This book was phenomenal. I loved the way that Ms. Cantor revisited the classic novel and put a new twist on it by giving us the viewpoint of the three women: Daisy, Jordan and Catherine. It gives you a better understanding of their state of minds as that notorious summer evolved. I actually prefer this to Nick’s POV.

She didn’t change the classic novels narrative but just gave us a different lens to look through.

Reading Beautiful Little Fools was the best kind of surprise. I was interested in this book because The Great Gatsby is one of my favorite classics. I wasn’t sure if Cantor could really live up to the Gatsby hype because F. Scott Fitzgerald is, well you know, F. Scott Fitzgerald. However, I enjoyed this so much and definitely recommend to any fan of The Great Gatsby.

Fitzgerald’s writing basically can’t be beat. It appears that Cantor knows that, and she doesn’t attempt to out-write Fitzgerald. What makes her story shine is the fact that she takes his one-dimensional female characters and makes them whole, living, breathing women… all while staying true to Fitzgerald’s plot. Cantor gives Daisy Buchanan, Jordan Baker, and Catherine McCoy personalities, histories, families, motivations, and dreams (most of which Fitzgerald neglected to do). In Beautiful Little Fools, each chapter is told in alternating points of view of these three women, as well as the Detective who worked on the Myrtle Wilson murder investigation. I enjoyed all points of view equally, which kept me turning the page.

Essentially, Cantor has turned The Great Gatsby into a murder mystery that is propelled by the secrets of three very different women—all of whom have a reason to want Jay Gatsby dead. Fitzgerald’s classic has suddenly (and plausibly) become a story about women’s agency, romantic obsession, female friendship, sexual repression, familial bonds, and depression. It answers a lot of questions the original leaves open in creative ways and makes the aloof women originally presented by Fitzgerald much more likable and relatable to the 2022 reader.

If a behind-the-scenes version of The Great Gatsby interests you, you MUST read this book! However, I would recommend that you’re at least a little familiar with the original version (whether that’s reading a summary online or watching the 2013 film) before digging into this.

My rating: 4 Stars

Thank you to Harper and Netgalley for this ARC!

beautiful little fools reimagines the great gatsby as a murder mystery and centers the story around the women of fitzgerald’s novel: daisy, jordan, and myrtle’s sister catherine. the novel alternates between their perspectives and the perspective of the detective investigating gatsby’s murder as it retraces the steps of the original novel and beyond.

this novel is basically the great gatsby meets big little lies. murder mysteries aren’t usually my thing—i prefer true crime documentaries—but i really enjoyed how cantor told a whole new story within the framework of the original. at times it felt a little heavy-handed with the “all men are the same” rhetoric, but overall i thought this was a really unique twist on the classic.

I love how Cantor took this classic about some of the richest and most powerful male characters we’ve ever met in literature, and then made the story that wasn’t about them at all. Beautiful Little Fools is completely about the women from the famous story. I thoroughly enjoyed this one!!

"𝘚𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘨𝘶𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘺 𝘢 𝘤𝘦𝘳𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘯 𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘧 𝘤𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘮𝘢𝘯 𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘥 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘨𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘴𝘬𝘦𝘺."

I don't know what I loved more - this book's first line or its cover!

I devoured the audiobook of 𝗕𝗘𝗔𝗨𝗧𝗜𝗙𝗨𝗟 𝗟𝗜𝗧𝗧𝗟𝗘 𝗙𝗢𝗢𝗟𝗦 by Jillian Cantor. I took the way longer drive home more than once because I didn't want to stop listening. The story, the writing, the narrators... just.so.good.

I haven't read 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘎𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵 𝘎𝘢𝘵𝘴𝘣𝘺 or watched one of the movies in years but this retelling from the female characters' perspectives pulled me in all the same. Daisy Buchanan, Jordan Baker, and Myrtle Wilson are all here, joined by Myrtle's suffragette sister, Catherine McCoy, who plays a bigger role than she did in to Fitzgerald's novel. This story is told from POVs of Daisy, Jordan and Cath, who give the history of how they all got involved with Jay Gatsby and why they were there the night he was killed. We also hear from Detective Frank Charles, who is sure that one of the women knows more about the murder than she's let on.

Cantor's writing immerses you in this time when woman's choices were limited and their lives weren't their own, and the story has a 𝘉𝘪𝘨 𝘓𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘭𝘦 𝘓𝘪𝘦𝘴 vibe to it that I was all the way here for with its mysterious death, tons of secrets and immense wealth to cover it all up. The amazing narration by Julia Whelan, George Newbern, Brittany Pressley and Elizabeth Evans brought it all vividly to life - listening to this book was like watching a play. I also loved the author's note at the end about how the concept came about. Whether you've ready 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘎𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵 𝘎𝘢𝘵𝘴𝘣𝘺 or not, 𝗕𝗲𝗮𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗳𝘂𝗹 𝗟𝗶𝘁𝘁𝗹𝗲 𝗙𝗼𝗼𝗹𝘀 is well worth your time.

