What I Liked

- The art was beautiful. I loved the light and airy art style and the watercolour that brought the story to life.
- In general, classics intimidate me. There is a reason why The Great Gatsby (original version) sat on my shelf untouched for many years! However I appreciate that this graphic novel adaptation told the story in a way that wasn’t as intimidating, which is motivation for me to read the original novel.
- I liked that the graphic novel kept some of the lines from the original book, and merged them seamlessly with the narration in the story. To be absolutely honest, sometimes these quotes went over my head but it was great to sit and reflect on some of these famous lines in literature.

What I Didn’t Like

- Since I never read the original The Great Gatsby book, it was difficult to piece together what was exactly happening in the story for the first 20 pages or so.
- Although I didn’t dislike the characters, I felt distant from them. I didn’t know if this was a limitation of the graphic novel format.

The Bottom Line

I enjoyed this graphic novel adaptation of The Great Gatsby, and I loved that this adaptation gave me a glimpse of a literary classic that I would be otherwise too intimidated to read. After reading this graphic novel, I feel more motivated to read the original to see how it would compare!

While I loved the illustrations and coloring in this book, the storyline felt choppy at time. Although I’ve read “The Great Gatsby” I was lost and unsure of what was happening during parts of the book.

Thanks to Candlewick Press and Netgalley for this digital ARC.

I thought this was a very good adaption of F. Scotts Fitzgeralds' Great Gatsby. Its style and chosen text really helped to bring out the various literary devices and themes of the novel. I suspect this will be a very popular book with my teen and adult patrons.

The Great Gatsby is one of my favorite classics, and this graphic novel had some aspects that I thought paid a good homage to it. Even though I wouldn't say this was one of my most favorite art styles that I have seen in graphic novels, I did appreciate the dream-like feel it gave, and I enjoyed some of the more creative aspects of using writing in the art versus only speech bubbles. It also hit all the high spots of the original story which is great, but I also felt like it seemed to be lacking something that I still can't put my finger on.

Overall, this would be a great addition to have in High School libraries and classrooms as well as an enjoyable read to anyone who loves this classic! I would recommend you give it a read!

This adaptation of The Great Gatsby was considerably better than the last one I read. I liked the illustrations and thought the story was condensed enough to be appropriately touted as a graphic novel. I think high schoolers would find this adaptation to be easy to get through after reading the original story. However, without knowing any background of the story, this adaptation could be confusing. I even found myself getting confused at times with who was talking.

I love this surreal interpretation of The Great Gatsby. It is an easy way to introduce us to this wonderful novel. It is not an exact representation of the novel but K. Woodman Maynard knew how to perfectly capture each of the characters in a beautiful way.
4.5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐💫
Thanks to netgalley and Candlewick Press for this Arc copy in exchange for a honest review

Every time I teach juniors, I always make sure to sign up for "The Great Gatsby," but it's not always the most accessible text for all students. The kids who can read it usually enjoy it greatly; those that struggle to read it, hate it greatly. Our department provides graphic novels as options for those kids to get the classics in a more digestible way. Graphic novel adaptations of the classics can be hit or miss, as most teachers can attest. But Woodman-Maynard's adaptation of "Gatsby" has a lot to offer the classroom teacher.

The author sticks to the original text for the most part, obviously cutting some parts of the novel out. What has been added doesn't stray too far from the story. There were a few minor rearrangements of events, but nothing that took away from the author's (probable) original intent too much. The only issue I had was the omission of the description of T.J. Eckleburg, which is crucial for some of the main themes. The artistic portrayal of the billboard wouldn't make the themes and connections apparent to lower-level readers either. The author does mention that there were some themes that weren't as evident in the adaptation for the sake of the format, but this arguably could have added one more page (or even a small little panel or two when it first pops up). I will say that other than this, I couldn't find anything else that was cut that would have made it more difficult to teach this the way I teach the original novel. I was expecting some of the less "famous" quotes to be missing, but I was happily surprised.

I enjoyed the watercolor artwork of this text, even though I wasn't completely mad about the character illustrations. The splash pages were especially noteworthy, and I think even if I don't adopt the whole novel for classroom instruction, I'll certainly buy it to use some of the full page illustrations for some scenes. There's also a few scenes that portray the self-confessed struggle Woodman-Maynard had in depicting the events of the original from the perspective of the unreliable narrator, Nick. I think those would be great discussion starters when teaching the original as well.

This graphic novel adaptation of The Great Gatsby is a fanstastic way to get people to read the classics. It has a really cool style and follows the original book's plot consistently. It would be a great addition to a classroom library or for those who love illustrated classics.

This book is a graphic novel take on the classic Great Gatsby. Set in the 1920’s, we follow the narrator, Nick, as he moves around in the circle of Jay Gatsby, a man of wealth and mystery, and the love of Jay’s life, the very married Daisy Buchanan. Love, excess, lies, and even murder are all themes in this enduring novel.

First, the positives about the graphic novel version - the artwork. Beautiful. I really felt like I was in the 1920’s with this beautiful work. The colors are lovely, and stylistically beautiful.

The “negatives” - and I use that lightly. I felt it was missing something. There is always a gap that seems to occur when translating a classic text to a graphic novel. I got the main parts of the story, but had I not known the story beforehand, I don’t know if I would have understood it all.

Overall, it’s a quality graphic novel, and I will be putting it in my library.