3.5 stars rounded up!

oh WOW. im honestly speechless. this was such a beautiful tribute, sure to be loved by those who are fans of the original and wanted to see more pieces of themselves in the story. i loved the changes made to the characters, the expansion of their personalities that made me understand them so much more. the interactions between nick and gatsby, and that ending specifically, made my heart clench. i got so much more attached to them that this hurt more than the original, even though i was prepared. i also love the way daisy, jordan, and even myrtle were expanded upon so much more than in the original work— they all could actually stand on their own while still remaining true to what makes them the characters from the original. daisy especially was very interesting to read in this book and she had so much more depth.

i will say that the pacing of the book did feel a bit off to me; most of the first half of the book seemed to drag on a little without much plot avdancement. i also was confused for most of the book on the process of diving and what it even is. i do like how the author didnt just info dump at the beginning all the info regarding this world and instead eased readers into it, but i wouldve appreciated getting more knowledge on the whole process of diving, what happened to the world to make it this way, etc.

overall, i did really enjoy this story! jordan was my favorite character, with nick a close second. the second half of the book is definitely much stronger than the first half, but overall this was a great read that i think queer gatsby lovers will enjoy!

This just be one of my favorite retelling of The Great Gatsby. This take one the original feels so fresh but familiar.

The cover is what initially drew me to want to read this, then finding out it was a retelling, extra sold. I LOVE retellings, especially when done right, and this was done oh so right!

Some sci-fi is hard to get into, but this was so easy to read. I read this in less then 24 hours. Once I started, I just couldn’t put it down.

I love how the author kept aspects of the original characters, but also gave them a twist to fit the narrative and it was so, so good.

I love how she took old school and combined it with futuristic, cyberpunk, dystopian, queer.

Some parts I enjoyed more than others, but I enjoyed this very much overall. 4.5 from me and I can’t wait to get my hands on the published version!

As always, thank you to Netgalley and Bindery for the eARC of this book!

The prose is this book is charming and very reminiscent of the original Gatsby and I appreciate the sci-fi worldbuilding (the mods are super cool!). There's a lot to love about this retelling and it's very clear that the author spent considerable time and energy studying the original.

Local Heavens is a queer cyberpunk retelling of Great Gatsby, with main character Nick Carraway, a netdiver who takes up a job to obtain information on the mysterious Jay Gatsby. They come across each other at one of Gatsby’s parties and become drawn into each other’s lives.

This was a book I could not put down!!! The prose and imagery was incredible, setting up the world and all of its little quirks. Netdiving and body mods were both such cool concepts and all the little details reminded me of the Cyberpunk Edgerunners world. I was immersed immediately, and Nick was a really fascinating main character to follow. It was interesting to see the divide between his thoughts and who he presented himself as on the outside. All of the other characters were also extremely fleshed out and my favourites definitely were Jordan and Jay. The mysteries of their motivations and their personalities were super entertaining and kept me on the edge of my seat. Everything from the dialogue to the world-building was incredible and It was also interesting to see how Fajardo incorporated different aspects of Filipino culture and the language into the novel, especially with Daisy and Nick, and also addressed themes such as capitalism, classism, and racism within the context of this world. Everything was really well done and this is definitely going to be one of my favourites of 2025.

I have not yet read the original Great Gatsby, but this was an excellent retelling that has definitely inspired me to pick it up. Fajardo’s debut novel was incredible and I will definitely be looking forward to her future work!

Thank you to NetGalley and Bindery Books for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

DISCLAIMER: I received an advance e-copy of this book through a Bindery Books giveaway.

First off, let me say that the synopsis/descriptions/blurbs I’d read about this book prior to reading it were definitely intriguing (this book has been on my TBR pretty much since it was announced by The Inky Phoenix), but they don’t do this book justice. This book is so much more than what I expected. I definitely stayed up way past my bedtime (“Just one more chapter!”) to finish this book.

In addition to reading The Great Gatsby, I’ve also read a number of retellings/re-imaginings (The Chosen and the Beautiful, Beautiful Little Fools, Self-Made Boys, and Wild and Wicked Things, as far as I remember). As much as I enjoyed some of them, none were as good as Local Heavens. One issue I often had with the other re-imaginings I read were that the authors, in an attempt to make some of the characters more sympathetic, ended up making them less interesting. Or sometimes the authors tried to stay too close to the original novel, even when it didn’t entirely make sense for the retelling. Somehow, K.M. Fajardo manages to make a character like Daisy sympathetic, while keeping her complexity and not glossing over her flaws. Similarly, even though this story is set in a cyberpunk semi-apocalyptic-ish future, the allusions and references from the original novel are perfectly done. They’re placed in just the right moments and never pull you out of the current story.