Thanks to Harper Audio, Harper Books and NetGalley for the copies to review.

This is the story of what really happened to Jay Gatsby, Daisy, Jordan and Catherine each find themselves connected to the Great Gatsby, and each have a reason for wanting him dead. Although the police have concluded the investigation into Gatsby's death was by the hands of Catherine's brother-in-law, one detective feels the case is not as open and shut as it seemed, and fueled by another man's interest in what really happened, continues to investigate. One of these women actually held the smoking gun.

Jillian Cantor picks up where F. Scott Fitzgerald left off and we find out so much more about Daisy's past, along with the stories of the other characters in Fitzgerald's book. Cantor successfully recreates the mood of the 20s, and doesn't miss a beat with the characters. This book could have been written by Fitzgerald himself.

Highly recommend if you loved "The Great Gatsby" or if you enjoy historical fiction set in the 20s. You do not have to have read "The Great Gatsby" before this book, but it is very helpful to know the general storyline first.

So I was excited for this book and loved this cover. Then I realized, don't come for me, I don't think I have ever watched or read the Great Gatsby. I have this huge aversion to certain things like excessive wealth and philandering and it was never assigned to me.

This book is from the POV of the female characters from The Great Gatsby. The timeline is unraveling to a future point in time where we started in the book. The point where someone shot Jay outside his East Egg home and we get to view the detectives transcripts of his interviews with the women that had converged into this moment in time.

Ok I am not sure what is wrong with me but this just felt like a 1920s dystopian hell for females with every type of toxic masculinity on display and gallons of gin. I really want a g&t now.

I felt for Jordan, and all the women like her that were thrown back into the closet and Myrtle who just wanted love. Ok Daisy wanted to be loved too.

I think it portrayed how difficult it was to be a woman, ok white woman, of that time. You were at the whim and interest of the men around you and once you were no longer interesting or gave your charms to them,  you were discarded even if you were married to them.

I loved this book but just can't get over that her only choices were an obsessed stalker and a unchecked sex addict. I may have to give in and read the original 🤦‍♀️ lol.
✨
I loved this quote:
"Grief, Mary Margaret had told me once, was forever, an endless winding river. And here I was drowning."
✨
Thank you harperperennial for the gifted copy

4.5 rounded to 5 for Goodreads
"I hope she'll be a fool--that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool." Daisy Buchanan in The Great Gatsby.

When I read the synopsis of this book, I knew I had to get my hands on a copy!! The Great Gatsby mixed with Big Little Lies, sign me up please !! Thank you so much to Netgalley, Harper Perennial and Jillian Cantor for an ARC of this amazingly brilliant book!

I have always loved The Great Gatsby, the book and the movie (especially with Leo <3) so I was super excited to read this book from the ladies POV!! Jillian Cantor did an amazing job diving us into the whole stories of Daisy, Jordan, Myrtle and her sister Catherine, while also giving us a little mystery. Who really killed Jay Gatsby? Was it George, the grieving husband? Or was it one of the many women Jay had hurt in his long and selfish journey to win Daisy back ??

What I loved the most about this book was that you got to see why and how everything ended up the way they did.... the events and feelings leading up to Jay Gatsby's murder, made everything make sense. In fact, it made me love the female characters more, unlike the original where I was left thinking the women of the story are selfish and flashy. I loved all the details Jillian Cantor added to this story to make us really understand what life was like for the leading ladies, and make them completely more relatable, vulnerable and human. Even the detective, investigating Gatsby's death just to earn a buck to spoil his lady, added such a unique spin on this amazing story. I loved it !!!

"I always thought it was us women who were the fools... but I was wrong, it's been the men all along, hasn't it?"

I was excited and also definitely wary headed into Beautiful Little Fools—The Great Gatsby is one of my favorite classic novels and I was hopeful that this retelling would do it justice. I can safely say it did, and then some. Jillian Cantor has brilliantly created an entire world for these women who were, frankly, pretty one-dimensional in Fitzgerald’s novel. They are complicated and sexy and they have secrets and dreams and desires. This is such a fantastic book, perfect for Gatsby lovers or really, Gatsby haters. If anyone could change your mind, it’s Jillian Cantor. I loved this book and I think it’s a perfect companion but also absolutely stands on its own.

“And now it occurred to me that I disliked Tom so much more than I’d ever disliked Jay.”

