We will have a surge of Gatsby novels coming our way since Great Gatsby is now owned by public! I was curious to see what other perspective other authors are going to bring other than usual suspects (from Nick's perspective or Tom's) as my beloved Great Gatsby is one of the most discussed and dissected book of all times. And this one delivers a new one for sure: enter Daisy's friend who was brought from Vietnam and raised as an American girl who represents LGBTQA community! This was the type of PoV I was hoping to get

Jordan was Daisy's childhood friend from KY. Unlike most the other immigrant kids, she was adopted by a wealthy white lady that loved and cherished her like her own. Jordan did not really have to experience any hardships coming with immigrant title. There were people looking at her and making comments here and there but she was Jordan Baker. She was there when Daisy-Jay love story began. She was there when Daisy was losing her mind the day before her wedding after hearing that Jay was alive and well. She was there when Daisy fell in love again. She was there when Daisy decided to leave everything behind and go with Jay.

Jordan had one more ability (other than being there for Daisy always all the time) that she herself could hardly explain. She could bring anything to life out of simple blank paper. This ability ended up being associated with her worst nightmares! If you are into Great Gatsby, let the party begin for you...

I was provided an e-arc via NetGalley.

Let me start by saying I am a sucker for a tragic love story and The Great Gatsby is one of my favorites. When I saw there was a retelling with magical elements and a diverse point-of-view, I had a really good feeling about it.

From page one, I fell into Vo’s writing and was completely swept away and transported to the 1920s. The Chosen and the Beautiful is a close retelling of The Great Gatsby, but it adds so much to the original story. In this version, we follow the point-of-view of a queer, Asian American and what it was like for her growing up in Louisville and life as a New York socialite in the early 1920s. One of my favorite things about this retelling is the added magical elements. Gatsby’s parties always seemed like a dash of magic was involved, but now we get to experience a world in which magic does exist. It’s subtle but spellbinding.

This story unfolds as you read it and may leave you a little unsure of what exactly is going on, but it comes through in the end. I thought the ending reveal was beautiful and it pulled on my heartstrings. The story is beautifully pieced together and keeps you wanting more. It is filled with intrigue, unique magic, mysterious speakeasies, lush atmospheric writing, complicated characters with complicated relationships, and it’s just absolutely captivating.

I could not put this story down and wanted to reread it as soon as I finished it. I think Vo gave us the diverse and magical Gatsby retelling we needed. I think both fans of The Great Gatsby and those unfamiliar with the classic will find many things to love about this retelling.

I want to preface this review by saying that this is a beautiful book, but it wasn't for me. This book is perfect for fans of The Great Gatsby and written in a style that fits with the opulent story. I appreciated the twists of fantasy Vo inserted, but I did find myself confused more often than I was grasping everything.

Thank you fir the arc, I’m happy books like this are getting published. However the writing was clunky (maybe that will be cleaned up before publication) and left me feeling like I was reading through a fog. The magic didn’t seem to be addictive and felt out of place.
I really wanted to like this, but it wasn’t quite there for me.
2.5 stars ⭐️

I'm not sure how I feel about a work of art scaffolded upon another work of art. For certain, the writing is beautiful. The story is slow at at times, dragging toward a conclusion we already know. Overall, this relationships between the characters were less compelling than Jordan's relationship with herself. A very well written book, but not without flaws.

This book was so beautifully written. It was full of descriptions of a life I could never live, each atmosphere expanded upon until you felt like you were there yourself. It was beautiful and shiny, and it reminded me so much of the Great Gatsby. Which is perfect, because The Chosen and the Beautiful by Nghi Vo is supposed to be a reinvention and reimagined version of the Great Gatsby, told through the perspective of Jordan Baker as an Asian adopted child. And I’m being honest, I think she outdid Fitzgerald himself. She’s added fantasy elements to the story, and made Jordan queer and so wonderfully also sown in these details of queer culture during the 20’s and how being Vietnamese affects her.

It wasn’t necessarily my thing, though. I’ve never been one to prefer the world and atmosphere of a book to the characters itself, which is a little what this book did. The story is a little slow for my taste, and personally, I didn’t connect well enough to Jordan Baker. She was beautifully written, and I certainly enjoyed learning about her, but I love a book so much more when I can grasp on to a character, main or otherwise so that I’m pulled through the story in their arms.

