This is a stellar retelling! I love how original it is and I truly don't know how the author thought of this, This is such a specific book. From the writing to the details it is just AMAZING. Vo's writing style is just breathtaking creating a dreamy atmosphere. This is such a nuanced book exploring a queer Asian character in 1920s Long Island.

I was expecting an extravagant roaring 20s era book filled with great characters and lavish parties. In reality I got boring characters with ho-hum sprinkled throughout the whole book.

Have you ever been invited to a party and were promised it was going to be a great time? Everyone's gonna be there! We're gonna have food and drinks, just come it's gonna be a great time! Then you finally show up and there's nobody there and you find yourself drinking in a corner while some sad music plays? That's what reading this book felt like.

I couldn't bring myself to care about any of the characters and the plot of the book didn't have me excited in the slightest. Nick and Jordan and Daisy were all just boring characters. Gatsby, who is supposed to be this enigmatic character was instead flat and 1 dimensional.

The audio version. The narrator was average. She didn't bring a whole lot extra to the book, but I'm not sure what she could even do with this book anyway. I'm curious if, with better material, she wouldn't seem as average.

This book was a huge disappointment. I was super excited for this Great Gatsby retelling and I got let down through the whole book

I guess I'll just never "get" Gatsby. I thought a queer retelling with magical influences would be my gateway to figuring out just why people care so much about that damn book, but even with all the right pieces - put together by an obviously talented author and a great audiobook narrator - I still don't give a damn about that stupid socialite and his dumb parties.

A good book that would've been better as an original thing. The removed star is only because of the Gatsby of it all.

Thank you Macmillan audio & Netgalley for the audio copy.

Miss The Great Gatsby? Read this book
Love magical realism stories? Read this book
Craving a dark retelling with fresh Queer characters and spiced up story line? Read this book.

I’m not sure how this book might have been as ebook/print, but the audio version is just wonderful. The narrator does a good job with the modulations being it urgency, surprise or suspense!! The story is also well written, its The Great Gatsby told in Jordan’s pov. The inclusion of supernatural element is impressive and elevated the whole story. Reducing a star for the pacing, even as a 8hr audio @ 2x speed, it felt slow. Otherwise a great historical-magical-suspense-literature one might easily enjoy.

*this book serves its entertaining purpose to everyone - who has or hasn’t read The Great Gatsby.

𝘌𝘯𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘥𝘢𝘳𝘬 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨!

I love retellings and this one was just fantastical, a queer immigrant socialite with magical powers, just wow!
It was dark, beautifully written and captivating.
I loved the characters, the narrative and the magical aspects, it was just perfect, I loved every part of it. A must read.

Thank you NetGalley Nghi Vo and Macmillan Audio for this ALC.

https://www.instagram.com/booksandcoffeemx/

I went in not realizing this was a Great Gatsby "retelling" no worries it cleared it up on like the first page.

I did enjoy how it stuck to the book. Although, it has been a while since I read the book *cough* 12 years *cough* so my memory was a little fuzzy on it... And while it did stick to it she added a little magic here and there.

This writing of this retelling is so beautifully and meticulously done. It felt slow-paced, but only because it’s so intricately detailed. It gives new life and depth to the original story. Told from Jordan Baker’s perspective - a bisexual Vietnamese immigrant who was “adopted” (air quotes because she explains it as being rescued, but she clearly wasn’t always treated with the love and kindness that an adopted child should). This was captivating. Jordan is brilliant, witty, and has a subtly magical touch.

I don’t think you have to have read The Great Gatsby to enjoy this book. It’s an enthralling story on its own, but I actually think those that have already read The Great Gatsby will enjoy The Chosen and the Beautiful more. It gives you so much that only the time and changes that have been pushing through society can. Nearly all of the characters are given more depth.

Praise for the dramatic irony; for the explicit depictions of the desperation, greed, misogyny, and racism of the rich socialites. This story is honest and raw. It forces your to be thoughtful. It was a truly brilliant read and I greatly enjoyed it!

If you like The Great Gatsby, you will like this book as well.

Instead of Nick's point of view, we see the story from Jordan Baker, a Vietnamese queer, who is Daisy's friend. It's another view of The Great Gatsby from someone in the inner circle.

But this is different. When Jordan is not with Daisy or Nick, she is exploring the city's underground speak easies of those who are trans, gay, lesbian, bi, drag, etc. Jordan also explores a little bit of her own heritage in China town.

A retelling of a classic with modern charm that will capture your heart all over again.

A queer, Asian-American retelling of the Great Gatsby but from Jordan's perspective? Sign me up!

