“Well, I’d rather do something real. Build something good out of everything that’s been broken.”

This is one of the only four books to ever make me shed a tear. What a masterpiece.
I have never read the original Great Gatsby, and though I plan to, Local Heavens made me feel like I somehow already knew it—like it was already in my soul. Fajardo’s love for this story shines through the gaps like sunrise through closed curtains.

The prose was excellent, the world-building unbelievably awe-striking. This is the modern 'roar' of our 20s, the ultimate vision on where our present-day is heading. From AI to Memories, to cheating death and sport.
This is irreplaceable modern literature.
I could sit and marvel at the craft for an hour but what would I achieve doing that when I could just pick this up all over again from Page One?

It’s a tragedy that this a debut because I need more!!!

Local Heavens was a slow starter, but once I got going, I could not stop reading. The world is complete, the characters are complicated and the more that I read, the more I wondered what was really going on.

One of the greatest things about it was that nothing in the book really does what you think it's going to do. Whether it's the characters, their motivations, or even the universe as a whole being in the future, there is always something else beneath the surface. Who is really telling the truth, and what aren't they telling you?

Overall, Local Heavens is a slow burn that is worth it completely. It's a clever, well-crafted book that encourages you to question your assumptions and has you pondering long after you've closed the final page.

I found this book to be an enjoyable read. The story kept me engaged from start to finish and had some moments that really stood out. Overall, it offered an entertaining reading experience.

LOCAL HEAVENS is the queer, cyberpunk gatsby retelling of my dreams—a feverish, sensual, and decadent hover car ride through the american capitalist nightmare. fajardo's debut captures the spirit of fitzgerald's classic perfectly, mirroring the beauty of his language and dreamy severity of his characters, while effortlessly moving the story into a plausible, technology-ruled future that's as harrowing as it is promising, ripping open the chest of late-stage capitalism and performing an autopsy on its rotten, glittering heart.

the 2070s of fajardo's new york city is a world of surreal body modifications, billionaire corpos, disillusioned celebrities, and all the ordinary people whose lives are crushed by capitalism as those at the top thrive off their misery, exposing the blood that keeps america running—asking if you can see it, asking if you care. in LOCAL HEAVENS, nick carraway is a filipino-american corporate hacker, jay gatsby is an elusive billionaire, daisy fay is a filipino-american retired star of technological dream simulations, and jordan baker is a nigerian-american bullet-golf champion. a love square connects the four of them, and fajardo uses the beauty and tragedy of their relationships to explore humanity on both intimate and grand scales—from the delicate dance between strangers to exploring proof of life beyond earth.

LOCAL HEAVENS retains the spirit of fitzgerald's novel while imagining it anew in clever, revelatory ways that will redefine what it means to take a timeless classic and transmute its heart for the future it gazed into. the essence of the great gatsby is more relevant than ever in fajardo's hands: her world is the one we're already living in, but with our fears and dreams dialed as high as possible. it's a prophetic scream from a hacked security system, set to a jazz number. fajardo has written a gorgeous, sleek, and unforgettable debut right on time for the great gatsby's centennial anniversary, and i can't recommend it highly enough. LOCAL HEAVENS is going to haunt me for a very long time, and ensured that i'll follow fajardo anywhere in the world.

LOCAL HEAVENS hits shelves on october 14! it's available for preorder now, and if you needed a literal green light to convince you, here it is! go forth, old sport.

Local Heavens follows the narrator, Nick Carraway, who reminisces on a gilded summer in a cyberpunk New York City. What had started as an assignment to ensure the corporate acquisition between two corporate entities succeeds turns into being faced with lies, corruption, and desire. All because Nick has to investigate one Jay Gatsby.

I do love a cyberpunk setting. The interplay between the different social classes, cultural identity, and the role of body mods really kept my interest. Nick's stumbling through it all felt genuine enough. However, many of the beats borrowed from the original The Great Gatsby felt forced and frustrating to read, given what was established in the world built around the story. I wasn't a fan of the pacing, as the narrative wrestled between being a retelling and wanting to do its own thing as a cyberpunk story.

It was a fun story to annotate. There were lines of dialogue that made me feel things. Set pieces that I could see adapted into film. Identity crisis in which many readers could relate. Yet, this is supposed to be a cyberpunk retelling of the Great Gatsby. I can't say if it achieved its goal, but I can say it came close. If you're looking for a man trying to find out for himself who he wants to be, instead of what others think he should be, then it would be worth a read.