However, if you prefer the world of the socialites, elegant and chic retelling of the golden 1920’s, then this would most definitely be for you. The prose feels like glitter, or like jewelry. It’s so lyrical and well written, and it feels like opening up a chest of treasures, queer stories and stolen secrets. And magic!! Oh my goodness the wonderful details of magic in there!! The story also expands a lot on her friendship with Daisy, which I just adored. Gatsby feels so different, but it’s also barely changed at all!

I don’t know how she manages to stay true to the book, and yet make it more ethereal than it was to begin with.

This book is supposed to be Nghi Vo’s debut, and what a wonderful debut it is. Any fan of Great Gatsby would love this, I’m sure. And I know that I’ll leave this story forever remembering Jordan Baker as East Asian and queer from now on, so perfect her portrayal of this character was. This book comes out June 1st 2021, and I hope you all read it!! It’s breathtakingly gorgeous, and I’m so glad I for to read this.

This was an interesting read that gave me conflicting feelings. On one hand, it's definitely the queer Gatsby retelling that we were all craving for (yay, almost all characters are bi/pan) since THE GREAT GATSBY entered public domain in January this year. However, I am not sure it is done in a way that necessarily add much new and satisfying things on top of the old Gatsby tale.

Things I like about this book:

0. EVERYONE IS BI/PAN. EVERYONE IS IN LOVE WITH EACH OTHER. THOSE CHARACTERS YOU THOUGHT WERE QUEER AND IN LOVE? THEY ARE HERE!!! THOSE THAT WERE IN LOVE IN CANNON? THEY ALSO STILL ARE HERE!!

1. I loved how this retelling of Gatsby is told from an Vietnamese adoptee Jordan's perspective. In the original story she was just a white and frivolous girl whom is portrayed as dishonest. However, this book told from her perspective depicted how Asian women were exotified in history.

Her backstory was an interesting exploration of the White Savior narrative as the story begs the question if she was truly adopted or abducted by her missionary adopted parent.

Also, the Manchester Act passed around that time that had a similar purpose as the Chinese Exclusion Act was utilized very well as how it affected Jordan in her life despite her being an adoptee who is very disconnected from her Asian heritage.

2. I love the writing. This author has the amazing ability for metaphor and imagery. The writing was so vivid and lavish I feel like it fits the background of the Roaring Twenties. It's just so beautiful yet subtle at conveying the atmosphere and character motivations. I will definitely read more of the author's works in the future.

3. I love the magic realistic elements and how it connects the identity of being POC in this book. Only POC or POC related characters have magic in this book, relating to their otherness. Characters who have magic but choose to conceal their magic are the ones who try to fits the upper class white society of America. Characters who celebrates their magic are the ones who embrace their identity and heritage.

What I didn't like about this book:

1. I don't really like how meandering this book has been. I feel like there's not a lot that was happening. It was boring for the most part, maybe due to the nature it being a Gatsby retelling. However I feel like a lot of elements (especially the magical realism element) is underutilized and underdeveloped. Also the more interesting threads are left unexplored. This dragged down my enjoyment a fair amount.

2. The plot twist at the end??? I don't really understand why it's there and it seemingly came out of nowhere. It doesn't really add anything to the story. I am still buffled by it. Jordan's action was also left quite unexplained and confusing.

3. Character dynamics. I LOVE that everyone is in loved with each other, but I still feel like a lot of very promising charged dynamics were kind of underused or wasted. Yes I mean Nick and Gatsby. I'm so sad we got very little of them in a book that's a queer Great Gatsby retelling.

Anyway, overall this was a bit of an okay read. I finished it and didn't feel like it was a waste of my time, still it didn't meet my expectations. I will definitely pick up more of this author's book just for her beautiful writing.

The Greater Gatsby

Magical retelling of The Great Gatsby from the point of view of queer Asian-American Jordan Baker.
It's as great as that sounds.

Good grief, this is excellent. I've always loved <i>The Great Gatsby</i> but when you make it queer and you tell it through the eyes of adopted Asian Jordan Baker, coasting on the fringe of the soulless elite until closeness with Daisy Buchanan brings her into the inner circle, turns out I love it even more. There's a supernatural element that I hadn't expected and I wasn't so keen on in the beginning, but considering the thoughts that I was having about the characters while reading, her Nick and her Gatsby in particular, and the revelations about them that unfold, Vo absolutely pulls off the demonic aspect she introduces. Best of all is her writing style, which is dreamy yet precise - how is that possible? I have no idea but here I am, reveling in the sumptuous with not a word out of place.