Local Heavens is wildly original and I think that’s a big part of what makes this re-imagining work. Fajardo very much tells her own version of Gatsby, set in a completely different world, and weaves her own themes to make it feel fresh and so very, very relevant. (I found Tom’s character especially representative of some of the BS we’re dealing with these days.) Even though I didn’t fully understand the backdrop at first and it felt a little bit like I was dropped in the middle of a foreign planet, it was well-done enough that I could follow along as things were shown and explained in more detail. The themes of “the American nightmare” and colonialism/imperialism, while not always explicit, were a constant undercurrent throughout the book, reminding you why certain things played out the way they did. Fajardo’s world-building was subtle and highly effective.

What made this book stand out the most to me were the characters and their relationships to each other. Of course, all the subtext between Daisy and Jordan and between Gatsby and Nick is still present. But they’re tragic stories. There’s no HEA between the couples, much like there was no HEA at the end of the original. Fajardo allows her characters to be flawed and broken and while I personally crave HEAs these days, the way things concluded were perfect for the story. The tension between Gatsby's dreams of Daisy and reality with Nick was beautifully and devastatingly done.

The only minor quibble I have is that the formatting issues in an advance e-copy made it a little hard to read, especially deciphering who was saying what in conversations, but that has nothing to do with the substance of the book itself.

I'm gonna spare you the summary, go read it for yourself. What I can share about this is that I see that this is bold, genre-blending homage with transplanting themes on wealth, longing, and illusion into the fracture, tech-drenched dystopia of NYC in 2075. And then there's the blurred morality of machines and corporate control.

The emotional themes here particularly the contrast on human connection and the soulless mechanisms of power are where I think this book shines. Obviously Fajardo raises some valuable questions here: can love survive in a world so thoroughly commodified? Who can we choose to protect when the system favors none but the elite?

It's gripping.

That said, I think some parts of the novel's pacing occasionally stalls. Like okay, it's vivid, layered, especially in the critique of capitalist excess but sometimes it loses momentum in favor of vibes, mood, and monologues. The dialogues here swings between poetic and overly expository which TBH it's kinda difficult to stay anchored to emotional key scenes. Anyway, the writing style is stylized and is rich in atmosphere (like I said, vibes) but yeah sometimes that density detracts me from the urgency of the plot.

I think 3-stars is already a good score for Fajardo's unique cultural lense and time social commentary to a familiar story and that alone makes this book worth reading. It doesn't quite reach the heights it aspires to but I recognize its ambition, the vibes and the moral inquiry of this story and that makes it compelling to a speculative fiction and Gatsby retellings.

Local Heavens took a little time to get into, but once I did, I was hooked. The world is immersive, the characters are layered, and the more I read, the more I wanted to know what was really going on.

One of the things I appreciated most was how nothing in the book is exactly what it seems. Whether it’s the characters, their motivations, or even the futuristic setting, there’s always something deeper beneath the surface. It keeps you questioning - who’s really telling the truth, and what are they hiding?

Overall, Local Heavens is a slow burn that really pays off. It’s a thoughtful, well-written story that challenges your assumptions and keeps you thinking long after the last page.

A beautiful, sprawling, atmospheric adventure through the future and past. Broke my heart into a million pieces and still made me feel hopeful and optimistic. Highly recommend!

Ah I wanted to love this SO bad but I just couldn’t get into it from the jump. I dislike when so many futuristic and important things are introduced with minimal explanation, it just leaves me feeling confused and not wanting to continue.

"I wasn't supposed to want you like that."

Local Heavens, K.M. Fajardo's debut novel, is a cyberpunk retelling of a timeless classic: The Great Gatsby. It's been over a decade since I read the classic and watched the film adaptation. I believe someone who is more fluent and familiar with Fitzgerald's work would be able to appreciate or notice the metaphors/easter eggs than I do.

This retelling is unique on its own, a reader wouldn't need to read TGG beforehand unless they want to further understand the storyline and nuances better. Fajardo stated on Goodreads that while TGG is about Gatsby, Local Heavens is about Nick Carraway, and I felt that deep in my bones.

As a Southeast Asian, it's absolutely refreshing to see this take on Carraway as a Filipino-American. As the narrator, his voice is clear and the world-building doesn't feel like an info-dump at all. The prose is crisp; it's satisfying to be able to read Fajardo's writing after a long time following her journey in writing and publishing through her YouTube channel.

