To be totally transparent, I’ve never been a huge fan of The Great Gatsby. It was Daisy that I never could really empathize with in any way. I was intrigued with the cover of Beautiful Little Fools when I saw it on Netgalley and was a little disappointed when I realized it was a Gatsby related novel. But as I read the description and thought about it, I grew very interested in the premise: The Great Gatsby, but from the perspective of the women—and with a mysterious twist!
Beautiful Little Fools tells the story of each of the women in Jay Gatsby’s world—or just on the periphery: socialite Daisy Buchanan, golfer Jordan Baxter, and suffragette Catherine McCoy (Myrtle Wilson’s sister). Each character evolves over the years leading up to the murder of Jay Gatsby. We learn about their childhood, younger adult years, family, and how each of them ended up in West Egg that fateful night.
Interspersed with the alternating points of view of the ladies is that of Detective Frank Charles. While to most Mr. Gatsby’s death seemed like a clear case of Murder – Suicide perpetrated by George Wilson, a single diamond hairpin found by the pool has Detective Charles looking more closely into the case. Could one of these women have been involved?
Jillian Cantor has done a fantastic job of slowly revealing each of these women—and their possible motives—in an enticing way. Each character has their own distinct voice, past, and motive, and each one is portrayed in a strong enough way that any one of them could be guilty. Cantor has expertly balanced this unique story with the events and timelines in The Great Gatsby so that the two are tied together, and the reader can anticipate what’s coming, without relying on the original story too heavily. Beautiful Little Fools is a fully formed, plotted, and executed novel on its own, not requiring the reader to have even read the classic that inspired it. I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and can honestly say that I love it even more than I liked The Great Gatsby!
Beautiful Little Fools will be released 2/1/22 and I highly recommend that you get your copy!

*I received an ARC of Beautiful Little Fools from Netgalley and Harper Perennial in exchange for an honest review.

I had a lot of hopes for this book. The women in The Great Gatsby always had the potential to be more, but the story wasn't about them. Here it is, and although they're better developed than in Gatsby, they're not much more likeable or sympathetic.

Much of the book is taken up with the back story of the three characters - Daisy Buchanan, Jordan Baker, and Catherine McCoy (sister of the dead Myrtle). - and is told from their multiple viewpoints. Myrtle herself has a chapter toward the end, and there are numerous chapters from the POV of a detective who is independently investigating Gatsby's death. I can't decide if the detective POV was unnecessary or underserved - either would have worked better than having him pop up randomly and remind me that he's still around. The actual time period covered by The Great Gatsby itself is actually quite brief.

I would have given Beautiful Little Fools a solid 4 stars but for the unevenness of the POV and also the fact that Jordan's aunt lived in a "brownstone mansion, in a once fashionable section of the Lower East Side." The lower east side hadn't progressed beyond its immigrant roots by the 1920. Also, there were multiple mentions of "pink taxis," not just NYC but in Chicago, as well - and while some independent taxi companies in NY may have had pink cabs at the time, the repetition just jumped out and sent me to Wikipedia to try to confirm whether they existed.

One point in its favor is the portrayal of Jay Gatsby. I always felt that his fixation with Daisy was creepy, and that definitely comes off here. A man who is so sold on his own obsessive love that he won't be convinced that her feelings could possibly have changed, who tries to set up her husband, buys a house so he can stare across the sound at hers... maybe he didn't deserve to end up dead in the pool, but I wasn't sorry.

I received an advance copy of this book through Netgalley/Harper in exchange for an unbiased review.