I must admit, it took me way too long to realize that this is a retelling of The Great Gatsby.

That being said, it means I did not already know where the story was going and was able to enjoy it as it is.

What stood out to me, is that people looked, talked and behaved in the way I would have expected people in the past to do. This did not harmonize with the fact that the story is set in the future. But of course, now that I know this is a retelling of a classic, it makes a lot more sense.

I appreciated the world building and the fact that the main character had Filipino roots. Plus all the queerness!

I'm not sure how much needs to be said about the plot, since I have basically already revealed where this is going.

Still the ending left me feeling vulnerable and emotional and frankly that's what I expect from a good book.

Hmm…complicated feelings about this one (so I wrote an essay).

So first, I did my self-imposed homework and re-read The Great Gatsby right before diving (lol) into this one. Consequently, all similarities and differences between the two narratives were immediately obvious—which led me to question: how close should a retelling be? We retell fairytales, but fairytales are archetypal and so firmly stamped in the cultural landscape that we associate crumbling towers with princesses, red cloaks with wolves, gingerbread with evil witches, and so on; they’re made to be retold. But this isn’t a fairytale. In fact, it’s the antithesis of a fairytale. Any hope to be found is in the margins, in what we take away as Nick reflects on the futility of it all, on the dreams that are always a little out of reach, but that we as humans can’t seem to stop trying to grasp.

Gatsby is a strange one. 100 years old as of 2025, and arguably Fitzgerald’s magnum opus, it marks a shift in his philosophy from his first novel This Side of Paradise. While disillusionment permeates both novels, there’s a certain maturity to Gatsby that reveals the change in his internal dilemmas, and it’s strange and beautiful to witness a century later.

Some classics hold their relevance for decades, others for centuries. It’s too soon to know for certain how long Gatsby will endure, but it’s safe to say a century on that everything Fitzgerald said (and with such brevity!) is just as important and accurate now as it was then. And in 180 pages, that disillusionment and insight wrapped in gossamer packaging is something I doubt we’ll ever see again. (I, sadly, am a cynic, but I hope to be proven wrong.)

All that to say, adapting a new version of Gatsby is a tall order to fill.

While I can’t speak for those who never read The Great Gatsby, for me Local Heavens doesn’t quite stand up as its own story simply because it leans so heavily on the original. I wonder what someone who read Local Heavens first and Gatsby second would have to say about the similarities, because to me they were at best distracting and at worst a crutch. So where do we draw the line? Where does a story become its own story, an homage to the original and not just a pale imitation? Truly, I’ve no idea. (As I’m drafting a very loose Wizard of Oz retelling, I’ve thought about this A LOT.)

The prose is overall good, and I sensed the author trying to imitate Fitzgerald’s style, but unfortunately, I didn’t feel as immersed in this world as I did in Fitzgerald’s, and I attribute this to the writing not being quite as evocative or sensory, but rather flatter and more distant, though there are times when I found it very effective (mainly in scenes between Nick and Gatsby). I think also at times the metaphors felt not necessarily bad, but out of place. (I also just read some amazing prose writers on a semi-regular basis and compare everything to them, so most newer books just don’t scratch that itch, and I admit I’m super picky about it. Thy mileage will vary. This is still better writing than I’ve seen from many recently published books.) Still, it’s harder to picture this world, which feels in some ways a bit generic sci-fi and less unique to the story than it should (I watched two episodes of Andor a day or so before starting this and felt as if I could interchange the landscapes). But then, I’m not as well-versed in Cyberpunk and my favorite sci-fi tends to lean to the weird. (Again, thy mileage will vary.)

On setting, I didn’t get a great sense of what it was like to dive into cyberspace, or the war that apparently involved a lot of this(?), or why it’s so dangerous; glimpses, yes, but no stakes aside from one scene with Owl Eyes (a character I didn’t enjoy much here, sadly). It’s difficult at times to follow the ‘tech talk’ and to be honest, it’s probably the least interesting part of this book. I’m not sure how much of that is just me (a modest reader of this genre) or if it’s something that will be an issue for a lot of people, so…mileage. Nick is also supposed to be a corporate spy, but this storyline feels flimsy by the midway point and lacks tension for its entirety.

The dialogue is at times word for word from Gatsby, and aside from that it feels a bit mixed in how it melds with the world. Likewise, there are times when it becomes too expository. I was also surprised that certain characteristics, like Gatsby’s habit of calling everyone ‘old sport,’ were not replaced with terminology more fitting to the setting. This comes off as a missed opportunity.