Nghi Vo's 'The Chosen and the Beautiful' has taken the story of The Great Gatsby and transformed it into something all the more magical, heartbreaking and terrifying. Following Jordan Baker, the story expands upon Fitzgerald's world in a way that leans into literal fantasy, weaving a New York and a story that is familiar and unfamiliar all at once. The effect is absolutely stunning. Jordan's own story is given new shape too, having her move through the world as a queer, Vietnamese woman in a world that is incredibly white. Jordan constantly floats between spectator and participant, through spaces constantly navigating where she fits in and where she is simply just a guest. I absolutely loved following her evolving relationship with Nick and the bonds they shared. Vo has breathed new life into this story in a really special way and through beautiful prose, creating magic not unlike the magic Jordan and her paper and scissors create throughout the story. This is a book I expect to return to again and again, drawn back into that 1922 summer that barrels towards catastrophe for the chosen and the beautiful of this story.

This reimagining of The Great Gatsby is the magical, dark, queer story I’ve always wanted. Vo writes about the 20s as a romantic time, but one tinged with darkness in the most delicious way. The magic in this story kept sneaking up on me, and I was delighted every time. Though the plot of Gatsby weaves through this book (and therefore you know what’s coming before it does), Vo still manages to make the story feel fresh and unexpected. Highly recommend.

Nghi Vo's debut novel is a beautifully enchanting story, although ultimately there were a few pieces that gave me pause.

Vo's talented writing weaved in a fantastic retelling of The Great Gatsby - I reread The Great Gatsby recently and it was nice that it was in my mind while reading The Chosen and the Beautiful. As a bisexual Asian American, I absolutely loved reading about queer Asian American MC Jordan Baker, and learning more about her life as she grows up in 1920s East Coast America with wealth and privilege. Jordan's queerness was very organic and I so loved that piece of this and appreciated the slight polygamy rep. Vo's clever historical additions added to a setting I could picture well. I also loved the magical/fantastical enchantments sprinkled throughout; it was perfectly mysterious and Jordan's paper cutting was one of my favorite elements in this. I also want to add that this cover is perfect for this and is exactly how I imagined Jordan throughout the novel.

What gives me pause: I am not Indigenous, nor Black, so I cannot at all speak to this beyond my own uncomfortability, however I was disappointed at the portrayal of Blackness and Indigenousness. Both these pieces felt like a very small afterthought and tacked on. Again though, I cannot speak to this identity this was a very small piece to the story overall.

4 stars, a wonderful reimagining of a classic novel

As both a fan of the original Great Gatsby and a fan of up and coming novelist, Nghi Vo, I was eager for this book and please do say that it does not disappoint. Told from Jordan Baker's POV, this novel sets out to do for Daisy Buchanan and Jordan what the original did for Nick Carraway and Jay Gatsby and it very much succeeds.

The two big changes are that Jordan is a Vietnamese orphan adopted by the Baker family and that magic is real in this world and both Jordan and Gatsby have it. Simple as these changes are, they open up the classic book in some fascinating ways as Jordan obviously has many more opinions on Tom Buchanan's racism than her original white counterpart did and the magic, while used sparingly, leads to some absolutely marvelous scenes including a personal favorite where Daisy viciously kills a vacuous doppelganger of herself that has been made out of paper and false dreams who was to exist for one night to be the beautiful and obedient wife that Daisy feels trapped into performing as. Where else are you going to find a story where something so intimately revealing and also incisively commenting on the original novel's approach to female characterization? On the writing end, Fitzgerald was one of the all time great prose stylists and Vo isn't quite up to that level but she's no slouch either. Her capacity for mimicking Fitzgerald's style is quite good to the point that for the most part the seams are only visible if you're actively looking for them or are a Fitzgerald fan. I imagine very few people will walk away from this book anything less than impressed by Vo's writing.

My two worries about the book are this: 1) that it hews so close to the original Gatsby that it might be difficult to follow for anyone who hasn't read or reread that book recently and 2) that in sticking so close to the pacing of the original but shifting the story to be more magical, Vo has accidentally created some pacing problems because the old pacing doesn't quite gel with the new darker and more urgent plotting caused by the introduction of magic. I consider these far from book ruining problems but I can easily see other people being frustrated by them.

