This one was wild. It was honestly tough to get into, but it was a short read. As readers, we are drop-kicked into the story with little reminder of our setting or characters, but the original book this pairs with is the same way.

This is set in 30s America, and our character is an unreliable narrator. I thought that the way it was written fit the vibe and the character, but I also felt like nothing made sense; it was disjointed and felt unfinished. I think that was the point, but it made it hard to read sometimes, and I had to reread passages because I felt like I skipped over huge chunks of information.

Maybe I wasn't quite the audience for this, but overall, it was enjoyable. I think I would not recommend this unless you are aware of the tone and writing choice and enjoy that sort of thing.

In a companion novel to The Chosen and The Beautiful, this is going to be very niche specific. This is not your novel as an entry to the author. This is a journey of Nick’s grief over the loss of Jay Gatsby.

I like the idea of an after Gatsby novel, like what was next- but maybe not in unreliable narrator Nick’s voice. Like I would have preferred the point of view back in Jordan’s voice. But instead the author presents a tale of Nick’s still obsession and he goes down the rabbit hole. This definitely follows the authors original story, adding the fantasy elements to the inspired first story and those elements almost felt a little more naturally integrated in.

Even called a stand alone companion, I would highly recommend reading the Chosen and the Beautiful first, as it does give away a key element of the first book. As usual, Nghi Vo has such a beautiful way of writing, but this novel left me feeling more was this necessary than anything, as it didn’t leave me feeling it really accomplished anything. Maybe if it had been a little longer.

I was intrigued to find out that Nghi Vo has reinterpreted F. Scott Fitzgerald’s literary classic The Great Gatsby (1925). After hearing about her novella Don’t Sleep with the Dead, I checked and was disappointed to see that I had actually missed the first book in this queer fantasy duology, The Chosen and the Beautiful, when it was published in 2021. Now I’ve read them both; I am amazed, and I want to tell everyone how great they are.

I’ve been enjoying Nghi Vo’s Singing Hills Cycle, an award-winning Asian historical fantasy series that started with The Empress of Salt and Fortune in 2020, but with her first full novel, The Chosen and the Beautiful, I really feel that she has leveled up her craft. The writing is gorgeous and rich, the characterization is deep and deeply sympathetic, the fantasy elements expand the story instead of just decorating it, and various plot elements provide social commentary on The Great Gatsby, culture then, and life now. I’m a little surprised that it doesn’t seem to have been nominated for any major awards, although it was named a Best of the Year Pick by NPR and a Best Fantasy Novel from the Last 10 Years by Book Riot. Maybe readers then dismissed it from awards consideration because they considered it mere Gatsby fanfiction? ...

The Chosen and the Beautiful is set in the same Jazz Age period, except it adds magic and devils and is told from the perspective of TGG minor character Jordan Baker (Asian here, instead of white) instead of the oddly passive Nick Carraway. (MILD SPOILER for The Chosen and the Beautiful: Did you ever wonder, when reading The Great Gatsby, why the narrator, Nick Carraway, is so detached, mostly a mere observer of events? In The Chosen and the Beautiful, Jordan Baker eventually figures out that there are magical/metaphysical reasons for this, and she uses her powers to try to help him.)

In both books, the narrators are outsiders of sorts: Nick Carraway in TGG is a Midwesterner visiting relatives in Long Island, and Jordan Baker in TCaTB is a female pro golfer. Additionally, in TGG, it’s hinted that each is ambiguously sexual, but in TCaTB their queerness is stated outright, with Nick and Jordan occasionally taking both male and female lovers (as well as each other, as shown in some extremely steamy passages). Finally, in TCaTB, Jordan is a Vietnamese “adoptee” by her former missionary parents the Bakers (apparently without benefit of paperwork), and this makes her situation especially precarious. While Daisy’s husband, Tom, praises his and his peers’ Nordic ancestry and decries immigration (as he does to a briefer extent in TGG, basically as a demonstration of his self-justifying boorishness), he and his wife assure Jordan that as their friend, she doesn’t have to worry about stricter legislation coming through, but she can see the writing on the wall and worries about being dependent upon the good graces of her friends/patrons. I don’t believe I need to belabor why this theme is especially relevant now.

