A spectacularly dazzling and inventive spinoff of The Great Gatsby, we follow Jordan Baker, not quite as we may remember her. Asian, adopted, queer, and an absolute legend on the green, this gem is a riveting, entertaining, and glittering 1920s romp.

In a year of so many "Great Gatsby" reimaginations, Nghi Vo wrote a beautiful, fresh take on a now well-visited world.

I’m... unsure of how I truly felt about this book. For one, the narrator for the audiobook was great and made it super enjoyable. I also thought the story was beautifully written and as enjoyable as the original. But... it felt lacking in places?

Magic was only brought up in random circumstances, even though that was supposed to be one of the main things that set this book apart from The Great Gatsby, and it sometimes didn’t make sense. Maybe if I had the words in front of me, I would have comprehended that part better.

Also, while I loved the change to make Jordan a queer woman of color, that was the only MAJOR change from the original, which made it a bit disappointing overall. If someone had never read the original, they may love this a lot more than I did! But this one was just a bit... off to me.

Highs of the book: addressing racism properly, but also acknowledging how Jordan would have faced it differently than any other people of color.
Lows: the magic just didn’t do as much as I wanted.

"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 and Asian, a Vietnamese adoptee 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."

I will never look at the Gatsby the same way. With lyrical and poetic prose, I was swept away by this novel.

I received a review copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley for my honest review. The opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.

Jordan Baker is a magician, immigrant, and socialite in jazz age society. She is educated, rich, a talented golf athlete, and can get into some of the most coveted parties around. Jordan is treated as an exotic object by most because of her race and sexual identity, which also limits her from what she wants the most.

This retelling of The Great Gatsby centers around Jordan and her friends Daisy, her cousin Nick, and Jay Gatsby but it's told from Jordan's perspective. I loved the original story and this retelling stays fairly on the same path as the source material. The added twists of magic and sexual fluidity were great in my opinion. This does have a couple of darker scenes, which was unexpected but not bad enough to make me dislike the book. There are also some mentions of racism, so just be aware before reading. Overall, this was a fantastic book and I'd love to read more from Nghi Vo.

3.5 Stars.

The book is beautifully written. While I was not super invested in the plot, the writing made me want to continue listening to the book. I haven't read The Great Gatsby in a very long time, so I'm not certain how close to the original this retelling was, but I felt is was a fantastical retelling that pulled from a lot of different details from the original, while still making sense for the new story the author was telling.

The world was fascinating, but I was left with so many question. The author just dumps the reader in the universe, which is very similar to the one we live in, but with magic/demons (I think). I would have enjoyed either a bit more explanation of some things, or just remove them entirely.

If you enjoy twisted retellings of classics, this book is for you! Or if you (like me) adore beautiful writing, I would highly recommend picking up this book.

The narrator is also fantastic! I really hope to be able to listen to more books narrated by her in the future.

This Audiobook for The Chosen and the Beautiful. Is just well, Beautiful. I loved the Narrator! I went into this book blind. I picked it solely on the cover of the book. As reading the book, I did find similarities to The Great Gatsby as it was set in the same time frame. However, I can not give comparison to this book vs The Great Gatsby because I have not ever finished the Great Gatsby. This book is slow and Lyrical with a queer main character and well, It is just love. I could definitely imagine the setting in this book as it literally felt like I was taking back to the 20's experiencing the Roaring twenties for the first time.

Beautiful narration amplifies this retelling of The Great Gatsby by Nghi Vo in The Chosen and the Beautiful.

Many thanks to the author, narrator, publisher, and NetGalley for sharing this book with me. All thoughts are my own.

The concept of this book sounded so good. I liked The Great Gatsby but this felt like a fan fiction since the author didn't change the names and it was so, extremely boring. There's barely any magic either and not much of an LGPTQ representation, at least in my opinion. I wouldn't recommend this one to anyone.

I think if I had reread the original Gatsby recently I might have enjoyed this more. I wish that this had played more with making this its own thing rather than following point for point of the original and that the magic was more foreward. The writing is great though

I had such high hopes for this book, unfortunately the audiobook was not that great and neither was the story. I love the great Gatsby and was dying to read this. It just wasn’t as great as I thought it was going to be - still a super fun read though.