There’s also a tendency in the writing to explain where no explanation is necessary, rather, to tell something that’s already been shown via subtext. I love subtext. It lets the words breathe. It pirouettes what’s said into something new and meaningful that will look just a little different to every person. Gatsby is full of it, and here we are a century later still obsessed. Subtext holds just as much power as the words themselves. Unfortunately, there were so many times where what could have been a really impactful scene ended up falling flat because of explanations tacked on.

As for characters, it’s a mixed bag. I generally enjoyed the changes here, but I had a hard time buying some of the flip-flopping that goes on in the second half of the book with who has feelings for who (also some of the behavior in general just didn’t add up to me by the last quarter and devolves into melodrama). I’d say the buildup to these things is decent, but not great, and so I questioned it several times. I believe the issues I had here are a byproduct of keeping some of the same dialogue, same plot points, but making tweaks—sometimes it works smoothly, and sometimes it doesn’t. Nick as a character is a bit static here, and while that's not necessarily bad (I'm happier when I see the ways a retelling tries to be its own thing), I can't help comparing him to OG Nick, who becomes more cynical as the plot progresses (and thus the ending hits harder thematically). This Nick feels cynical from the get-go, which makes his reactions to later events fall flat in some ways. While I don't think they should be the same character--obviously--I also don't always get the sense that this Nick (or any of the other characters) are as well rendered and dimensional as they could be. It seems like they're halfway who they were in the OG version and halfway new characters, but that crucial blending (how they exist in this specific world at this specific time) isn't always there. That said, the highlight of the latter half is definitely the developing relationship between Nick and Gatsby, and I’ll admit…the ending kind of got me, even if part of it felt off in the very last bit (maybe too close to the original, and I think it could have bloomed into something new there; or hell, maybe I just want them to have a happier ending).

I keep thinking of this comment I read in a review (for a totally different book) about the writing being nice but lacking substance. It’s sort of how I felt about This is How You Lose the Time War, word salad thrown together to sound cool but hiding flat characters and an incredibly shallow story that mostly comes off as generic in the end. Contrast that with my favorite read this year, Roadside Picnic, which has competent, raw writing that doesn’t try to be pretty but does manage to unsettle and immerse. Not only is that book one of the best and most subtle commentaries on commodification I’ve ever read, it’s also emotionally devastating, and I still think about it almost daily months later.

For me, Local Heavens resides somewhere between Time War and RP (notably, all three novels are sci-fi) in its writing and what it seems to be trying to do. It’s more coherent and readable than TW but lacks the raw beauty and philosophical depth of RP. It suffers a bit from a trend where so much of the narrative seems to be carried by vibes and aesthetics, but doesn’t probe beyond the surface, or gives the most obvious commentary that we’ve all heard before, ad nauseum. Yes, corporations are exploitative. Yes, the rich tend to get richer at the expense of the poor. In the instances where Nick is talking with Owl Eyes, the revolutionary/rebel talk felt like something I’d seen before many times. Tale as old as time, as they say. Tell me more, make it unique, make it something I haven’t seen or heard before, or at least give me a remix that I can really believe in. I admire the effort, but we’re only scratching the surface here. And I’ll say here that what I enjoyed most thematically (and imo, what carried the most depth) was the use of names (that scene!), false names and true names, and names we use like armor or cloaks to conceal our innermost selves. That aspect was lovely.

It feels like this is attempting to be in conversation with the original, but the author mentions not needing to read Gatsby to understand this. So I’m a little confused about where it all stands. Its very existence and how much it borrows from Gatsby kind of demands comparison, which is unfortunate, but even if you write the loosest retelling ever, you’re going to invite that. It’s as inevitable as taxes. And I think what it comes down to is that a lot of this feels like a futuristic aesthetic superimposed over the same story that still comes off very 1920s so that at times it’s easy to forget this is the 2070s (the last quarter was the most futuristic to me and where I felt most immersed). To bring in my handy old metaphor, it’s like the author threw Gatsby and various sci-fi elements in a blender but rather than a smooth, well-blended concoction, there are a lot of chunks floating around. People are still using the same curse words, the same mannerisms…and I guess it’s plausible, but just think how much those things change between one decade, let alone fifteen. It’s possible to look perpetually in your 30s but Alzheimer’s hasn’t been cured? Bodies are modified, but what effect does that have on hunger, on the desire for intimacy? Time and circumstances alter people on more than just the individual level. We make fun of each other by the generation for a reason, characterize ourselves by what we do or don’t care about as a collective, but that only occasionally feels touched on here.