Whether you’re a superfan of 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘎𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵 𝘎𝘢𝘵𝘴𝘣𝘺 or have never read it, 𝐁𝐄𝐀𝐔𝐓𝐈𝐅𝐔𝐋 𝐋𝐈𝐓𝐓𝐋𝐄 𝐅𝐎𝐎𝐋𝐒 by Jillian Cantor is a book many of you are going to love. It had been many years since I read 𝘎𝘢𝘵𝘴𝘣𝘺, so I took a quick look at the online 𝘊𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘧 𝘕𝘰𝘵𝘦𝘴 to sort of bring myself up to speed. It was really unnecessary, but may have made Cantor’s retelling slightly more interesting for me. (Looking for the differences, etc.) ⁣⁣⁣
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In 𝘉𝘦𝘢𝘶𝘵𝘪𝘧𝘶𝘭 𝘓𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘭𝘦 𝘍𝘰𝘰𝘭𝘴, Cantor uses many voices to tell the story of Jay Gatsby, including Daisy Buchanan, Jordan Baker, Detective Frank Charles, and a new addition, Catherine McCoy (Myrtle’s sister). Moving back and forward in time, she gives us the story of Daisy and Gatsby from the points of view of the three women, all of whom add twists to the original story and none of whom seem completely innocent to Detective Charles. From the opening pages through to its satisfying ending, I flew through 𝘉𝘦𝘢𝘶𝘵𝘪𝘧𝘶𝘭 𝘓𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘭𝘦 𝘍𝘰𝘰𝘭𝘴 and think many of you will, too! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨⁣⁣⁣
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Thanks to @harperperennial for an ARC of this book (publishing on 2/1/22).⁣⁣
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I want to like this book more that I did. It was fun hear about the female characters since we did not hear from them much in the original, but the mystery subplot really did not work for me. I did enjoy the character development, especially for Jordan.

If you are a fan of The Great Gatsby, then you have to read this book! It gave a voice to three strong female characters from the original novel, which is exactly what was needed for this story to be complete. I enjoyed the fact that the mystery (which kept me guessing throughout the entire novel) was present but not the entire focus of the story. Reading the well-known story of Daisy and Jay Gatsby from the perspective of these women was very entertaining, and I love how Cantor gave them each their own, powerful voice. It did take me a little while to really get into this story, but once I did I couldn't put it down.

As a huge fan of F. Scott Fitzgerald and The Great Gatsby, I think it takes a lot of guts to mess with one of the Great American Novels. That being said, I think the author pulls it off beautifully in this book by offering perspectives and details not seen in the original story. It makes me wonder what a skilled writer could do with other classics? I think this book can stand alone even for those unfamiliar with The Great Gatsby. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I know that other reviewers prefer The Chosen and the Beautiful over Beautiful Little Fools, this retelling of The Great Gatsby. But I rather liked the alternate ending of Fools. Jordan is a lovely lesbian (or bi/asexual?) in both books, and the Jazz age was better incorporated in Chosen over Fools. Both books are perfect for lovers (or haters of Gatsby). Chosen does a better job of making Jordan the main character, but Fools does a better job of fleshing out the female relationships. Would read more by this author.

As a big fan of The Great Gatsby, I knew when I saw this cover, this was a must read for me. This did not disappoint. 
This story is told through the eyes of the women in Gatsby's life: Daisy, Jordan, Myrtle, and Catherine. The story starts with a bang! I was immediately sucked into this retelling of my favorite classic. 

For me, I was so impressed that this author could take characters written a century ago and revamp them but keep them so close to who they were in the original. I loved the backstories of these characters that we know so well but never knew what brought them all together that summer of 1922.This story was creative and fresh, I really couldn't get enough of it. 

This was my first book by Cantor but will be the first of many. I loved how detailed this story was. She brought these characters to life. I have kind of been in a funk with historical fiction lately but this really highlighted the things I love about historical fiction. 

Now excuse me while I go look up Cantor's backlist...

This is out February 1st. If you are a Gatsby fan, you definitely don't want to miss this one.

A retelling of The Great Gatsby from the women's perspective? I'll admit to being more than a little resistant to this approach, until I was pulled in. Even though we know what's going to happen, the narrative has a sense of urgency and mystery that propels it forward. I couldn't put it down.