Beautiful Little Fools, published this week, explores the points of view of the female characters of The Great Gatsby. I was excited to read this take on Gatsby, as Fitzgerald’s American classic is one of my all-time favorite novels that I have read multiple times.

If you haven’t read The Great Gatsby, you will want to before reading Beautiful Little Fools, as this novel begins at the end of The Great Gatsby. Then, the timeline moves back to 1917 and we learn more about Daisy and Jordan’s lives before we met them in the East Egg.

Beautiful Little Fools has so much to offer. Covering 1917-1922, it highlights the prevalence of WWI deployments and deaths. The novel emphasizes the limitations of female opportunities and assumed expectations of women. We even spend time with Myrtle’s sister, Catherine, who fights for the 19th amendment.

I absolutely loved getting to know Jordan Baker more–so much depth beyond the cool character we saw through Nick’s eyes in The Great Gatsby. While reading from Daisy’s point of view, I hated Tom even more in this book than in Gatsby. Daisy & Jay’s relationship is portrayed differently in this book, too. It was fun to read a different POV of many scenes from the original.

The reader sees real heartache in the lives of all the leading females of the novel.

I really enjoyed spending more time with these characters and a different spin on a special story. It made me so happy that I wanted to cry into a pile of Gatsby’s dress shirts.

The year was 1917 and the start of WWI. The story follows the lives of Daisy, Jordan, and Catherine. Daisy and Jordan were best friends and came from money in Louisville, KY. Catherine came from farm life in Illinois. These women were ahead of their time. Catherine moved to New York to work on getting women the right to vote. Jordan was pushed by her dad to be the best golfer. They were starting a female organization and you earned your way in. Daisy felt she has to marry into money to save her family home for her mother. Enter Jay Gatsby, who meets and becomes obsessed with Daisy. In his mission to get Daisy back, he didn't care who he hurt or destroyed along the way. He felt he could just charm his way out of any situation. I love how the meaning of the title changed at the end.

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is one of my favorite "classic" books so when I heard Jillian Cantor was writing a companion piece told from the women's perspective I was immediately intrigued. Beautiful Little Fools takes place primarily before the events of The Great Gatsby with Daisy, her best friend Jordan, and Myrtle's sister, Catherine, telling their version of events which led up to Gatsby's death. A detective POV is also introduced as he investigates Gatsby's death thinking that George might not have been the murderer after all....but can he prove it?

It's funny, I did not care for Daisy as a character in The Great Gatsby, and while I still don't love her, Beautiful Little Fools did a good job at giving me enough context to where I can start to empathize more with her. On the flip side of that, I didn't love Gatsby in Beautiful Little Fools as he came off very seedy and possessive. All of that makes sense given that my impressions of the characters now are based on Daisy's recollections. I can choose to believe her version of events or not. Certainly they don't always align with the version told by Nick Carraway in the original story. Overall, I enjoyed this reimagining.

Ms Jillian Cantor has created a whole new world, with deep multi-dimensional characters, and the three lead women are all unapologetically flawed and yet decidedly sincere enough to root for.

I must admit TGG has been on my TBR pile since forever, but I haven't read it yet. After reading this, I can easily imagine what enabled that book to reach such heights of fame and ultimately achieve classic stature. The story is a truly a story of its times, showing not just Gatsby for who he was, but also who the women of that time were and what they had to go through. The story does take some liberties with expanding the original character list of TGG, and yet it manages to keep your attention at all times. There were a few times I thought I may not be able to finish it, but the story is dense and engaging enough to keep you invested and wanting to really know what's going to happen - not necessarily how it's going to end, but really what is going to lead to that denouement.

Daisy, Jordan and Catherine are all strong characters, and have been given enough coverage in the story to actually shift focus from Gatsby, and onto the collective women of his times. Gatsby, Tom, George - are all revealed to be somewhat similar to each other, and while there may have been the odd streak of sincerity in some of them some of the times, by and large your sympathies lie with the women. Again, not something I thought I'd reach as agreeably as I eventually did.

Despite my initial intermittent doubts, by the end the story made be feel very strongly for the protagonists, and I could almost experience the the journey we had taken - for more than five years from Louisville, KY to West Egg, NY, before circling back home.

A definite stellar treatment from Ms. Cantor, to a much-revered classic. A strong story, with strong characters, and a compelling if somewhat fateful conclusion.

Thanks to Ms. Cantor, Harper Perennial and NetGalley for providing an eARC in exchange for a true and honest feedback.