So…I definitely didn’t dislike this book (like I said, the ending got me, and I enjoyed the name part), but I also didn’t like it as much as I wanted to, as I’m sure others will. Gatsby is one of my favorites, top 5 easily. And while fantasy and lit fic are my most-read genres, I like and occasionally love sci-fi. I was primed for this. And like I said, it’s readable, and there are some lovely lines and beautiful thoughts to be found in the pages. I just wanted more of that.

But in the end, I come away thinking just a little more about what it could have been rather than what it is, and I guess that means I’m floating in the margins, suspended by the potential.

Thanks to NetGalley and Bindery for the ARC

thank you to netgalley and bindery books for giving me access to the e-arc in exchange for an honest review! all opinions are my own.

** mild spoilers ahead **

local heavens is a queer, cyberpunk retelling of the great gatsby - one of my favourite classics reimagined through a cyberpunk lens AND it's queer? yes, please.

nick carraway, a corporate cyberspace hacker, is tasked with investigating the elusive billionaire jay gatsby, whose existence seems shrouded in secrets. despite his best efforts, nick can't seem to resist the allure of gatsby's charm and slowly becomes entangled in the world of society's elites.

local heavens is primarily a contemporary critique of late-stage capitalism - the rich are thriving, the working and middle classes are living on the brink of society, the environment destroyed, and workers replaced by androids. i love cyberpunk as a way of addressing these issues and, despite being set in the year 2075, this novel feels very relevant in 2025.

the writing is gorgeous, and the characters feel fleshed out and realistic. the main plot beats of the great gatsby are replicated in this novel, but turned up a few notches, with interesting tech and worldbuilding. i wish we had learned a little more about diving, or been with nick in those moments - it's such an interesting concept that i wanted to explore further than the explanations went.

if you enjoy the great gatsby, the cyberpunk genre, and toxic gays, i highly recommend checking out local heavens!

This is a futuristic, queer, cyberpunk retelling of The Great Gatsby. I've read TGG at least twice, but it's been many years, so it isn't super fresh in my mind. I thought the setting is this version was unique, I haven't read other cyberpunk stories, so not much to compare to there, but it was interesting. I liked the writing, I liked Nick as the narrator, I liked that the focus of the story was a bit more skewed to Nick's experience overall, and I liked getting to know Jordan more than in the original. I'm not sure if this would stand on its own for someone who has no reference of the source material. Some of the dialogue and references felt out of place in such a futuristic world. Gorgeous cover art! A very cool debut!

Local Heavens ☁️
•Spoiler-free review•
5 ⭐️

And my first five star read goes to Local Heavens! This novel is a queer retelling of The Great Gatsby, but set in a cyberpunk universe that entwines the original themes with more modern ideas.

I was absolutely gripped by this book— in a way that grasped my attention and refused to let go. I read The Great Gatsby in high school and knew the basics, but this rendition allowed the characters to really shine. They were complicated and frustrating and relatable all at the same time.

I’ve been loosely following @krismfajardo journey with this book, and I’m so glad it got published under @bindery_books! Seeing an “unmarketable” book get the spotlight if deserved is amazing!

Overall, I recommend this book for classic lovers, and highly recommend even if you don’t like sci-fi. Thanks again to @netgalley, Bindery Books and Kris Fajardo for letting me read the e-arc!

Release date: October 14th

#booksbooksbooks #scifibooks #classicbooks #bookretellings #thegreatgatsby #localheavens #bookreview #netgalleyreview #earc #debutebook #binderybooks #inkyphoenixpress

Local Heavens is a bold, electrifying reimagining of The Great Gatsby, set in a vividly dystopian 2075 New York. Filipino American Nick Carraway is no longer just a bystander—he’s a hacker navigating the corporate underbelly of a fractured society, drawn into the enigmatic orbit of a tech-augmented Jay Gatsby. This version of the classic tale pulses with fresh urgency, blending class critique, cyber-noir intrigue, and moral ambiguity. With sleek prose and razor-sharp commentary, Local Heavens asks timeless questions about desire, deception, and the cost of truth in a future that feels all too plausible.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an e-ARC!

Local Heavens is a queer cyberpunk retelling of The Great Gatsby where Nick Carraway, the main character, gets the assignment to move to New York and investigate Jay Gatsby.

Like The Great Gatsby, Local Heavens is a commentary of class but also delves into race, sexuality, and sexism. The prose is beautiful and also reminiscent of Fitzgerald’s at times in a way that seems purposeful but not overdone, as the novel still has a distinct voice to anything I have read before.