But those issues aside, the book is both enjoyable and an impressive work of criticism. As both a fantasy fan and a Great Gatsby fan, I believe Vo has woven both together successfully and put her mark on the American classic in a way that helps it to feel even more relevant by drawing out elements that had always been in the original but confronting them head on rather than leaving them as subtext.

The Chosen and the Beautiful is a stunning, atmospheric retelling of The Great Gatsby, and in many ways Nghi Vo tells it far better than F Scott Fitzgerald did.

Those who have read The Great Gatsby will be familiar with the characters however this time our protagonist is Jordan Baker and she is a queer Vietnamese orphan with magical paper-cutting powers. Jordan was so much more interesting than Nick Carraway. She had a very dark and understated sense of humour which I loved.

In addition to race, class, and perception, The Chosen and the Beautiful explores what it meant to be a Vietnamese woman in the 1920s, particularly in the sense of being treated like a novelty or doll, rather than as a person.

There were a few parts that I struggled with. As beautiful as the magical elements were, they did sometimes feel a little out of place. Jordan is obviously very in love with Daisy and this occupies a lot of her thoughts which became a little tedious at times.

I think fans of The Great Gatsby will enjoy The Chosen and The Beautiful and appreciate how the new elements are woven into the heart of the original.

Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to review this book!

An unexpected smash hit of a read. The author deconstructs The Great Gatsby tale and reinvents it for a 21st century audience. I think my students are going to love this!!

One of the things I've always loved about <i>The Great Gatsby</i> is that it is the one piece of classic literature that I've consistently enjoyed throughout my life, and with it, I can see how my opinions have changed and matured over the years. As a teenager, I was annoyed that Jordan Baker added extra (assigned) words to a clearly tragic yet beautiful pining love story (high school Me definitely thought a toxic relationship was a good one, but that's another story). In my early 20s, I labelled Jordan Baker as a selfish gossip, thinking that her presence on the outskirts of the main story made her distant, cold, and unlikable. Now that I'm damn near 30, I realize that Jordan was just a bad bitch living her best life, staying out of other people's business (but of course being entertained by it), and was only forced because Nick was an incompetent goof.

This is where The Chosen and the Beautiful comes in. This was the Jordan-focused retelling that I NEEDED, and it couldn't have come at a better time in my own self-development. Jordan in this retelling lived up to the hype -- she was Asian, queer, and had a magical ability -- but ultimately, it was the story that let me down. Jordan's paper magic felt misplaced and undeveloped (though it could leave room for a sequel?), the dramatic build of Gatsby as darker and antagonistic really fell flat for me, and the "twist" towards the end just didn't really seem necessary or relevant. I know that Vo was confined to a plot that wasn't her own, but I definitely found myself craving more drama, demons, and magic than what was presented so matter-of-factly.

At the end of the day, of course, I enjoyed getting an extra layer to these characters I already know so well and loved the opportunity of seeing the same events through another characters eyes, so it was ultimately worth it.

This is a brilliant retelling of The Great Gatsby that keeps all the core themes of the original-- wealth and class disparity, the hollowness of wealth during the 1920's-- and updates them while somehow also creating a world that is very true to the 1920's, and includes the marginalized people the original (and the time period) excluded-- queer people, Asian Americans, immigrants. I can already see people dismissing it when they hear "queer, Asian American, Great Gatsby retelling with magic" as some kind of attempt to make the original more cool and diverse for no reason, but that's ABSOLUTELY not what's happening here. It's a twist on the original that stays true to the story while expanding it beyond any scope the original could have dreamed of. It's a truly amazing book.

I cannot believe this is a debut novel. It’s too good. Nghi Vo deconstructs The Great Gatsby and puts it back together in a truly Picasso-esque way where it’s both more bizarre and more beautiful than the original. Told from Jordan’s perspective, this story is a gin-soaked romp through the lives of characters we already know and (kinda) love, but Jordan’s is a biting and skeptical presence. Vo touches on the queer identities of Jordan, Gatsby, and Nick, and through Jordan’s eyes as an adopted Vietnamese woman, offers insightful commentary on discrimination and xenophobia, while also heightening Fitzgerald’s themes of social stratification and hedonism. And honestly, even if the novel had sucked, the writing was so *chefs kiss* that I would have read it anyway.

