📖 BOOK REVIEW⠀📚 BOOK: The Chosen and the Beautiful
AUTHOR: Nghi Vo @nghivowriting
Publisher: Tordotcom @tordotcompub
Stars: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ + 🐢
Published: June 1, 2021
The Review 📚 The Chosen and the Beautiful
✨ The Title/Cover Draw:
- After being really attracted to the beauty of the cover and then learning that it was a Great Gatsby retelling, I knew I had to read it. Thanks to Netgalley and Tordotcom for giving me that chance.
💜 What I liked:
- The difference in the retelling vs the original with the main character being asian and gay was genius. The writing is gorgeous but I did listen to it via audiobook and now I just need to get it in print and read it again.
😱 What I didn’t like:
- The book was a slower read for me because I wanted to savor the words. I listened to it in 30 minute intervals. Loved the savoring, but really wanted to read it faster and consume it. No fault of the author or the writing.
💁♀️ The Characters:
- Jordan (the original girlfriend of Nick) is the main character in this world, filled with Daisy, Gatsby, and a little magic.
🚦 My face at the end: 😊
💬 The Narrator:
- Natalie Naudus has a beautiful soothing voice that is so pleasing to listen to!
💭 5 Reasons to Read:
- If you love Great Gatsby, this book is everything
- Beautiful Prose
- There is magic that makes the story even more magical
- Party scene lavishly told
- A smart and likeable main character
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Received from Netgalley.
📘 Summary 📚 The Chosen and the Beautiful
Immigrant. Socialite. Magician.
Jordan Baker grows up in the most rarefied circles of 1920s American society—she has money, education, a killer golf handicap, and invitations to some of the most exclusive parties of the Jazz Age. She’s also queer, Asian, adopted, and treated as an exotic attraction by her peers, while the most important doors remain closed to her.
But the world is full of wonders: infernal pacts and dazzling illusions, lost ghosts and elemental mysteries. In all paper is fire, and Jordan can burn the cut paper heart out of a man. She just has to learn how.
Nghi Vo’s debut novel The Chosen and the Beautiful reinvents this classic of the American canon as a coming-of-age story full of magic, mystery, and glittering excess, and introduces a major new literary voice.