Unfortunately the book fell short for me. The most fun part was the magical realism influences into the story, but they were so minor and far apart that I often forgot I was even reading a magical realism book. I wish that they would have had more of an impact on the story, and been something much more relevant. There were times it was so quick I wondered if the magic was real or a metaphor for the 1920s high life.

I also was super happy that the story was told from Jordan's perspective, but wish we could have had more of her and less of Daisy and Gatsby. We already know their part of the book, I wanted to focus on this new story that was interesting to me.

The plot was slow, and while the pacing matched the original story well, nothing happened until after the 60% mark. For this being such a short book too I didn't understand how we didn't have more earlier on. I didn't mind the slowness so much, I felt like it matched the themes of the story, but I wanted there to be a point to it all.

The queerness of the book was amazing. Almost every single character was open or dating multiple people, or into more than one gender. It really matched the vibe of the original story well, and I truly think this is how it should have been written all along. It just made sense the different relationships that popped up, and the sharing of the couples.

Overall I didn't mind the books - I fell in love with the beginning but slowly lost interest. I think it was a decent story, but wanted a little bit more from it.

Thanks to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for giving me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I absolutely adored this title. I'm a big Gatsby fan but this might surpass that for me, it was that good. I loved the diverse perspective it brought and really enjoyed Nghi Vo's perspective on the classic.

DNF @ 50%

Suddenly I remembered I really didn't like The Great Gatsby all that much...

I had hoped this would bring something new to the table, with an Asian & LGBTQ protagonist, but I'm bored out of my mind. Nothing is happening. And Jordan isn't all that interesting of a character... yawn.

The writing is nice, but its also kinda...bland, just like The Great Gatsby. I can see a lot of people enjoying this one, its just not doing it for me and I'm ready to move on.

The Chosen and the Beautiful by Nghi Vo
Narrated by: Natalie Naudus
Publication Date: June 1, 2021
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Description from NetGalley…
“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.”
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Thank you to @netgalley @macmillan.audio @torbooks for the ALC in return for my honest review.
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My thoughts…
On the fence. I didn’t hate it. It was a retelling, but I was expecting something that was not identical to the Fitzgerald book, instead I realized it was a straight retelling. So, this book became too predictable as the scenes were identical to the original and even some of the dialogues were identical if not similar. Even the magic didn’t do much for me, as it didn’t really add to the story. Naudus is a favourite narrator, so that helped me get through this. I wanted to love this book. Why not, when it had diverse characters based on a great classic. Overall, it was an okay historical fantasy and a straight retelling.
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Incidentally, it doesn’t make sense to me when reviews state that Nghi Vo wrote it better that F. Scott Fitzgerald or that this is the way The Great Gatsby should have been written. Because to me, the original IS the original.

This book was a beautifully written reimagining of a classic. I’ve never read The Great Gatsby but the writing was so whimsical and the narrator kept me interested in the story even when I was confused by the plot.

I really wanted to like The Chosen and the Beautiful by Nghi Vo more than I did. It had some interesting aspects which were different from The Great Gatsby, such as the narrator being Jordan Baker who is Vietnamese and queer in this version. She has been adopted and brought to America as a very young girl and now is a socialite who still faces the stares and the closed doors Asian-Americans received in the 1920s.

With all this begin said, you would think this story would be a unique and interesting read. Unfortunately, it is not. It is the Great Gatsby told from another characters POV. The storylines that involve Jordan Baker are flat and she somehow has some magical powers that is quite confusing. The magic is random and does not really take center stage as much as I thought it would in the synopsis. The story of The Great Gatsby is retold in this story but the additional content did not spark my interest at all.

I loved the narrator in the audio book, Natalie Naudus, who did a wonderful job with the different character voices and bringing life to the story.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for this Audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

The Chosen and the Beautiful deserves every single piece of praise, pull quote & attention. The hype is very much real in this glittering Great Gatsby redux that follows Jordan, a queer Vietnamese adoptee. Narrator Natalie Naudus (you might recognize her voice from One Last Stop or Bone Shard Daughter) shines in this audiobook - voicing Jordan with a quiet rage masquerading as boredom. Best enjoyed with something sparkling. If Nghi Vo wasn't already an autobuy for you after her novellas, she is now.

Clever and haunting, this retelling somehow feels more honest than the oriiginal. It is full of emotional complexity, intricate worldbuilding, and glamorous queer characters. I loved it even more than the original Great Gatsby!