I first read The Great Gatsby, as most do, in a high school English course. Teenaged-me enjoyed it for what it was to me then, a tragic and timeless tale of love and loss. Later in life, I found myself having to teach the text to a high school English class. It was then that Gatsby opened up to me in a whole new way, as books have a habit of doing when one re-reads them in a different time and place in their life. I fell in love with the mystic of Jay Gatsby, the futility of his dream, and the commentary on class, corruption, & capitalism that lingers just beneath the surface. With every reading of The Great Gatsby, I found something undiscovered to fall in love with, and despite the flaws of the original, every time I taught the book to my students, they taught me something new about the text. (I won’t deny that many of them didn’t share my wonder with the text, but many of them did.) Their revelations ranged from a contrasting take on characters to a fundamentally different understanding of Fitzgerald’s core message, but they taught me to continually see the text in a new light.

The Chosen and The Beautiful feels like rereading The Great Gatsby in a new light. It is a superb retelling that is in conversation with the original, yet it stands strong as a text in its own right.


Nghi Vo’s retelling, which sticks to the plot of the original story, adds to F. Scott Fitzgerald’s text in a way that feels both fitting and overdue. Themes and issues that are given little attention in The Great Gatsby are given ample time to grow and develop. The viewpoint character of Jordan Baker allows The Chosen and The Beautiful to address themes of race, gender, and sexuality that were mostly absent in the original. Vo does a brilliant job of using dialogue, descriptions, themes, and motifs from the original, but adds her own twist, often magnifying and exposing these ideas. One that stuck out to me was the intersection of violence, money, and power. Jordan’s backstory allows for the opportunity to explore more fully the lives of Daisy and Gatsby, and through these flashbacks the link between violence, money, and power takes form in a way that exposes them for more than just carelessness. The violence in The Chosen and The Beautiful is deliberate. Gatsby, and Daisy are portrayed as inherently violent, each in their own way.

It is instances like these that show that Vo is in conversation with the original text. Towards the end of The Great Gatsby, Nick muses on Tom and Daisy’s violence, writing:

“They were careless people, Tom and Daisy - they smashed up things and creatures and then retired back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.”

This theme of carelessness appears again in the original, and Nick calls Jordan careless and dishonest at one point. Vo picks up on this off-handed comment, giving us the perspective into how Jordan views Nick’s perspective:

“He called me careless because he didn’t have the words to sort out how jealous he was of my money and my freedom and how very few people in the world could act as I did. I never gave him a real answer because the real answer wasn’t one that men got. Men had no idea how careless the women of their set weren’t allowed to be. They laughed at how fussy we were about which cars we got into, and then never wondered about the long stretches of bad road between glittering place and glittering place. It was a kind of darkness that could swallow someone whole, and whoever walked back, shoes in her hand, stocking shredded and calling for help from some dingy payphone, she wouldn’t be the same girl who roared off in that unwise Tourister.”

It is this retelling of the conversation that makes The Chosen and the Beautiful feel both familiar and fresh.

Nghi Vo’s writing is breath-taking. Her writing echoes the poetic style of Fitzgerald, but never feels aloof or preachy. The magical realism adds to the genuine conversation with Fitzgerald’s text, and like a true retelling, this book plays and enhances ideas in the original. As I read The Chosen and The Beautiful, I couldn’t help but smile at all the throwbacks to the original text. These ranged from simple things like the colours that burst from the page with meaning, to the colonial architecture of Tom and Daisy’s mansion. These call-outs to the original are sometimes less overt, such as the demoniac drink which borrows from “the demoniac Finn,” to allusions to the city of Dis from Dante’s Inferno. The Chosen and the Beautiful’s allusions and references enhance the story that is both is a masterful retelling of The Great Gatsby and an exploration of race, gender, class and the American dream.

I have no doubt that The Great Gatsby will continue to be a mainstay in our current cultural zeitgeist. The Chosen and the Beautiful should be part of that zeitgeist.

Thanks to NetGalley for the book to review. This is my first review on NetGalley - apologies for the inevitable mess-ups.

I’m not quite sure how to feel about this book. On one hand I truly think Nghi Vo wrote the story better than F Scott Fitzgerald himself. It was lyrical and atmospheric just like everything else Nghi Vo has done. On the other hand, as a reimagining, I was a little underwhelmed. The majority was the same story, but just written better. The addition of magic seemed a little random and was never really explained. That said, I did like the perspective of Jordan being Vietnamese and how it affected her in this setting. I also really liked that the characters were queer.
At the end of the day, I’d say if you’ve never read Gatsby or don’t remember much of it, then you’d probably really like this and I recommend it regardless of my rating.