I loved this story. I will admit that I have never read The Great Gatsby but that didn't detract from this retelling in any way. We're getting two queer trans boys just trying to find a way to exist and get out of their own heads a little bit. I loved Daisy and I love the concept and execution talking about lavender marriages. Yeah this is just a really solid story and one that I can't wait to do every rate of and so they can't wait to recommend to people!

Wowzer! What a great remix! 5 stars! Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an AudioARC in exchange for an honest review.

Self Made Boys is, as the title suggests, a remix of The Great Gatsby. Many pieces are tweaked and lead to new outcomes of plot lines, but this story is all the richer for it. Young Nicolas, a trans Latino boy, sets out for New York in hopes of making a name for himself and supporting his family. His cousin, Daisy, and neighbor, Jay Gatsby, help Nick navigate the social scene and help him adapt to life in New York. Of course, hijinx ensue, and not all of our characters may come out alive...

Wow....just.....wow! This story is PHENOMENALLY told by the narrator, Avi Roque. Their voice acting for all the characters is so beautifully done, especially with Daisy and how she speaks as a high class woman. I was blown away and sucked in from the start, and Avi was an exquisite choice for narration. I have listened to other audiobooks that Avi has read, but something about this story....they really sold it to me and I was happy to gobble it up. The characters have so many layers that you just continue to fall for them throughout the book, and by the end are sad to part ways with them.

Five beaming stars for Self Made Boys. Recommended for readers 12+. You'll love this story if you enjoy the classics, love a good mystery, and love stories of self worth and finding yourself. I absolutely adored this story, it's one that shouldn't be missed!

CONTENT WARNING: racism, homophobia, transphobia

I vaguely remember having to read The Great Gatsby in high school, and being incredibly bored by it. Turns out, it was lacking some flavor. And Anna-Marie McLemore took on the challenge, and successfully turned this blah story into one that I couldn’t stop reading. Shout out to narrators Avi Roque and Kyla Garcia for bringing this story into stunning life, and voicing the characters of Nick and Daisy even more beautifully than I could have ever imagined.

The story stays relatively true to the original (at least as far as I can remember), although there was diversity seamlessly woven into it, and it felt like that was what the story was missing all along. I think one of the most impressive aspects was that McLemore managed to convey all the emotional and social nuance associated with being queer, trans, and a person of color, while staying true to the historical aspects of the 1920s.

Nick is a trans boy of Mexican descent, visiting his cousin Daisy, who is currently passing as white. He speaks a lot about his own feelings about this, and how brown people who look like him (and how Daisy used to look) are treated in the wealthy neighborhood that he’s now living in. More than a few times, he’s mistaken for the help, with people handing him their golf clubs or dishes, and even outright told something like, “well, you’re not like them.” He faces racial slurs, which weren’t said on the page, thankfully, because I was already outraged on his behalf. One of the biggest surprises that he faces is how Daisy introduces him to her fiancé Tom, as the son of her housekeeper, rather than her cousin:

“That glance told me that if people like us wanted to make something of ourselves in a world ruled by men as pale as their own dinner plates, we had to lie. Daisy would help me make my way in New York. Her price would be the two of us erasing ourselves from each others blood.”

The concept of “passing” is also discussed. Daisy is currently passing, and living her life as a white woman, in order to be accepted in high society. But hiding your ethnicity isn’t an easy thing. Ethnicity isn’t just what you look like—it encompasses so much of our identity, and hiding that means turning away from our family, our history, our culture, our language, traditional foods, language, beliefs, and so much more. Passing involves having difficult discussions, and it seems like Daisy is taking the easy way out, as mentioned by someone else in a similar situation:

“‘The problem is that she hasn’t truly reckoned with it, what it means to live as she’s living. She talks to her family, your family, as though nothing has happened. As though life is just as it was. I couldn’t do that. I had the conversations, hard as they were, I had them. We had them. But she hasn’t done that with her family. I doubt she’s truly even done that with you.’”