Thank you SO much to the publisher and Netgalley for this audio arc!! Great Gatsby is one of my favorite classic books and Jordan Baker was always a overlooked mysterious character in the classic book. The Chosen and the Beautiful gives a much needed voice to Jordan who is a queer, Asian, adopted, and a Vietnamese immigrant. The first half of the book accurately follows the original with the only difference being the narrator as Jordan Baker. This plot however gives more background on Jordan obviously and Daisy but stays true to the original book especially portraying Gatsby as an mysterious character. The second half strays and present itself as a new book, commenting on the race, class and gender of the 1920s. A GREAT retelling that I believe will be talked about for a long long time. It respects the original while also dazzling on its own!

I really wanted to love this story, but I found that it just didn't suck me in in the way I had hoped. I have two theories for this: 1.) lack of world building and 2.) Great Gatsby burnout. In terms of the first point, I had a hard time envisioning the world in which this novel takes place. I know it takes place in New York in the 1920s, but it's not quite the same Prohibition era setting that we're all familiar with. Yet I never felt like there was enough detail given to help me formulate a picture of the world in my mind. In terms of the second point, that's definitely on me. I thought I would love a Great Gatsby retelling, however it turns out that the three times I had to read and analyze the story in college haven't quite worn off and I felt uninterested in the familiarity of the characters.

I do have to say, though: Jordan is an incredible character. We don't really get much from her in the original story, and I absolutely loved how Vo portrayed her here. She's incredibly interesting and pretty much the only character you can root for here (much like in the original).

While I didn't have the experience with this book that I was hoping for, I would still highly recommend it to just about any lover of sci-fi/fantasy because I think there is a lot here for people to love and the diverse representation is phenomenal.

The audiobook copy I received did have a bit of a glitch that made it sound very echo-y, but I think that was just a problem with the NetGalley Shelf app. The narrator for this audiobook did an incredible job.

Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the review copy.

I have been waiting patiently for this book ever since I heard about it from one of my bookish podcasts. All of my wildest dreams were actualized in this book. As a teacher who has read The Great Gatsby something like 10 times, I loved where Vo took this story. The magical realism fits perfectly into the world Fitzgerald first constructed and bringing in a diverse character cast against Tom Buchanan's racism/white supremacy gave the reader a new way to view Tom and the rest of the core group. Seeing the story through Jordan's perspective gave Nick so much more depth. Vo was able to really relate Nick's service in WWI to some of the listlessness that Nick feels and his disconnection with America and with the group. I would love to erase my knowledge of Gatsby and read this book as my first experience, but I do feel like the two novels are wonderful companions to one another. The things Fitzgerald left out because they were feelings and considerations relevant to his writing in 1923 are recovered in Vo's narrative. Truly memorable language and beautiful writing. Lovers of Gatsby should snatch this book up and I definitely intend to add a paper copy to my library. The audiobook was well acted with reasonable and recognizable inflections to differentiate between characters. Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the Advanced Listener Copy! Review posted to Goodreads.

How can I sum up in a measly book review how this book touched me? How beautiful it was? How this book has grabbed my "favorite books of all time" list in a chokehold, and said "I'm about to give you a book SO GOOD it'll blow literally every book you've ever read out of the water." I have no idea how this review will do this book even an inch is justice, but I will try.

The Chosen and the Beautiful is a magical realism retelling of The Great Gatsby following Jordan Baker, the young socialite girlfriend to Nick Carroway in the original story of The Great Gatsby. Now, this is no small claim, but this book blew any word F Scott Fitzgerald ever wrote to pieces. Maybe I'm being a hater, but there is more substance and beauty in a single paragraph of this book than you will find in the entirety of The Great Gatsby.

In this book, Jordan Baker is a young, queer, Vietnamese socialite. The Chosen and the Beautiful acts as her origin story; an in depth character study of her motivations, inner thoughts, her brains. Jordan Baker is smart. Despite the constant and very normalized racism all around her, she has made her way to high society America. This book shows how ever move she makes is calculated, how she has molded herself into greatness in a way Gatsby never could.

The queer representation is great. Gatsby and Nick have their own very gay love affair, which... we all knew was going on from literally any subtext interpretations of the original. Jordan is also queer, and the book does a fantastic job showing how her queerness affects the various facets of her life, how it's used against her at times, and how she uses it to further herself at others. I also love how all depictions of sexuality in this book are purposeful, and not only fuel the plot but also give deep insight into the motivations of our cast and their relationships to others.

I truly can't recommend this enough. If you hated The Great Gatsby, read this. If you loved The Great Gatsby, read this. If you've never read The Great Gatsby, STILL READ THIS. The plot doesn't stray *much* from the original, but it's a very different, and infinitely more interesting story. I wish it went of forever so that I could've never put it down, and I'm my way to read every other work of Vo's now.

I listened to this story via audiobook (thank you netgalley!) and loved the narration. The narrator was a great voice actress, I felt entranced by the story, and the quality was very smooth. Highly recommend!