Because I have a lot of thoughts, I will be breaking it down into pros and cons:
Pros:
The characters: I absolutely adored the characters! Well, mostly, not all (looking at you, Tom).
- Nick: Nick is a really interesting (the forbidden word for English majors ik) main character, and without spoiling anything, all I can say is that I loved his character arc and him grappling with how other people see him vs how he sees himself.
- Jordan: If there’s one thing about Jordan, it’s that she will always be a baddie in every iteration. The commentary on women in sports and women “aging out” of things were really well done, and I enjoyed that part of the novel a lot!
- Owl Eyes: An unexpected favorite! Sure, she sucks at her job, but she is speaking facts.
- Daisy: I have very mixed feelings about Daisy, but I love her complexities and seeing how she deals with motherhood and her (shitty) husband. I always love it when books deal with flawed characters.
- Gatsby: Another character who has a lot of flaws. He is positive to a fault, naïve, believes in miracles, and I love his conversations with Nick (his complete opposite in the way they view the world) about optimism and pragmatism.

The relationships
- Whether platonic or romantic, I think the relationships really just sold this book for me! They were all done really well, and it never felt like any of the platonic relationships were pushed aside for the romantic relationships, which I really enjoyed! It’s definitely a character driven story, and platonic relationships are, in my opinion, very important for those kinds of stories.

The prose
- I already mentioned the prose, but I just have to mention it again because it is stunning! I will absolutely be buying the physical copy when it is released and underlighting so many lines.

The social commentary
- This had a lot of layers of social commentary, as mentioned before. Because I have read The Great Gatsby, I was expecting the commentary on class, and Fajardo delivered! There were a lot of parallels to our world that probably veers into spoiler territory if I talk about them too much, so all I’m gonna say is that it all makes a lot of sense for the cyberpunk genre!
- I love the way Fajardo tackled racism, both in 2075 when the novel takes place but also in the lives of Nick’s family members who lived years ago, showing how racism has somehow survived throughout all these years despite there being so many bigger issues to worry about (sounds familiar?).
- I also loved the discussions on what kinds of “fighting the system” actually work. It’s similar to a lot of conversations being had today too. Can you fight the system using the very system you’re trying to fight, or do you have to fight it from the outside?


Cons:
The retelling aspect
- I don’t mean that I dislike it being a retelling, not at all. I just think it, at times, leaned a little too much into the retelling aspect, and I know it is a retelling, but it doesn’t seem to leave much wiggle room (which probably sounds like a wild thing to say about a book that reimagines The Great Gatsby in a cyberpunk setting). What I mean is that there are events and conversations that happen at certain times in the original that also happen in some way in this book, and it sometimes felt like they’re here just because they were in the original.

Underdeveloped side plot
- There’s a side plot that is introduced early on in the book that’s kind of just… not talked about for like 100 pages and then suddenly it’s brought up again and said to be a huge part of everyone’s daily lives, and it’s said that everyone talks about it and it’s on the news all the time, except… we’ve only seen it on the news once and we’ve only heard people talking about it once. It wasn’t a huge plot point, but I’d still have loved to see it talked about more to see how people actually felt about it instead of just being told that people talked about it.


I will also say, there was a moment before the beginning of the second part where I got really confused about what was happening because I had no idea what year we were in (I don’t know if this was mentioned earlier in the book and I just forgot about it?), but then I read the blurb again and remembered it’s 2075 and then it made sense, so that might just be on me. But other than that, I really enjoyed the worldbuilding and didn’t find it confusing, so I didn’t want to put this as a con.

Overall, I could talk a lot more about the things I loved about the book than the things I liked less (and there wasn’t really anything I disliked), and I cannot wait to get my hands on a physical copy of this book when it’s released! It also feels like the kind of book that will be even better on a reread, so I’m looking forward to reading it again in October!

This just wasn't for me. Maybe if you love The Great Gatsby, you'll appreciate this more than I did. I didn't like the pacing or care about the story. The best parts to me were where it felt like there was a break in the story for them to have long conversations about the state of the world.

Thank you to Netgalley and Bindery books for the ARC.

I want to start this off by saying that I was really excited for this book, and this was an anticipated read for me. It didn’t live up to what I was expecting. However, I do believe there is an audience out here for this. Despite my complaints, I would still recommend this to people that enjoy love squares and prefer their sci-fi elements to be more atmospheric than the main focus.