Under the surface, there’s another level of diversity that can’t be seen as easily, and that’s gender identity and sexual orientation. Nick is transgender, and so is Jay. He comes across women who are living their lives as openly gay for the first time, and is welcomed into this new aspect of society that he never even realized existed, and is exposed to different kinds of people than he ever met in rural Wisconsin. I loved that both Nick and Jay’s families were so supportive of their transitions, and the fact that there was a Jewish lesbian incorporated into the story as well, and how she included her own cultural traditions into her daily life, which were portrayed beautifully and authentically.

I swear, if stories like this were included in the curriculum when I was in school (or if they even existed), I would have enjoyed high school English class a lot more. The story kept me hooked from start to finish, and the characters were engaging, well-rounded, and realistic. I loved every moment of this story, from the start to the stunning climax, and even though I knew the bones of the original story, this remix was masterfully rendered in a fresh and wonderful manner that has the ability to hook a whole new generation of readers in a way that the original never could.

In 1922, Nicolás Caraveo, a 17-year-old Latino transgender boy, moves to New York from Wisconsin to begin a career in Finance to establish a life as a man and pay his family back for all they gave to him. After moving to West Egg to be close to his cousin Daisy Fabrega, Nick is surprised by how much she's changed her identity to fit in with socialites and attract her wealthy beau, Tom. Nick is then invited to an extravagant party in a mansion owned by his neighbor, the elusive Jay Gatsby, and learns that not only is Jay in love with Daisy, but he's also a self-made boy like him.

Self-Made Boys is a delightful remix of The Great Gatsby for any queer person that read the original text in high school. Anna-Marie McLemore creates a reimagined world that includes several elements of the original story but updates it to be more relatable to young adults and teens of today. Daisy is still the same frustrating character, but her letters scattered throughout the book offer a new and welcomed perspective on her actions. The topic of cultural assimilation is handled well in this book, engaging in a thoughtful discussion about erasing aspects of your identity to become more appealing to the white majority and what can be lost in the process. I listened to the audiobook and really enjoyed the acting of the different voice actors. I recommend this to anyone that read The Great Gatsby, and I hope that teachers include this in their English curriculum if they already plan on teaching the original text.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio and Netgalley for an audiobook arc in exchange for an honest review.

Advanced Reader’s Copy provided by NetGalley, Macmillan Audio, and Macmillan Young Listeners in exchange for an honest review.

Well now THIS is a version of THE GREAT GATSBY that I can fully get behind! McLemore not only gives readers a new take on Nick, Jay, and Daisy... but we get transgender characters (Nick and Jay), we get latinx characters (Nick, Daisy, and one other main character), we get a Sapphic romance (that one you'll just have to read to find out), AND in this version we finally get Nick and Jay admitting their attraction to each other!

I will say that the only thing I felt that was missing was the 1920s feel of it - there is some with characters teaching Nick what vocabulary to use, but overall I missed the "1920s Gatsby Party" feel of other versions of this novel. But that's not to say SELF-MADE BOYS is lacking, or that it wasn't enjoyable. I really enjoyed it as it was, but was hoping that the descriptions of the decadence of Gatsby's parties would have been taken one step further.

Something McLemore does that I truly appreciated was that in this version, Daisy is still vapid and obnoxious on the surface, but instead of leaving it at that, this Daisy has depth to her and a method to her actions. Her impact on the overall story hits much harder in McLemore's version than in the original. And Daisy's story, as is Nick's, are so entwined into this idea of the "American Dream" that was so prominent in the early 1900s. As is the concept of a self-made person. Those topics are well suited to this story and will hopefully give readers something to think about along with everything else that happens.

And can we talk about the cover art?! Stunning.

Avi Roque and Kyla Garcia do a wonderful job with the audiobook narration and McLemore's story lends well to consuming in this format.

5 stars

What I have loved so far about the Remix series is that they are achieving what I expect is their intended purpose: reinvigorating a love for some traditional (aka tired) works with more relatable characters. This newest piece from McLemore - a proven treasure in the YA world - is no exception, and it is also my favorite of the group thus far.