Cantor weaves the tale with the voices of Daisy Fay/Buchanan, Jordan Baker and Catherine McCoy. With a little Myrtle Wilson. The investigating detective also has a voice. We get back story, motivation, rich and imaginative detail that bring each of these women to life. She gives them depth. She illustrates the way they were trapped by their circumstances, and their men. She gives them agency.

It's bold, and it works.

My thanks to NetGalley and Harper Perennial for the ARC in exchange for this review.

As a longtime fan of the Great Gatsby, this book offered a fresh feminist take on the woman's story within the world of Gatsby. It helped reinvigorate a new sense of interest within the world and yet still acted fine as a novel on its own.

The Great Gatsby has been a long time favorite of mine, so I was definitely intrigued about reading this book. I initially thought it would be a retelling, but it’s more of a reimagining. Some of the events and character personalities are different than the original story. That being said, I was able to totally buy into Cantor’s version of the story. What a great idea to focus on the female protagonists and develop their characters and backstories. I loved the back and forth of the short chapters between each of them. Even though I knew the basic events and the ending of the story, Cantor did a wonderful job of building suspense nonetheless. It is a complete story, so even if you haven’t read The Great Gatsby, or haven’t read it in a while, you won’t be missing anything at all.

Thanks to #NetGalley #BeautifulLittleFools for the chance to read this amazing book early. I now look forward to reading additional books by Jillian Cantor.

This is a retelling to The Great Gatsby from the perspective (mostly) of the women rather than the men. It gives them all a great deal more agency than in the original; this is a fascinating conceit and for the most part the story hangs together.

The question which always arises in such cases is whether or not the book needed to be written, if the story is in some way enhanced in the recapitulation. In this case, I fear the answer is, "not really". I can't see that these perspectives add much. The women don't suddenly become liberated from their misogynistic, autocratic men, nor do they take control of their lives in any meaningful way, at least not until the end. There are a few delicious details we don't get from Gatsby, but I can't say that overall there was anything new here.

This book is quite well-written and I plan to see what else Ms. Cantor has written, hopefully books that derive from her own imagination and not a re-imagining of someone else's work.

I greatly enjoyed this book. Ihave never read The Great Gatsby (gasp!) so I came into this book totally blind and I loved each page of this! i loved the smaller chapters, I loved reading it thru the eyes of the women and it kept me turing the pages, quickly, until I made it to the very end.
Thank you, NetGalley, for allowing me to preview this book for my honest opinion.

Jillian Cantor has done an excellent job of providing "backstory" and an alternate POV in this, what I might call a murder mystery, based on Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. The Great Gatsby is a novel that I re-read periodically because I find that each time I approach it it yields new insight and my response to the characters has seemed to change with my age. And so, knowing more about the women of Gatsby has turned out to be a kind of treat for me. To her credit, the author does not toy with the original arc of Fitzgerald's novel, but expands each scene from the women's POV. Her writing style is quite good (although nothing can approach Fitzgerald's original) and I was drawn into the story from the beginning. The only conceit was the addition of a new character, a Detective who doesn't believe the original narrative...that Mabel's husband killed Gatsby and then committed suicide. This allows the author to delve a little further into the before and after effects of Gatsby's obsession with Daisy.
I liked this well thought out and well written addition to the Gatsby cannon.(see also "So We Read On: How The Great Gatsby Came to be and Why It Endures" by Maureen Corrigan).
Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC.

There are few things more dangerous to be in this world than a woman. There are few things more powerful to be than a straight white man. Unfortunately, these statements have only gotten truer as the years pass; the only category to expand being the former. Even the most cursory of glances at media over the years could provide any number of examples to support it. Literature in particular was perhaps the original lens into societal structure and patterns, allowing for both a probing into the depths of how they function and, sometimes, an exploration of the fantasy of justice otherwise unattainable in the real world.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, women were by and large the originators of the novel as an art form. They both created and consumed more than their male counterparts, and as a result (also unsurprisingly) it was for a time thought to be a lesser form of art much the same way we use terms like "chick lit" and "beach reads" with a derogatory note today. To this day many of literature's foundational works and authors have been forgotten in favor of praising male authors who took inspiration. And so, it's always nice when an immensely popular book about women written by men gets reinvented in the hands of a woman.