I mentioned before that both The Chosen and the Beautiful and Don’t Sleep with the Dead include magic and devils, and they are far from set dressing. It’s fairly incidental that cities use magic for streetlights, for example, but more importantly, in TCaTB, Jordan and Daisy are linked partly through their experiences growing up together, which include Jordan’s using her heritage of paper-cutting magic as childish entertainment and later to help cope with an extremely difficult social crisis.

“Daisy’s soft voice in my ear sent shivers down my spine. She told me how good and clever I was, how absolutely sweet it was that I was doing this for her… With Daisy’s certainty, there was no room for my own doubt, so I simply packed it into a box and left it by the door for some other unfortunate person to pick up.”

Also crucial in this duology is the fantasy element of the existence of devils, and not just because people add drops of infernal beings’ blood to their drinks to consume demoniac instead of absinthe, or rent out their bodies for possession. The Great Gatsby includes assumptions and implications about Jay Gatsby having shot up from rags to riches at least partly via criminal connections, in order to finally (try to) win back his lost love Daisy; in The Chosen and the Beautiful, the generally accepted rumor is that Gatsby actually sold his soul, and hosts wild parties where devils can rub shoulders with other potential victims, in order to achieve wealth and success and, hopefully, Daisy.

“At Gatsby’s the clock [always] stood at just five shy of midnight the moment you arrived. Crossing from the main road through the gates of his world, a chill swirled around you, the stars came out, and a moon rose up out of the Sound. It was as round as a golden coin, and so close you could bite it. I had never seen a moon like that before… Everything was dripping with money and magic, to the point where no one questioned the light that flooded the house … The light had a particularly honey-like quality, something like summer in a half-remembered garden…”
— The Chosen and the Beautiful

The prose here is always well chosen and often gorgeous. It’s rich and transportingly lovely in some places, dry and snide in others, and occasionally delivers gut punches:

“Daisy, as pretty as she was, was never sweet either, though she sparkled so bright it was easy to think she was. It was easy to think that Daisy was many things.”
— The Chosen and the Beautiful

Don’t Sleep with the Dead takes place years after the events of The Chosen and the Beautiful. This novella is told from the perspective of Nick Carraway; we only hear from Jordan via a couple of overseas calls, when she reluctantly disburses caustic advice to her former lover and protégé. War is again looming in Europe, but that doesn’t matters nearly as much to Americans as the Great Depression, still hitting hard. Nick has written a few novels, including one about the summer of Gatsby, although Jordan says he left a lot out; he lives off inheritance and royalties, and as a newspaper columnist talking about NYC nightlife.

When this tale opens, Nick is caught up in a late-night scrum in a park where police are rounding up, beating, and arresting homosexuals, when suddenly he is rescued by someone he can’t see clearly in the dark; however, the voice of the helpful person calling him “old sport” is very familiar. After that, Nick becomes obsessed with finding out whether his old flame Gatsby could possibly have escaped from Hell, as a ghost or however else, after his death more than a decade ago. He wanders the mean streets, visits luxe clubs and other locales, has conversations with various dubious and dangerous personalities, delves into his own past, and has some extremely unsettling revelations about his progenitor. Ultimately, Nick makes a desperate decision, staking everything to gain … what? I won’t spoil that, but in the end, I absolutely love how everything turns out.

Along the way, the worldbuilding is expanded in fascinating ways, and, Nick being Nick, there are numerous moody monologues. I didn’t seek permission to quote from the eARC of Don’t Sleep with the Dead, but it too delivers some prose that make me sigh with delight and envy, as well as some passages that are harrowing with their intensity and dread. Nghi Vo’s Singing Hills Cycle makes for some very pleasant and interesting reading, but I can’t remember being wowed by those novellas the way I have been so often by this duology, via its brilliant and brutal prose, its complex characters, their actions, their arcs, and the insightful social commentary all along the way.

It’s probably possible to understand Don’t Sleep with the Dead without having read The Chosen and the Beautiful, but the revelations about Nick’s past will become much clearer by having read more about Nick’s nature in the first book. If you haven’t read either, I highly recommend getting both, if all this sounds anything like your sort of thing. (You likely don’t really need to read F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby beforehand, but it helps, and you’ll probably appreciate The Chosen and the Beautiful even more if you do.)

3.5*

I really wanted to give this one a higher score and I was looking forward to entering a Golden Age, Great Gatsby type setting, btu I feel as though it didn’t quite live up to what I anticipated. I will mention, this book is a companion to The Chosen and the Beautiful, so it may make a bit more sense to those who have read the companion.