To start off, I think the synopsis does a disservice to what’s in the book. The synopsis appears to very centered around Nick and Gatsby and around a mysterious dilemma about “dark affairs.” Their coupling later does become integral to the plot, but much of the book is revolved around a love square, a very annoying love square with characters that were, in my opinion, unlikeable and one-dimensional. And I get that was the point. These characters were supposed to be unlikeable, but it was just difficult to understand why anyone was doing what they were doing. By the way, I think the love square should be hinted at in the synopsis. People who enjoy those plots can find this book and add it to their TBR list. Nick’s motivations were just him doing his job at first, Daisy and Gatsby were trying to meet again and used Nick to do so, and Jordan was there. She was in love with Daisy, dated Nick, and did bullet golf. That was all there was for her character—no substantial plots. Oh, and then there was Tom. He was a cheater like in the original and was there to be insufferable. He didn’t do anything other than complain. Also, for a character that is focal point to everything, Gatsby is not introduced until over 70-80 pages in. A big mistake, in my opinion.

The pacing was slow, as in it felt like the first 60 percent of the book was just filler—nothing substantial was happening. And that’s the thing: this book lacks a lot of substance. There was so much telling and exposition and a lot of unexciting monologuing. It felt like the author didn’t trust readers to figure things out. The themes were explained to us repetitively. Many people know capitalism is terrible. Classicism sucks and is gross. But why can’t these themes be extrapolated by what happens in the story? Majority of chapters ended at weird places, and then the following chapter would happen and it would feel like what just happened didn’t matter anymore. Nick, as a narrator, felt very in the moment, which is fine I guess. From my perspective, Nick’s narrator voice would’ve better fit in a plot-driven novel over a character-driven one, but this one was a very character-focused book, so there was this feeling of blah…like does anything even matter? Events would occur, and then it would be onto the next thing without much thought about what just happened. Another thing that felt lackluster was the beginning of Gatsby and Nick’s relationship. Much of their introduction and initial getting-to-know-each-other phase was told and not shown. There would be monologues of Nick describing afternoons and outings with Gatsby. It was just a strange choice based on the synopsis and how the book ends. The dialogue was another issue I saw. It didn’t sound like how real people would talk. Sometimes, characters would sound too preachy or philosophical suddenly—these characters would usually be random minor characters. This usually left the impression the author wanted to exposit the themes through said character. The quarrel between Nick, Daisy, Jordan, Gatsby, and Tom in the suite room was so, so melodramatic. There was an outpour of emotion and anger, but it felt unnatural. There was no up and down to the conversation, no pause, nobody attempted to collect themselves. At one point, Tom physically attacks Nick, Gatsby defends him, etcetera. Afterwards, Nick is staring out the window, and then another character who is supposed to be his sorta girlfriend comes up to him, and asks, “What is it?” It was bizarre. Did what happen actually just happen? Was I being gaslit by a book? It might have been intended from the author’s end for Nick to appear like he saw something outside the window, hence the question. I’m not sure. All I know was that it was weird and made me doubt what I just read. I think this book was too long considering the events. Not much happened from the beginning to the middle, there was a rush of occurrences that happened toward the end, and then a character died. There was another, I believe, 40-50 pages after that. The E-book ARC I received was 455 pages, so I’m not sure if that will be the final page count. But yikes was it long, long. I wanted to briefly mention the end, not in detail though. If you read the original Great Gatsby, Daisy’s plot is nearly verbatim, except with a sci-fi twist. As much as I enjoyed the sci-fi worldbuilding, I think Daisy’s plot creates a major plot hole. It’s just unbelievable the events would have the same fallout in a world where characters have comms, there’s likely surveillance everywhere, potential witnesses. It worked in The Great Gatsby, since the story was set in 1920s, but it just doesn’t make sense in a futuristic setting. There are endless ways for her to get caught. I do want to talk about the things I liked. I enjoyed the creativity behind the worldbuilding and setting. I thought Happy Sleeps were an interesting concept, the physicality regarding netdiving was intriguing. There were occasional good descriptions. I thought the memory implant subplot was really cool, and wished it would’ve been more of the focus at times, especially considering the ending. The implementation of Filipino culture was also a positive here. I think this author has a lot of potential, so I hope to check out what they do next.