This novel is a retelling of The Great Gatsby but with a twist. All the characters are the same as are the main plot elements. Jay Gatsby is the rich, fascinating tycoon with an air of mystery. He loves Daisy Buchanan who is unfortunately married to Tom Buchanan. Daisy's cousin, Nick Carraday, is a charming young man fresh from World War I. Then there is Jordan Baker, Daisy's friend and Nick's romantic interest.

But everything in this book has been turned on its edge. In addition to the romantic entanglements, there is now a queer element introduced. Jay loves Daisy but he also loves Nick. Jordan loves Nick but she also loves Daisy. Jordan is the book's main character and the story is told from her viewpoint. She is rich and moves in the top social circles, but is never quite inside. Jordan is an adopted Vietnamese child who was brought to the United States as a baby and has grown up as a native. But a different face and sexuality is never quite accepted at the top.

This novel was a Most Anticipated Book of 2021 and a Best Of Summer Pick by many publications. The writing is lush and tugs the reader along, anxious to see what this author has done with the classic tale. Sexuality imbues the prose as the characters mix and match in different combinations. Yet those familiar with Gatsby know that the ending is tragic while expected. I listened to this book and the narrator was great. My only quibble was that I didn't like Daisy's voice, which was hesitant and high-pitched. It seemed a bad match with a woman whose overriding characteristic was her demand that her will be done. Jordan's voice was perfect and the reader is swept along on a tide of passion and action. This book is recommended for readers of literary fiction.

I loved the narrator of this book. Her voice is melodic, mesmerizing and made me want to listen to more. The story, however beautifully worded, was one I couldn't relate to. It was a world that just left me feeling empty and I couldn't connect to any characters, even aspects of them. Beautiful writing, beautiful narration, but I didn't like The Chosen.

I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

***I received a copy of this audiobook from netgalley in exchange for an honest review***

“He wanted something agreeable, something sweeter around the edges, but I was never very good at sweet.”†

A dreamy and atmospheric Gatsby retelling. Nghi Vo’s writing style is a lyrical art form.

Jordan Baker has always been my favorite Gatsby character, and Vo managed to capture her familiar voice while also adding much needed depth. My only complaint is that I almost wish it had diverged a little bit more from the original. Vo’s additions of magical realism and the complexity of Jordan’s heritage were excellent. However, little else shifted apart from POV. There was not enough focus on Jordan: magical bisexual Vietnamese adoptee in 1920s America. I admit I allowed my hopes to rise a bit too high with the promise of a queer retelling. Yes, seemingly everybody was bisexual(!), but... I was hoping for the queer romances to be a greater exploration within the text versus the brief mentions they were afforded. I do also wish there had been a bit more of a magical flavor, especially since so much of the main plot remained familiar with merely a POV-bend.


I absolutely adore Natalie Naudus as a narrator, and she was a great choice for this book!



†must be checked against final text

It's not often that I get to sit down and write a review right after finishing a book these days because of my busy schedule and because I normally need around a week to ruminate and really think about what I want to say. But I finished The Chosen and the Beautiful by Nghi Vo earlier today and I have some thoughts.

Before I dive into my review of the story, I wanted to mention that I listened to parts of the book in audiobook format and I wanted to say that I thought the narrator was alright. I can't speak to whether any of the Vietnamese parts were accurate, and I would defer to own voices reviewers for this. The overall audiobook experience was good though!

I would like to preface this review by saying that I am not the biggest fan of The Great Gatsby story. You may be wondering, then, why I picked up a The Great Gatsby retelling–let me explain. I do enjoy the time period in which The Great Gatsby is set and I also really enjoyed the visuals and aesthetic in the 2013t movie adaptation but the story itself…does not bring me joy. I won't elaborate on that, in case any of you reading this review don't know what happens in The Great Gatsby and I don't want to ruin things for you if you're still planning on reading or watching it (and it will also affect how you experience The Chosen and the Beautiful if you haven’t read it yet) so I will stop there.

Again, you're probably wondering why I picked up The Chosen and the Beautiful. I already touched on one aspect of The Great Gatsby that I do enjoy–the time period in which it is set. I also like the idea that this was a diverse retelling done by an own voices author. Also and I don't feel like I need to pointed out but I'm going to anyway–the cover is absolutely glorious.

I always felt that the story of The Great Gatsby was missing something…something I could never quite put my finger on. And before starting The Chosen and the Beautiful, I was hoping that this Nghi Vo would rectify that for me somehow.