I should perhaps preface this review with the fact that Fitzgerald's Great Gatsby is one of my favorite novels ever written, so much so that at least three algorithms across various platforms immediately informed me when it entered public domain and, consequently, of novels that explored the characters in new situations (most notably Michael Farris Smith's Nick, which explores Nick Carraway's time in the military and after, leading up to his introduction to Jay Gatsby, brought to my email nigh on 24 hours after Gatsby went public domain). As with most novels that were required reading in middle and high school, Gatsby has a somewhat fraught relationship with relatively modern audiences. You can hate anything if people force you to read it, after all. I can't even nail down exactly what it is about it that I love so much. I was always a voracious reader growing up and never truly hated much of anything until much later in life, and every time I return to Gatsby, I find something in it I didn't see as a child.

Most notably, in high school I had at best an inkling that two of the novel's central characters are queer to some degree; as I got older and more comfortable with my own identity I can no longer be convinced otherwise. Jordan Baker and Nick Carraway's orientations can even be supported by the novel itself! Perhaps my greatest disappointment with Nick was that it shied away from giving Nick a queer relationship prior to his first seeing Jay Gatsby. And then, to my delight, along comes Jillian Cantor with the entrancing Beautiful Little Fools.

Told from the alternating perspectives of three of the novel's women - Daisy Buchanan, Jordan Baker, and Catherine Wilson (sister to Tom's lover) - and the detective investigating Jay Gatsby's death, Beautiful Little Fools digs deep into the social politics of the time and how being a woman with ambitions beyond marrying wealthy - or marrying at all - is a radical, virtually unconsidered act. To be a single woman in '20s society is to be poor. To be a queer woman in '20s society (as Jordan Baker is finally allowed to be on a textual level) is to be shamed out of a career you love. The novel never shames either woman for the choices they make, only puts on stark display the challenges that come along with them. Daisy wishes to survive and prosper, so she marries wealthy. Catherine wishes to remain independent, so she is depicted as a protestor for women's rights who has lovers. Jordan wishes to remain true to herself, so she is queer, gains a lover, and loses the career she loves while struggling to articulate her truth to the people that matter most to her. Never before have these women been given such voices or strong stances.

Cantor's love for the source text is evident in both the weaving of character and story into a spellbinding new fashion and the new light she shines on characters we thought we knew. Yes, this is but one interpretation, but it melts so well together with Fitzgerald's text (and subtext) I cannot imagine a better unfolding. The men in particular are fleshed out in a way that adds an especially menacing air to an already fraught premise. Jay Gatsby's obsession with Daisy is elevated beyond tragic-love-story status straight into the danger zone. Wilson the mechanic's meek exterior from Gatsby is ripped asunder to reveal an abusive controller. Nick is…no less disillusioned with the entirety of humanity. Tom Buchanan's womanizing exploits are revealed to have quite the history. Every person in Beautiful Little Fools has more than enough motive to have put that fatal bullet in Jay Gatsby, making the novel's reveal of the culprit something of a genuine surprise.

Beautiful Little Fools is a nuanced, powerful addition to the Gatsby story. It does what adaptations within and without public domain material should strive to: both has fun with and enriches its source material in a way that makes returning to it an all the more robust experience. If Great Gatsby has cast its spell of disillusionment on you or you've ever hungered for more than just Nick Carraway's interpretations of the people around him, Jillian Cantor's novel is a necessity.

Beautiful Little Fools is the perfect read for all lovers of Gatsby. Not only do we revisit Gatsby and Daisy, but a brilliant and equally colorful cast of characters, new to the classic, are introduced. I enjoyed every part of the rather complicated, overlapping, storyline. Take home from this mystery, thriller is clear. Men with be men, but watch out for the kickass women in your life. These women characters did not just overcome hardship, but stay faithful and supportive to one and other throughout. You won't see the end coming, but boy, is it a killer!