I have been following KM Fajardo for quite some time and as soon as she said she was writing a Gatsby retelling I wanted to read it immediately. I was so unbelievably excited to be accepted for this ARC, but about 15% in, the formatting - would be due to Netgalley I am sure - became almost unreadable. I obviously have such an anticipated read pre-ordered, so as soon as I get my hands on that copy I will be giving a proper review on Goodreads! What I did manage to read was INCREDIBLE though, and I absolutely cannot wait to see how the rest unfolds!! (she's already nailed my favourite scene - if you know you know)

I was so eager to get my hands on this book, and I am so grateful to Bindery and NetGalley for the e-arc for review!

Local Heavens is a queer, cyberpunk retelling of The Great Gatsby that not only manages to hold up against the original, but bring something new and fresh into the conversation. The themes around class in Gatsby are brought to new heights in Local Heavens with the integration of tech, race, and critiques of capitalism. Nick, in particular, goes from a somewhat invisible, bland character to a complex, well-rounded one to suit the additional identities (queer and Filipino) the author has given him. Jordan, too, goes from a mildly interesting side character to having a solid storyline and new identity of her own. And the lush, fever dream of a setting in Gatsby is elevated in Fajardo's vision of the near future.

The author clearly put in the work to learn Fitzgerald's writing style and make it her own. There was an abundance of beautiful prose with so much to chew on in every paragraph. And the metaphors were to die for!

Overall, this more than lived up to my expectations, and I can't wait to read whatever K.M. Fajardo writes in the future!

A very cool cyberpunk adaptation of The Great Gatsby. The worlds and tech created by the author were stunning. The anti-colonialist and anti-capitalism commentary much needed.

When I first came across Local Heavens via Fajardo's social media platforms I was Immediately intrigued by the pitch "a queer, cyberpunk retelling of The Great Gatsby". It promises a lot and as a lover of the classic and lover of queer media I had high hopes for the execution.

It certainly did not disappoint. Local Heavens is easily one of the best books I have read in years and an absolutely stunning debut from Fajardo.

The prose was elegant and rich and did such a great job of blending in Fitzgerald's style into the authors own voice. Overall I think the way that The Great Gatsby was honoured in this retelling was done with so much taste. The book could easily stand on its own for a reader who hasn't read the classic but adds so much depth for those who have.

I found the world building to be clear and intriguing, if i had any criticism it would be that i would have enjoyed diving a little bit deeper into it but I still felt as though it was very flushed out. I think by far my favourite part was the characters. They had such great depth, they were flawed and complicated and truly felt like real people. The way that the relationships both romantic and not were intertwined was done very successfully and were quite captivating, I only wanted to see more and more of them as I read on.

And of course the romance in the book was another main highlight. This is the unspoken tension and natural build that I want in a fictional romance. I loved how it really felt like all aspects of it were thought through with care and I wasn't just being told how they were feeling, I could see it and feel it.

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed Local Heavens, it will certainly have a spot as my staff pick come its release in October. I look forward to more work from Fajardo in the future.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC.

First of all, thanks NetGalley for getting me this eARC!

It took me a while to get into this book due to the world-building. But, once I did, it was a great read! I read The Great Gatsby a long time ago, but I recognized the storyline and I think it's a good retelling. It's a completely different world compared to the original and that really sets it apart. K.M. Fajardo did a fantastic job with the very descriptive, immersive world-building and the characters. I can't wait to see what else she'll write!

Fantastic debut from Fajardo. I signed up for a NetGalley account specifically to request this title and I was not disappointed. I'm looking forward to the official release, and will most definitely be watching this author's career.

The Nick Carraway we know has been heavily modified, physically and spiritually -- upgraded, so to speak. From a character who needs almost as much sussing out as the titular character, Nick has been transformed for Local Heavens into a Filipino-American, unambiguously bisexual, military-veteran-turned-"net diver" just trying to get through his latest assignment. Neither his queerness nor his heritage feels tokenistic. In fact, both add dimension to the story and strengthen this retelling's ties to the original themes of classism, US imperialism, and a(n admittedly more subtextual) homoerotic kind of admiration and yearning. For all of this Nick's confusion (frustration) at being pushed and pulled by familiar (and not so familiar) forces, he remains his own man, and an empathetic one at that. It helps that we get to see him interact with more characters, and that his time with Gatsby is given more care and emotional intimacy (that middle section where they spend the evening outside rather than at Gatsby's residence is simply Magic!).

