved to humiliate people for fun. Ash was a piece of absolute garbage who again used people. Fern was just straight up annoying. By the end of reading this I was glad it was over.

I get this is a Gastby retelling, I only see vague similarities though. I am outraged that this is compared to We Were Liars because while they both had unreliable narrators, We Were Liars ending with the biggest plot twist and a bang. Tell Me My Name ending and I didn't get it, it wasn't a twist. I have so many unanswered questions. It was honestly just hard to read this because half the time I have no idea what's going on, I don't know why half the stuff was randomly thrown in during chapters. It was all so random. I didn't get the point of this either.

While I wanted to love this and I love the authors other books, this one just didn't do it for me. This is 100% my opinion and if this sounds like a good book to you, please pick it up and give it a try. You may think it's an amazing book!

I was provided with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

2.75☆

Characters-
I love the characters in The Great Gatsby because although they're terrible, they have depth and are written well. In this retelling though, I hated every character and not because they were unlikeable. They were written poorly and although the author obviously tried to give them depth, she failed and they felt very two dimensional.

Plot-
There's not much I can say about the main plot- it was predictable due to the fact that it's a retelling of an extremely popular classic. I do feel that the synopsis didn't quite match the actual plot though. The book is described as a psychological thriller and I honestly do not understand how it could be called that. Another thing that I can say is that I hated the plot twist. I absolutely hate the trope that was used in the twist and I honestly think it could be harmful in the way mental illness is portrayed in media.

Writing-
The writing was very mediocre in my opinion. It was neither good nor bad. It seemed as though the author tried to come across as more poetic than she is at some points, and I was not a fan of that.


Overall, I definitely did not love this book but it wasn't the worst thing in the world either.

When I heard this book was a gender flipped Great Gatsby I was very intrigued. The Great Gatsby is one of my favourite classics and I was excited to see a new take on the original story. That said, the plot did follow The Great Gatsby very closely and I could easily identify what characters represented the originals. Unfortunately the writing style was very confusing to me. At many points Fern was imagining things happening and then stating what actually happened, which left me very confused as to what was actually going on. I also did not enjoy any of the characters. They were very dislikable, and I had hoped that they would have some redemption, or change of heart, but in the end I ended up disliking them more. The plot is very similar to the original classic and unfortunately only diverts from it for a big plot twist near the end. About halfway through the book I guessed what it would be and was not very surprised when it was revealed. I think those who have not read the original classic would enjoy this book more. What I would have liked to see more of was the futuristic element of the setting, that touched on global warming impacts and social class divides. I enjoyed seeing this setting and thought it added to the true nature of Gatsby where we talk about wasting money and resources at the expense of others.

Unfortunately this book just wasn't for me

Thank you #PenguinTeen & #PenguinPublishing for providing a copy of the book through #Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. *All opinions are my own. #Partner

My Review: I am LOVING new retellings of some of my fave well known classic tales, only this time roles are reversed and they are being written gender flipped! Tell Me My Name is a new take on The Great Gatsby, but make it modern/near future, and make it dark and suspenseful. If these are your go-to’s, you’ll love this one. Written in such an inviting, and capturing way.. almost mysterious, and at moments relatable. The writing, and world building flows so appealingly, the characters are the most intriguing and so complex. It’s a beautiful story if you’re willing to dive between the lines. Excellent read! Also, What a beautiful cover!!😍

Tell Me My Name
By Amy Reed

This was a unique YA novel that is set sometime in a future in a collapsing world where corporations thrive and white supremacy is at an all time high. The story is centered in an island off Seattle and Fern whose middle class and boring existence she finds herself drawn to the rich and popular. in a story of contrasts, with an amazing world building, a story full of unexpected twists that touches upon addiction and mental health. A hard to put down story that will move you in this poignant and breathtaking story.

Gosh, this one was weird! And y’all know how much I like weird.

There were a few times where it felt like the story kind of lulled, and I found myself skimming a bit to get to a new scene that pushed the plot forward. But otherwise, I enjoyed this one a lot. I highlighted so many sentences that were either beautiful or impactful or both.

I loved that Amy Reed set this in a near future, where we see the world on fire, physically and metaphorically, due to climate change, white supremacy, capitalism, the gap between the rich and the poor, everything.