As a standalone, I was not given much information regarding what it meant to be a paper soldier. With regards to Nghi Vo’s writing, he could truly be made of paper, or he could be a writer who writes for a cause. Nevertheless, the story wanders off on its own bizarre escapade as we seem to talk to demons with people trapped in the ceiling. This is very much like a fever dream, but it has some really good angst.

If The Chosen and the Beautiful was a Greta Gatsby retelling, this story takes place after those events have occurred. Even though Jay Gatsby is “dead”, Nick encounters him in a nightclub. I don’t think this is the story for me, however, from other reviews, it does seem it would have been more impactful had I read the companion piece.

Here I am reviewing another wee novella about which I don’t have too much to say. Rereading The Chosen and the Beautiful prior to picking up Don’t Sleep with the Dead would have seved me well. Apparently, I’d forgotten almost everything unique that Vo had developed about Nick’s character, lol. And it’s even there in the jacket copy (“paper soldier”)! Technically, Don’t Sleep with the Dead is a companion novella and not a direct sequel. However, readers who have read both The Great Gatsby and The Chosen and the Beautiful will be the ones best primed to enjoy Don’t Sleep with the Dead.

As a Gatsby retelling fan, I appreciated that Don’t Sleep with the Dead takes place well after the end of the original story, providing a true conclusion for the story of Nick and Jay. I haven’t read any retellings set after the story – or I should say, I haven’t read any continuations.

In my mind, I have a spectrum on which I place Nghi Vo novels and novellas. It looks something roughly like this: pure fantasy on the left end (Singing Hills cycle), historical speculative fiction in the middle (Siren Queen), and weirder speculative fiction on the right (The City in Glass). I’ve found my personal favourite Vo stories are the historical spec fic ones. I’d place Don’t Sleep with the Dead somewhere between middle and right, compared to The Chosen and the Beautiful which I’d place more in the middle.

In some ways, Don’t Sleep with the Dead brought to mind C.L. Polk’s Even Though I Knew the End. This may be a bold statement for me to make, given that I don’t recall much about Even Though. 😅 I would say Don’t Sleep is grimmer, darker, more surreal. But both stories focus closely on two queer lovers dealing with devil interference. I think it’s fair to say if you enjoyed one, you’ll enjoy the other.

The Bottom Line: Though it doesn’t quite match the charm and wonder of The Chosen and the Beautiful (hard to do when Jordan is no longer the central character!), Don’t Sleep with the Dead provides a satisfying conclusion to the most curious parts of Nick Carraway’s story.

The Chosen and The Beautiful is my favorite of Nghi Vo's books, and I'm a huge Vo fan, so I was so pleased with this one!! The last book left me wishing for more of Nick, so I was happy with the extra details we got about him and this world. I do think it really only works as a companion novel/sequel and not a standalone though.

I wouldn't say this was my favorite Nghi Vo book but I did enjoy the different take on a Great Gatsby retelling from a queer perspective. This was emotional and still very much relevant to what's going on in the world today in which queer people are still being persecuted by the law. Good on audio and recommended for fans of books like Self-made boys by Anna Marie McLemore. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital copy in exchange for my honest review!

Am I glad I read it? A slightly bitter yes!

I'll be honest: I haven't read The Chosen and the Beautiful, and I took the marketing copy at its word that I could genuinely read this book, billed as a companion novella, without having read TCATB first. Halfway through, I was prepared to strongly disagree with that claim in my review because, while I remember the broad plot and thematic strokes of The Great Gatsby from high school, I was pretty lost in this continuation of Vo's world and the implications of TCATB for it. But!

BUT! I stuck with it, as one does, and wow am I glad that I did because it came together so, so well for me. A dark, spiraling fever dream stumble across the magical NYC underground (literally). This was gruesome and bloody, filled with devils and deals you probably (definitely) shouldn't make and real-but-not-real people constructed out of paper and the memories we can't, won't forget. The story's a bit cruel, like Gatsby, just like Nick likes. Yes yes yes. Delicious.

Also, I LOVE how Vo used the title in the text. *chef's kiss*

Do I want to immediately go start The Chosen and the Beautiful now? And then do a reread of this? Yes! Do I ~still~ think this novella is probably best appreciated if read after TCATB? Also yes!

Rating: 👍🏻 👍🏻 (really liked)

Thanks to Tordotcom and Netgalley for the advance copy of this title!