If you love The Great Gatsby, then you will probably love this one! It’s a retelling of The Great Gatsby in the years leading up to the summer of 1922, when Jay Gatsby was found dead in his swimming pool. This story focuses on the women of the story and places doubt on who actually killed Gatsby.

Rating : ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I really love this story and could not put it down! This is released today and you’ll definitely want to add this one to your TBR this year !

Did I enjoy a retelling of The Great Gatsby without remembering one single thing about the original? I sure did.

BEAUTIFUL LITTLE FOOLS is filled with glitz, deceit and secrets set in the backdrop of the 1920s. Jillian Cantor flips the original narrative on its head and tells the story from the perspective of the women.

The mystery and intrigue of who murdered Jay Gatsby kept me turning pages as the motivations of this rich cast of characters unfolded.

I enjoyed a combination of print and audio for this story. This was a a standout audio production with a full cast featuring my absolute favorite, Julia Whelen.

While being familiar with Gatsby may give you a deeper layer of appreciation, Beautiful Little Fools is an enjoyable read without that background knowledge.

RATING: 4/5
PUB DATE: February 1, 2022

Fantastic mystery surrounding the women of The Great Gatsby! The multiple points of views re-imagine the death of Gatsby and try to determine who killed him. The author skillfully writes about the women and why they might have had motives for killing Gatsby. The voices of Daisy and Jordy seem to occur the most time speaking have a stronger voice and narrative drive of the plot. The detective character is the frame narrator and gives an observation of the others. I enjoyed the suspense of each POV. I believe the characters are drawn so the plot moves forward. I thought it seemed a well written novel. I appreciate the nods to the famous characters and some phrases that seem to call back to the famous novel. I believe it helps to be familiar with the famous novel in order to know what is happening with the characters. Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley.

💎 Sometimes there’s an idea that’s so good you can’t believe it hasn’t already been done. I mean, how have we lived without The Great Gatsby told from the female perspectives of the women from the original classic: Daisy Buchanan, Jordan Baker and Catherine McCoy?!

The women’s stories unfold in the years leading up to that fateful summer of 1922, with chapters alternating between their perspectives as well as the Detective who is searching for the truth about Jay Gatsby’s murder.

In the classic, the women wrapped up in Jay’s world were enigmas. They played pivotal roles but we didn’t understand how they’d come to be in this precarious world. Beautiful Little Fools provides the women’s back stories, finally revealing their previously unknown motivations. We also get more insight into Gatsby himself and are offered a plausible whodunnit for his murder.

Of the three women, Daisy’s perspective was my favorite and while I didn’t care for Jordan’s, overall it was extremely interesting to get more insight into the whole iconic story.

⚠️ If you haven’t read The Great Gatsby in awhile I recommend going online and looking at the cliff notes as a refresher!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 5
Takeaway: Jill Cantor managed to not only add to an iconic classic but improve upon it!

In this retelling of The Great Gatsby we get the perspective of Daisy, Jordan, and Catherine, the women from that book, and it was beautifully done by Jillian Cantor. From beginning to end this book had me captivated. It is an incredible and very entertaining murder mystery that I think would make F. Scott Fitzgerald proud. I highly recommend it.

I have loved everything I've read by Jillian Cantor, and Beautiful Little Fools is at the top of the list. I loved this story's version of the history and events in The Great Gatsby through the eyes of the women in the story, and I feel like I like this version so much better than the original? This gives so much depth and understanding to the women- from the limits they had to their freedoms in this era, to the reasons they were connected to the men and each other. Cantor's Daisy, in particular, is an absolute revelation, so far from the way I perceived her when reading the source material. While I think readers who have read The Great Gatsby will get infinitely more from this story, I don't think you have to be a huge fan of it to enjoy this one- it's probably been close to a decade since I read it and that was enough.

I adore The Great Gatsby, but you can’t exactly say that it has the strongest female characters. Daisy is a vain & childish ditz, Jordan is a cynical enigma that Fitzgerald doesn’t seem keen to look closer at. And Myrtle…who even is she, other than a sad homewrecker?

And you know, that’s fine, it’s a story written by a man and it’s all about Gatsby. But that’s why I think it’s fun that all these retellings are finally able to come out now. Let’s delve deeper into these ladies!

In Cantor’s rendition, I was at first wary. Daisy starts out this book just as vain and flighty as you’d expect, making me worry this wasn’t going to say anything new about her character. But then this book goes in a direction I was pleasantly surprised by. I won’t spoil anything, but Daisy, Jordan, and even Myrtle and her sister turn out to be deeper than I was expecting. Cantor even connects some dots that answer questions about the original I didn’t even know I had.

And the ending is VERY fun. I dug this!! I think if you’re a fan of The Great Gatsby you should definitely check this out.