As soon as I read the blurb for Daisy, I had to have this novel. The Great Gatsby is my favorite classic work of literature, and the ideal springboard for a sequel that preserves the tone and personality of the titular character while spinning a brand-new tale set in modern times. I was hooked from the first page.

The story builds on the theme of infidelity in the wake of Jay Gatsby’s death. Tom’s. Daisy’s. It’s the motive for murder in the original novel, but it feels different from Daisy’s perspective. Sure, she has a bad marriage, but losing her one true love is fertile ground for reinvention. No longer does Daisy want to be the beautiful little fool. She wants the life she deserves, independent of Tom, who remains as big an oaf in this novel as Fitzgerald’s version of him. The death of Jordan Baker becomes a turning point when Daisy has to more closely scrutinize her trusted circle.

The author has done an overall fantastic job preserving the core material—characters, location, and backstory—while sprinkling in enough retrospective chapters that one doesn’t need to be a The Great Gatsby superfan to understand Daisy and Jay’s relationship and the key events and timeline leading up to his murder. It’s hard for me to say with certainty since I have read the original, but I feel like this novel easily stands on its own.

Twisted, tragic, and maybe, in the end, hopeful, Daisy is the follow-up novel I didn’t know I needed. I highly recommend it. Thank you to Katie Cotugno, St. Martin’s Press, and NetGalley for the ARC.

I look forward to spreading the good word about this novel on its January 5, 2027 publication date.

I went into Daisy wondering how anyone could take a character as iconic as Daisy Buchanan and make her feel entirely new. Katie Cotugno absolutely did.

This book is dark, glamorous, messy, and incredibly addictive. It takes everything we think we know about Daisy Buchanan and drops her into a modern world of Long Island wealth, beautiful homes, expensive parties, complicated marriages, prescription pills, buried secrets, and the kind of privilege that can make almost anything disappear.

And then Jordan Baker ends up dead in Daisy’s pool.

That was the moment I was completely hooked.

What I loved most is that Daisy doesn’t simply borrow characters from The Great Gatsby and place them in a modern setting. It feels like we are finally being allowed behind the curtain. Daisy is no longer just the beautiful, elusive woman everyone else gets to describe. We are inside her head, and it is a fascinating place to be. She is grieving, unraveling, suspicious of everyone around her, and not entirely sure she can trust herself.

There is something deliciously unsettling about the entire book. The wealth is extravagant, the friendships are complicated, the marriage is deeply uncomfortable, and beneath all of that polished perfection is this constant feeling that something is very, very wrong.

I also loved how the story plays with what we already know about these characters without relying on nostalgia to carry it. There are little echoes of Fitzgerald throughout, but this is very much its own story. It is sharper, darker, and far more interested in the woman Daisy became after Gatsby than the woman Gatsby once dreamed she was.

The mystery kept me guessing, but honestly, Daisy herself kept me reading.

If you love psychological suspense, wealthy people behaving terribly, complicated female characters, beautiful settings hiding ugly secrets, and a story that makes you question everyone, Daisy is absolutely worth picking up.

Katie Cotugno didn’t just bring Daisy Buchanan into the present. She finally gave her the story.