Of course, by deliberately remixing Nick's background and personal traits, we find that Gatsby himself can only be changed as well. The source material's Gatsby already appeals to the reader and to Nick for reasons other than his glamor and ostentation. This story, however, turns up Gatsby's charm and pathos, especially in his interactions with Nick. We see that, regardless of the plot reasons for their sustained contact, Nick can barely help being drawn to Gatsby, and vice versa. Each of them operates in a language different from the other, at a level that the other might not ever fully comprehend. Still, they cling to each other and bare their hearts to each other, even when it might make more sense not to, and isn't that the stuff of a classic love story? Putting aside the ethics of the business that made him a billionaire, perhaps Gatsby's greatest flaw might be the same as it was in the 1920s. As intelligent and resourceful as he is, he has learnt too little from life to know how to love without crushing everyone, even the beloved, under the weight of his feelings.

What really drew me in after learning of the initial concept was the world-building. I wouldn't consider myself well-versed on cyberpunk or on the real life tech industry, so I was pleasantly surprised to find that I could follow the descriptions of the tech in this universe pretty well. Perhaps the framing of certain futuristic elements through their ethics, their material impact on "our" world, helped me connect (heh) to this aspect of the story more easily. That's what intrigues me personally about technological development anyway. What is the human cost to the normalization of these glittering pieces of an infinitely malleable virtual reality, even objective reality? How does technology improve the quality of human life for some while diminishing it for others? What are the lengths to which people go to make humanity and its mysteries more bearable? The hypotheticals supplied by this book render this universe frighteningly dystopian, particularly when the lens of profit potential is forced upon the reader like an ocular modification. Nevertheless, the cynicism of the original is tamed by this new take. Local Heavens is surprisingly hopeful, and this is a good thing when the first half of the actual 2020s had been morbidly bleak.

That said, this book unfortunately might have been too hemmed in by Fitzgerald's own story beats. A crucial scene, for example, is changed by Nick's presence. It's a powerful bit of characterization for all the players and also sets off an emotionally significant chain of events past the "canon", but it otherwise sticks closely to the flow of the original. While I believe that, overall, a good balance was struck between coloring within Fitzgerald's outline and probing past it, Fajardo could've set the boundaries of this story even further. The strength of this retelling actually lies in its original elements (such as the transcripts, an effective bit of storytelling on their own) and more daring reinterpretations of the source material. The book is glorious when it feels like a speculative fix-it fic, but not so much when it feels like it could've been an alternate take left on the cutting-room floor.

Anyway, the prose is lush and beautiful, reminiscent of Fitzgerald's style in the way it can craft sparkling visions as in a Happy Sleep. It serves the purpose of laying out a future where hover technology has apparently been perfected and communication channels and youthful beauty are merely an installment away. It also reflects Nick's sensitivity, the thoughts he purposefully keeps to himself. It works as a display of fine wordsmithing. Yet the metaphorical language bogs down the storytelling at times as it overloads the senses like a hyper-realistic simulation. Nick can afford to be more direct and upfront in his own narration, even when he can't be the same in speaking.

A teeny tiny gripe of mine is that some of the Filipino/Tagalog dialogue sounds stilted. A more colloquial tone might have worked better for certain lines (See: "Nawawala ba kayo, corpos?" Consider: "Nawawala kayo, corpos?" / "Uy/Hoy, corpos! Nawawala kayo?" / Naliligaw kayo, corpos/boss/bosing?" ; See also: "Pareho kayong gwapo." Consider variations like: "Ang gagwapo niyo namang dalawa." / "On the house na! ... Tutal, gwapo naman kayong dalawa." / "Libre na 'yan. Para sa'yo at sa partner mo. Gwapo rin naman kayong dalawa."). The moments of code-switching also could've been recalibrated to better replicate real life Taglish. There are typographical issues here as well, e.g. "mag ingat" should be "mag-ingat"; a specific instance of "ng" should be "nang".

On a related note, I would have loved to have the Filipino side of Daisy's and Nick's family tree as a more palpable, even if distant, presence. Having spent about half of my life outside of the Philippines and the other half in the country, I can understand what it's like to sense a gulf between myself and my extended family, but I think there was an opportunity to give Nick stronger ties to a Filipino community (at least to his mother or any other relatives in the New Americas). Otherwise, the lack thereof could've been addressed. The original Nick's isolation has always puzzled me, so I didn't expect this Nick's intimate circle to also be limited. Maybe the author intended to make a statement about individualism and the fracturing of larger societal units through migration and other factors, but there was actually a heartening thread about friendship and community-building in the story, so I'm not sure why Nick isn't more closely connected with those who might've called him "kabayan" or "parang kamag-anak".

All in all, this is shaping up to be a strong debut. I'm glad to have been given the opportunity to read this early version of the book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bindery for the eARC!