Diving into The Chosen and the Beautiful I first noticed that I really liked the writing. It was evocative and descriptive and really pulled me into the story. It’s written from the perspective of the main character Jordan Baker who in this rendition is Vietnamese. It was really interesting to read how Jordan navigated 1920s New York as someone who was a part of a visible minority that was discriminated against quite a bit in that time (not that much has changed decades later). Making the story all the more multifaceted is the fact that Jordan was adopted by a wealthy white family and therefore ran in circles that many Vietnamese immigrants would not have access to in the same way. Her worldview and experiences were wholly unique to her, and it was really fascinating to read about.

I also liked the LGBTQ+ aspects of The Chosen and the Beautiful and how it shed some light of on what it might've been like to be LGBTQ+ in the 1920s. While this aspect of the story was not the centre of it (or even a very prominent) part of the story, I think that it still added all the more depth and substance that the original Gatsby story was lacking (for me).

As I made my way further into the book, despite all of the above, I found that the first half of the book intrigued me but didn't quite capture my attention the way that I had hoped. That said I continued reading, curious to see how Nghi Vo’s retelling would unfold, develop, and wrap itself back up again. (And I'm so very glad that I did, because the story did hook my attention after the midway point and the wait was definitely worth it.)

So as to respect your own experience with this book and to not give anything away I won't go into detail about what exactly it was at the midway point that got me (end it might not even apply to your own reading experience anyway) but I can't say that I really thoroughly enjoyed this retelling and that I will be recommending it to those who are established fans of The Great Gatsby, as well as those who might might not be the biggest fans (like myself), and even those who have no opinion one way or the other. I think that there’s something in The Chosen and the Beautiful for everyone. And personally, and without giving anything away, I found that it did provide the pieces that I was missing in the original story, so I was quite satisfied!

Amazing. Nghi Vo is quickly becoming a favorite author and I am so exciting to see what she does in the years to come. This book is perfect for lovers of Gatbsy, but it is so much more than just a retelling/reimagining. The speculative element was subtle and amazingly done. I just cannot say enough good things about this. The writing is absolutely beautiful.

3.5 stars rounded up.

When I heard The Chosen and the Beautiful was a retelling of The Great Gatsby, I knew I needed to read it.

This story is told from Jordan Baker’s perspective, and it follows the same timeline as the original. Jordan Baker grew up in 1920’s American society and easily slips in and out of people’s lives. After all she isn’t the normal socialite. She’s queer, Asian, bd adopted so mostly thought of as exotic rather than taken seriously by her peers.

I thought the book was beautifully written although slow at times. It was an interesting take to focus on Jordan in a Great Gatsby retelling, and I liked that her character was queer. There were some magical elements though that confused me.

The story wasn’t that different than the original, and I think it would have been better had it been a new outlook on the classic. I listened to the audiobook and thought Natalie Naudus was a great narrator.

Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

I was completely drawn into this book based off of the gorgeous cover. I personally have never seen or read The Great Gatsby. I don’t know the story and until tonight I hadn’t ever looked into it.

So to say I went into this book blind is 100% accurate.

With that being said I had an open mind when I started and had high hopes for this book.

I was expecting more of the magical elements from Jordan, or that they tied into the Gatsby half of the story more. But it felt like that (the magic/paper cutting) was separate from the party upper class drinking sex and dancing story. They were parallel but never REALLY touched. I loved getting the glimpse and history once Jordan meets the other paper cutters but again I felt their involvement was not quite… complete.

I would still recommend this book to anyone looking for a good queer story. Anyone who loves the story or Gatsby. Anyone who enjoys this time in history. The story was well written and I did enjoy many aspects of it.

I was granted access to an audiobook version of this arc and I loved the narrator and their style! They really helped make this story come alive for me and definitely boosted my enjoyment. Their voice acting was fantastic and if you’re undecided on how you want to read this book, I’d recommend going for the audiobook!

As for the story, it did take me awhile to get into it. It’s been a long time since I read the original Gatsby so at first I was getting lost on who was who and what was going on but eventually I fell into the swings of things and started to really enjoy it!

The magic aspects were unique and I think were the best parts of the story. I wish we had gotten more of it! The story was slow going with a fast paced ending which I liked but I wish the magical aspects had been explored more throughout the entire novel instead of it all being near the end.

Overall, I did really like the main character and loved the fact that she was queer and expressed that! The magic was interesting and the mystery elements were fun to watch enfold. I’d recommend it!

3.5/5 ⭐️