It's also worth mentioning that I love how the dialogues in Tagalog are not italicized, nor did they come with translations. It's unapologetic. It adds depth to Nick's character and the way he speaks to the people back home in Manila. And I had fun trying to translate the dialogues myself.

The characters in this book, as experienced through Nick's POV, are so distinctive and real. I especially adore Nick's dynamic with Jordan as much as his relationship with Gatsby puts me on the edge of my seat (read: bed). Though no labels are attached, Nick being bisexual feels right. The differences in dynamic and relationship between Nick and Jordan vs Nick and Gatsby are stark, painted clearly through clever dialogues and Nick's train of thought.

I enjoyed this book thoroughly not just as a reader, but also as a writer myself. I strive to deliver each scene in a book as continuously impactful and significant as Fajardo had done with Local Heavens. The format of the book is intriguing—I especially liked that the transcripts are included in between chapters to provide nuanced insights and foreshadowing for the storyline alongside the linear narrative of Nick's recounting of the events.

The complexity of the world-building and the technology that exists in this book is astounding. I wonder what Fajardo's process was like when creating things like the mods and Happy Sleep during her planning stage. They remind me of Black Mirror episodes! I love that. The interwoven themes of capitalism; the rich getting richer and the poor poorer; the expectations society has for women and the blatant disregard when in Jordan's storyline where she is expected to step down from being an athlete because the people want a younger woman, a shiny new toy—everything falls perfectly into place. It's almost envious, how easy it was to read Local Heavens.

Some parts did get confusing, especially at first when I was still familiarizing myself with the world and their technology. The ending also left a hanging, almost wrenching feeling deep in my chest because I flipped the pages and found only the acknowledgements. I need more!

Major kudos to K.M. Fajardo! I'm proud of her journey, and I can't wait for this book to hit shelves on 14 October. This is one hell of a debut 🖤

I can see this book hitting big. It was so unique and so fun and I can't believe it's a debut but I'm excited to see what comes next.

I really enjoyed this book. I couldn’t put it down! The character development and world building were magnificent. It has been awhile since I read the original Great Gatsby. I wondered how this would impact my perception of Local Heavens. I found that distance from the original novel was not an issue at all and made for an interesting reading experience. The characters and storyline—along with new and exciting elements—came back to me as I read Local Heavens.

THIS BOOK!!!!! I haven't read Gatsby since I was in school, and I don't remember much about it except that I liked it. But K.M. Fajardo's translation of Nick Carraway's world into a futuristic America is SO well thought-out and explored - it feels like the perfect mirror to the New York of the 1920s. And the writing—I'd read it over and over again for the writing style itself, it's so immersive. I also adore how Fajardo explored Nick's inner workings. That said, my favorite part remains how Fajardo's writing style transcends time and explores Gatsby through a contemporary/futuristic lens. I'll definitely keep my eye on the author's future works.

Wow!!! What a beautiful debut!! Absolutely loved this book from start to end! Thank you NetGalley and publisher for opportunity to read it early!!

Firstly, i would like to thank Bindery Books for lending me this copy even though the epub is yet to be available and i'm so grateful to get the chance to talk bout things i love and people supporting that dream!♡

In Local Heavens, we follow Nick Carraway who is a diver and works for a company which is adamant to find all the things there is to know about Mr. Gatsby, multi-millionaire who lives in his mysterious tower up in the sky full of extravagant parties and hidden floors. We follow Nick as he tries to infiltrate his tower and try to get to know Jay Gatsby for his new assignment. As well all know, this a queer sci-fi retelling of The Great Gatsby's so it was pretty clear that they would fall of each other.

This story had a great start, amazing adventures and all the sci-fi elements were very easy to read and understand (to a person who can't read sci-fi) and we were introduced to so many characters with diverse characteristics but after a while it went downhill? After 50% it felt like a drag and I did not like the plot twist and I think the ending was rushed and it did not fulfill my expectations.

All in all i think this is a great and very strong debut novel and i'm really looking forward to more works by this author because it was a new experience, I'm always looking to read something which is exciting and would knock the socks out of my feet and it did fall into that category ;)

I will buy the physical copy when it gets published in October and re-read it maybe I'll feel abit different at that point

I would recommend this if you don't have that much experience in sci-fi and help to equip all the brain cells you need (or maybe it's jus me haha) to start reading core sci-fi reads.