I really enjoyed the writing and idea of this story. The atmosphere is really intriguing and the magical/mystery elements of the story really create an air of intrigue that kept the pages turning. This was a quick and darkly fascinating read. The relationships and depth of characters is so fascinating and being dropped in the middle of this dark fantasy/alternative 20's was really fun

I think my main issue with this book is that, while marketed as a standalone, it is a companion novel. And while this book can work on its own, it takes a bit to really get into the story and understand all the nuances. And I think this story would work better if read after its companion novel rather than as an isolated story.

Thanks to NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group and Tordotcom for providing me with a digital review copy of this story in exchange for an honest review.

If Nghi Vo writes it, I’ll read it! This novella is a queer 1930s dark literary fever dream, with paper magic and demon bargains and yearning galore. The story takes place some 20 years after Vo’s previous Great Gatsby reimagining “The Chosen and the Beautiful” (another terrific read), and while that novel focused on Jordan Baker, this novella follows a jaded Nick Carraway as he navigates his dark past after seeing a ghost he thought long dead. I don’t think it’s necessary to read “The Chosen and the Beautiful” or even “The Great Gatsby” in order to enjoy “Don’t Sleep with the Dead,” but a bit of background on the original story and Vo’s characters does help in untangling the dense world, which is fascinating but presented without much context in this one. The writing is gorgeous, as with all of Vo’s work, her words conjuring an eerie unreality that is both compelling and unsettling. I’m always amazed at the level of depth Vo can achieve in such a short page count, spinning new worlds and exploring complex themes and desperate people, and it takes an incredible writer to reinvent such a classic tale and make it into something utterly unique.

Thanks to Tor Books and NetGalley for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!

When I saw Nghi Vo was releasing a new novella, I IMMEDIATELY signed up for an advanced copy. I read The City in Glass and it was one of my favorite books of 2024.

Advertised as a standalone, Don't Sleep with the Dead is a companion novella to The Chosen & the Beautiful, a queer and fantastical retelling of the great American novel, The Great Gatsby. Emphasis on the "advertised as a standalone" because it should not have been. And thank goodness I read the fine print, and Kindle Unlimited having The Chosen & the Beautiful as part of their collection.

I. Ate. That. Book. Up. Jordan Baker was a wonderful protagonist, the reinvented 1920s world was lush and imaginative and felt so. so real. It was so fun to visit again with Daisy and Gatsby and Nick, and I loved Nghi Vo's reimagining of their relationships and sexualities. It was an easy 4 star book for me and I immediately picked up Don't Sleep with the Dead.

Right off the bat I was underwhelmed. Set some 20 years late, right before the events of World War II, we meet an older Nick Carraway who is still hung up on Gatsby. Nick was by far my least favorite character of TC&TB, and the person we know the most about from The Great Gatsby, but I held out hope that Vo would bring something inventive to Nick that would make this story intersting. And while she did invent a new Nick Carraway, it wasn't in the way that I wanted (i.e. I really didn't need more of him pining over a 20-year-dead situationship).

All in all this was just ok for me. Of course Nghi Vo's writing is beautiful and I am always transported to exactly where she wants me to go, but I'm just not a Nick girl. But I loved the little Jordan Baker appearance!!! And I will continue to pick up anything this woman writes.

Absolutely beautifully written, like everything of Vo's I've ever read.

I don't believe this works as a standalone novella, though. It relies very heavily on The Chosen and the Beautiful, to the point that I don't think I can say anything about the plot without giving spoilers for the original novel. The pacing was slow, but with a short novella, that was fine. Some of the descriptions of scenes felt almost dream-like, which I loved, and I enjoyed the exploration of the emotions of the characters.

If you read The Chosen and the Beautiful and wanted more closure, or if you simply wanted to spend another afternoon in that world (and who wouldn't?), absolutely pick this up.

this reads like a closure to The Chosen and the Beautiful -- and i would recommend it for those who already read that book and want more of that world. i would have a hard time saying you can read this without reading the previous book as there would be too much context and references loss to fully grasp what's going on in the story as it drops the reader into the plot more than make an effort to introduce the characters/setting

this society that Nghi Vo created made me realize how much i enjoy Gatsby era stories that read like you’re outside a jazz bar with the music muffled and playing softly in the background.