Thank you to Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review Beautiful Little Fools by Jillian Cantor. My review is based solely on my own opinion of this excellent read.

#beautifullittlefools #netgalley #jilliancantor

📚 Book Review 📚
5/5 🌟

My second book of 2022, and my first 5 🌟 read! I am so excited to have snagged an eARC of Cantor’s upcoming release, a retelling of The Great Gatsby, from the perspective of 3 of the female characters - Daisy Buchanan, her best friend and pro-golfer Jordan Baker, and Catherine McCoy, who had only a passing mentioned in the Fitzgerald’s novel and is sister of the ill-fated Myrtle.

I’ll admit I haven’t read The Great Gatsby since, probably, high school - let’s not even discuss how long ago that was!- but a few months ago I stumbled upon Baz Luhrmann’s film adaptation starring Leo DiCaprio and Carey Mulligan, and watched his deliciously silly and stunning take on the story, delightfully entertained. So, I had this little refresher, unknowingly, just in time to read Cantor’s book.

This is a story about women and their choices, or lack thereof, of the lengths they will go to to protect each other and each others’ secrets, of them overcoming their expected roles to take the wheel of their own lives. I loved the development of the 4 main women in the story, the backstories and their growth.

It has the same glittery, dreamy feel of Gatsby, complete with the beautiful, exotic details of the Jazz Age - a time of excess for those in the wealthy ranks of the Buchanans and Gatsby. Gatsby is portrayed as someone completely different than who I had originally thought him to be. Cantor took this classic story and turned it to look at it from a different angle, and created more of a murder-mystery out of it. It’s an ambitious undertaking and a beautifully written, propulsive page-turner.

Thank you to @netgally and @harperperennial for the opportunity to read an eARC of this fabulous book!

Are you adding this to your TBR stack 📚?

Jillian Cantor takes F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby into another realm by telling the story through the lens of 3 female characters: Daisy Buchanan, Jordan Baker, and Catherine McCoy, the sister of Myrtle Wilson. The book opens with the death of Jay Gatsby, then follows the 3 women in a tale encompassing the before and after of Gatsby's death and prohibition. Also scattered among the chapters; the detective who was hired to 'find the truth of Gatsby's death,' even though the police on Long Island have closed the case.
This is a delightful telling of the world of post WWI US, both during and after Prohibition - the rights of women, idealists and dreamers. The 3 women in the story bring so much to the telling. This is not just fan fiction, this is a story reimagined - something Fitzgerald would have reveled in. 5 stars!

Thank you NetGalley, Harper Perennial, and Jillian Cantor for an arc of this book in exchange for an honest review! I wanted to read this because The Great Gatsby is one of my favorite books of all time and I was interested in seeing how the author portrays and expands upon Daisy, Jordan, and Catherine.

This sadly wasn't the perfect book for me, but I did enjoy aspects of it. I loved learning more about these women and the writing was really good as well. It truly transports readers into the glitz and glamor of the 1920's. My biggest complaint was the murder mystery and detective aspect, because I don't think it was necessary or that it tied in well with the other plots. Also, I liked the rotating POV's, but it made me feel disconnected to the characters at times.

Overall, I enjoyed the book but didn't love it. I recommend it for fans of the original book and historical fiction.

Thank you to @HarperPerennial and #NetGalley for the digital ARC of #beautifullittlefools. The opinions expressed here are entirely my own.

The Great Gatsby is one of my favorite books, so this retelling from the perspective of the women in the story was right up my alley. You get the backstory for Daisy Fay Buchanan, Jordan Baker, Myrtle Wilson and Cathy McCoy. Plus a different take on the men in the story - especially Jay Gatsby and Tom Buchanan.

I really enjoyed this alternate view on a beloved classic.