Reed wrote a great character in Fern, who was listless and middle class, even when middle class didn’t seem to exist anymore. In Tami, a rich teen with old money, who sniffs and looks down at those less fortunate than her. In Ivy, a celebrity, who has money and all she could want, yet nothing at all. In Ash, a boy who is too much of a coward to be anything but a rich man who always gets what he wants. They kind of sound like clichés when I describe them, but they felt real, and I think Reed intentionally wanted them to sometimes reflect a certain type of person. (Idk if that’s actually true, but reading the author’s note made me think along those lines.)

Sometimes, I had no idea what the heck was going on, but the ending shines light on everything, it’s not just some cheap twist (which I was kind of worried about after hearing people talking about “that ending, tho!”) The author’s note is definitely worth a read when you finish the book. I’m starting to ramble, but I just know I’ll be thinking about this story for a long time!

CW: rape (off page/talked about), domestic violence/assault (on page), drug and alcohol abuse, police violence against protesters, car accident/death

As much as I love the cover, the inside of this book did not match the outside in terms of my excitement. This book for the first 15% is EXTREMELY exposition heavy. One of the worst cases I’ve ever seen. And even though time-wise it only took me a short time to get there, it felt like a painfully long time. It’s long, monotonous ramblings of exposition and the main character repeatedly asserting that she does not have a personality and wants someone glamorous to give her one. This tainted my enjoyment of the book entirely.

This turned out to be another book where the setting was by far the best part of the book, but the rest of it just didn't really catch my attention, personally. The setting--both in time and place--was oustanding and in my opinion, the strongest element of the writing. The depiction of the island was absolutely beautiful, and the way the narrator explains the people on the island and their walks of life and the tourists that visit them really sets up the island vibes perfectly. I also absolutely loved how the book was set in the future, but sort of slightly in the future--in a very, very imaginable future that we could see our society moving towards, and the narrator shows how things have changed and how the changes to the environment and the world impact life there on the island. It was very interesting and I could have done with more of that and less of the relationship type stuff? I guess maybe my attention was just on the wrong things.

Outside of the setting, nothing else really held my attention. I couldn't get into the way the MC was going through motions in real life, but going off on a complete tangent of imagining something else happening, and bouncing back and forth between here's what is really happening but MAYBE if this happened, then this would happen, and had these two simultaneous narratives going at once. It was distracting and while I could see what she was going for with the duality of real life and a fantasy world, it was just wasn't my cup of tea at all. It was difficult to focus on and all the maybes and what ifs...it made it hard to even finish, and I couldn't get all the way to the end. I guess I was too heavily invested in other aspects. I am certain this will be someone else's cup of tea, for sure, and it has good aspects, but I was a bit let down.

Amy Reed’s worldbuilding is incredible. This story takes place in a “future America”, where the environment is collapsing, white supremacy is at a high, corporations are thriving, and countless refugees struggle for a place to live. Fern lives in Seattle, on a island where the rich come to waste their summers. Reed is absolutely brilliant at depicting the gap between the ignorance of the wealthy and the plight of everyone else. When Fern gets pulled into the rich, glamorous lives of people like Ivy, they visit the city where protests rage, where people are suffering. The contrast is written in such a haunting, bone-chilling way throughout the book.

Now you might be asking: how did I actually feel about the book? I’m honestly confused. The plot was executed well, albeit a bit confusing, if you’ve read the entire book. This isn’t a book you can DNF, because the absolute chaos of the second half sets up for one heck of an ending. Every relationship is tied into each other, from mean girl Tami, to hot boy Ash, to new girl Ivy. And then there’s Fern. As the tension ramped up, I actually found myself leaning forward with anticipation because I couldn’t stop reading about the trainwreck that I knew was coming. Speaking of which, another detail I loved was how, as Fern and Ivy spend the summer together, wildfires are slowly encroaching closer and closer. Again: this had one of the most explosive endings I’ve ever read.

OKAY. BUT. I don’t want to spoil anything, but this was truly one of the most sensitive, profound books I’ve read about trauma and how easily young girls can be taken advantage of. It’s a story that deals with mental health and addiction. And yet, even with so many topics contained within one book, Reed managed to fit them into the puzzle of her own making perfectly.

I don’t want to say anymore, because I do believe that you should go into this blind! You’ll most likely be dreadfully confused at some point, but if you enjoy psychological thrillers and/or The Great Gatsby, please stick to the end! It truly is a whirlwind story with more depth than I personally could have possibly imagined. It reminds me of a more complex, more richly-imagined We Were Liars. 3.5/5 stars.