the imagery that Nghi Vo puts into these gatsby retellings is insane and is always, in my opinion, where her strong points reside. the dark and whimsical writing from the point of view of unreliable narrators is interesting whether or not i’m reading it from nghi vo or other authors, so of course i keep reading whatever she puts out

however, if you read and didn’t like the chosen and the beautiful… this would be hard for me to recommend as it’s basically more of the same thing

It’s a short read with the pacing slowing down towards the middle. I realized while writing this review that it’s a little difficult to talk more about this book without also spoiling The Chosen and the Beautiful so we’re going to have to stick with generic phrasings

the overarching idea on how everyone is telling you a story, whether they love you or hate you, and you get to decide what you make of them… is a prominent theme. though this isn’t my favorite of Nghi Vo’s books, it’s an interesting closure for those who enjoyed The Chosen and the Beautiful. Do with this information what you will~

consider this my plea to have more gatsby retellings / inspired books in the world

I was happy to return to the alt-Gatsbyverse Vo created in The Chosen and the Beautiful. The story is fine, though brief, and packed with Vo's magic realism. Although it's described as a standalone, I think reading The Chosen and the Beautiful is necessary.

Thank you, tordotcom and Netgalley, for an advance ebook in exchange for a fair review.

This is my first read from Nghi Vo, and wow what a novella, I cannot recommend this book enough. This is a fantasy retelling of The Great Gatsby, reimagining the story with queer characters and incorporating paranormal and supernatural elements. I did not read The Chosen and The Beautiful but now I will be!

We follow Nick Carraway returning to New York, and not quite himself so to speak. Nick's search for Gatsby is dark, grim, and demonic. I would have read two or three hundred more pages to stay in this world and see what else it had to offer. Creepy, interesting, not what I was expecting. Well done.

Thank you to Tor Books and NetGalley for the opportunity to review an advanced copy of this book.

Don’t Sleep with the Dead is an excellent return to the world of Nghi Vo’s delightfully queer and reimagined Great Gatbsy. Nick lives in New York and his time with Daisy, Jordan, and Gatsby still haunts him. One night in the city, the past catches back up to him...

Nghi Vo crafts a stunning world that teases at the imagination and tears down conventional rules. I loved the mysterious magic and deals with devils. Nick and Gatsby have an electric and treacherous connection. I enjoyed the cameos from Jordan and her wise advice to Nick. I couldn’t put it down! Readers who seek mysterious magic, queer reimaginings, and beautiful writing will enjoy Don’t Sleep with the Dead.

Thank you so much to Nghi Vo, Tor Publishing Group, and NetGalley for a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

For publisher: My review will be posted on Goodreads, Amazon, Storygraph, and Barnes & Noble etc.

DNF at 40%. I said in my review of The Chosen and the Beautiful that the Gatsby elements were what kept me from fully investing. But I can respect Gatsby as a product of its time and “Chosen” for how it paid homage to it. But the removal of the characters (Nick primarily) from that era resulted in a particularly unstimulating read, and supernatural elements had to be included to try to bring life into a narrative around a particularly stale character, whose narrative entirely centered around “the Great (Now-Deceased) Gatsby.”

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group for my arc in exchange for my unbiased opinion.

I say "unbiased" but I love Nghi Vo. She has quickly become one of my favorite writers and I've read nearly everything she's published, except for "The Chosen and the Beautiful," which is a queer fantasy retelling of "The Great Gatsby." It just slipped past me, BUT this book, "Don't Sleep with the Dead" is a standalone novella that follows Nick Carraway after the events of TCATB.

I really enjoyed this! It's got that classic Vo flare for the grotesque and suspenseful. I do think that Vo really shines in shorter works and that's true here (and in her Singing Hills Cycle series). We get about a few days peek into Nick's life and Jay Gatsby has reappeared from the dead.

That's the basic premise and man does it do a good job of keeping you wondering about where the story is gonna go. It's so engaging! It's short but I stayed up quite a bit during my school week to read it and it was so worth it.

I would definitely recommend this lil romp!

This author does it again. This was so good. I couldn’t stop reading it. I love this author and I will read whatever they write. Pick this up.

Thank you Netgalley for the arc. This was a fascinating novella. Its a companion to her novel The Chosen and the Beautiful however, you can read it as a standalone.
Nick Carraway is an interesting character for late 1930s NYC. I loved following Nick and his thoughts as he was clearly pining for someone no longer with him.
There's magic, demons, ghosts and more. I was intrigued from beginning to end.