3.5 starts for now ;)

4.5 stars. This book prompted so many mixed feelings from me I consider it to be remarkable just for that! But all in all, I really did enjoy Local Heavens and I can imagine that if you like cyperpunk/sci-fi/speculative fiction AND The Great Gatsby this is a wet dream of a book waiting to happen to you. As it is, I don't particularly seek out those genres (although that is changing thanks to books like this!) and I was a little underwhelmed by TGG when I first read it, but I have enjoyed retellings before and this was no different. In fact, I really enjoyed the loyalty to the text while also creating a drastically different setting. That was incredibly clever. My small criticism was that the pacing felt slow at times, and I think what I remember most about TGG was how it was a short and fast-paced and that was somewhat lacking in Local Heavens. But I will absolutely be recommending this book to those who I think will enjoy its many richly woven elements and I am very curious what the author comes up with next. Also EXTRA BONUS POINTS for making this book so deliciously bisexual.

calling this THE GREAT GATSBY retelling is a disservice to this book.

gorgeously written, LOCAL HEAVENS is a gay cyberpunk reimagining of THE GREAT GATSBY with the same familiar cast but each with fresh take and new agency. coming to this book initially, i had my reserve since it’s pretty much GATSBY, even with the prose—i think it was good, but it might not be a strength for a debut author, because now i keep wondering if it’s really her prose or it’s Fitzgerald’s. what really reeled me back was the massive world building, the way emotions werrle written so intimately, and the way Fajardo incorporated tech into this story we all know by heart and love so dearly. LOCAL HEAVENS derives off the main story toward the end to become its own thing, like they become Fajardo’s entirely.

i still think i’d have liked this book more if it had been set in the Philippines instead of New America. i loved the Filipino take to the story and wished she had run with it more. But overall, an impressive debut!!

3.5

Some people will love this book, but I am not one of them. The world-building shone, and I appreciate what was trying to be done with the thematic writing. I also loved the callbacks to the original Gatsby! However—I was not a fan of the prose, I felt I could’ve gotten more out of the characters, and the payoff for the romance, which I was so excited for, just did not work for me; that was honestly the biggest disappointment. I’ll be reading more of Kris’ work—I just came away feeling largely Meh about Local Heavens.

Thanks to NetGalley and Bindery Books/Inky Phoenix for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

A reimagining of The Great Gatsby with a cyberpunk twist. The world in this story feels alive, layered with meaning and emotion. It reflects the core themes of wealth, control, and personal identity in a way that feels both fresh and thoughtful. I hadn’t read the original Gatsby before this, but I was excited to dive into KM Fajardo’s take, and I was hooked from the start.

The MC, Nick, is observant, a little lost, and full of contradictions. That made him feel really real and added depth to the story. The rest of the characters are also complex. They're flawed, morally gray, and compelling. The mix of genre and emotion made this a unique read.

Fajardo’s writing is really good. I think it was emotional, layered, and full of intention.

This one’s perfect for fantasy and sci-fi fans. If you liked The Great Gatsby... but want a cyberpunk twist...this one is definitely for you

Thank you to Netgalley and Bindery Books for this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

“Aren’t we all just in love with the worst people?” I hate Tom with all my heart, but in this one line, he sums up Local Heavens' love square in one devastating swing.

Swathed in neon greens, pinks and blues, Local Heavens is the queer cyberpunk Gatsby story I didn’t know I needed. Fajardo builds a unique world that is still as close to the Roaring Twenties as it is to both the current landscape and the distant future, breathing new life into a classic tale about ambition and the so-called American Dream.

Local Heavens is a tribute and a great transformation, honouring its source material while carving out something wholly original with its reimaginings. With Nick, Jordan and Daisy being people of colour, they are given an extra layer of dimension that deepens their flaws and desires, making their interactions with Gatsby and Tom (as well as the wider world) all the more impactful. The prose is a perfect marriage of Fitzgerald’s languid decadence and Fajardo’s nostalgic yet contemporary lyricism, Walking alongside Nick, you feel his perspective stronger than ever as his fascination, his frustration, and his inevitable heartbreak bleeds through the page, and makes you wish for a 'happier' end to his story.

Fajardo never loses sight of the human story at its core, but there were moments I noticed myself glazing over the world-building amid the spectacle, which is likely a fault of my own. Still, Local Heavens is an ambitious and electrifying retelling, one that respects its origins while fearlessly forging ahead. It’s a love letter, a warning, and a neon-soaked fever dream all at once. If Fajardo's work is this strong now, then I can't wait to see what she has in store for the future.