As this is a remix, the characters readers of the origin point know and have *feelings* about are all present here, but they are so much better in this version. The representation is layered and engaging in several areas that McLemore has become known for across their work: gender identity, gender expression, sexuality, and race and ethnicity. As knowing readers expect, McLemore provides a thorough content warning at the top, so all readers should take note there. Readers follow these characters on a journey of exploring and coming to terms with all of these areas, and there are some difficult moments and realities. That noted, this is a WAY more uplifting product overall than its forebearer, and that's particularly impressive with the added explicit identities McLemore introduces throughout.

I know the world is filled with die-hard Gatsby fans, but I have eternally loathed the depressing nature of that book and the horrifying symbolism that highlights it all. In a remix that could have gone much deeper into darkness, McLemore instead offers a healthy, well, MIX of realistic struggle and uplifting messaging, and I am here for all of it.

McLemore continues to be an essential voice for expansive (see what I did there?) and complex identities that mirror actual people in modern times, and I remain grateful for their prolific work, as well as thrilled to read more as soon as it's available (and before that, when possible)!

*Bonus note: the narrators of the audiobook really enhance the experience. Select that option when possible!

It's 1922 and Nicolás Caraveo, a 17-year-old transgender boy from Wisconsin, has his sights set on a high-paying job in New York. Nick, having recently come out as a trans man, goes to New York to fund a better life for his family, to whom he thinks he owes a debt for accepting him and aiding in his transition. With the support of his cousin Daisy, Nick moves to West Egg and rents a small home from her. When he gets to New York, he is shocked to find that his cousin has bleached her skin to pass as white, and is going by the name Daisy Fay, hiding her Latine identity from everyone, including her wealthy fiancé, Tom. In order to protect her true identity, Daisy introduces Nick as the son of one of her family's maids, much to his dismay.

Nick is not in West Egg long before he is introduced to his wealthy and mysterious neighbour, Jay Gatsby, who regularly throws lavish parties the likes of which Nick has never seen. After an embarrassing first meeting in which Jay helps a drunken Nick back to his rental home, he receives his first invitation to one of Gatsby's lavish parties. When he arrives in the wrong attire and Jay offers to give him a change of clothes, he is immediately worried about Jay seeing his makeshift binder and giving away his identity. However, when Jay hands over an emerald green vest for Nick to change into, he also starts changing, seemingly intentionally revealing his own binder to Nick. The knowledge of their shared identities creates an instant bond and unspoken trust between the two, leading Gatsby to offer to teach Nick how to fit in among the upper-class citizens of New York. While Gatsby seems to be doing this out of the kindness of his heart, knowing he had no one to teach him these things, Nick feels bad that he cannot offer anything in return, and says so. At this, a reluctant Jay reveals his history with Daisy, whom he met in the war and hoped to marry, and enlists Nick to help him get closer to her.

Upon discovering Gatsby's feelings for his cousin, Nick quickly realizes that the spectacle of the parties and the placement of Jay's house directly across the lake from Daisy's own are no coincidence: it's all to get her attention and to show her what he had made of himself. While Nick is initially reluctant to help Gatsby, he doesn't remain so for long. After discovering that Tom is cheating on Daisy (and possibly worse), Nick decides that he needs to do anything to get his cousin away from that man, and Jay seems like his best shot. While the two seem to hit it off, Nick must grapple with his own feelings for Gatsby, and what they say about the type of self-made man he is.

This book was absolutely incredible. It is a tender love story, with an incredibly queer cast of characters and wonderful explorations of gender identity, colorism and sexuality. Nick thinks a lot about the kind of man he is, but before Jay, he doesn't know any other men like him and has a certain idea in his head of what a man must be. He grapples with the idea of being a gay trans man, something he didn't think was possible. This book is sure to resonate with many, its themes remaining relevant one hundred years later. Anna-Marie McLemore has created the t4t historical romance of my dreams, and I can't wait to hold it in my hands!

This book was everything: heartfelt, tender, and romantic. The Latinx lens provides more depth to the story, and the book tackles many other great topics as well. Nick and Jay’s relationship filled my heart with warmth, and I loved Daisy as well. The representation in this book was amazing, and the storyline itself moved in a fast and sensible way. I’ve never read The Great Gatsby, but this book has me thinking of picking it up.