If you love The Great Gatsby, you’ll want to read Beautiful Little Fools! As a lover of Gatsby since high school English class, I was so intrigued by this novel telling the story from the view of the women of Gatsby. The novel follows Daisy, Jordan Baker, Myrtle and Catherine (Myrtle’s sister). I loved learning more about each of these women and their lives before the summer of The Great Gatsby, as imagined by Jillian Cantor. The novel was almost more heartbreaking reading it from the woman’s perspective, especially Daisy, as opposed to the original. This is a fantastic historical novel for all fans of The Great Gatsby!

This was hauntingly beautiful. It was so sad and desperate and hopeless, watching Daisy and Jordan and Catherine's lives crashing down around them. I couldn't look away.

The structure was brilliant, getting each of the women's perspective as their lives slowly intertwined and tangled around one another. Adding brief interjections from the detective trying to solve the case of Gatsby's murder was brilliant as well, heightening the tension as the lies mounted up.

I've always thought the Great Gatsby was a beautiful and tragic story, but getting Jay's story through Nick wasn't nearly so tragic as this. Nick's perspective was that of an outsider looking in at a gin-soaked world of parties. Daisy and Jordan and Catherine had so much more depth to them, because women, even rich women, had so much less power than the men.

I was riveted the entire time I read, drawn in to the darkly glittering world, but drawn in the most because of Daisy and Jordan and Catherine's humanity. They felt so real, so alive, so timeless.

I was bracing myself the entire time, waiting for the final crash at the end, but Jillian Cantor managed to infuse it with just a touch of hope and made me love it all the more for how unexpected it was.

This is a story I will be reading again and recommending to all my friends.

*Thanks to NetGalley and Harper Perennial for providing an e-arc for review.

It's been a long time since I've read The Great Gatsby, and Beautiful Little Fools by Jillian Cantor brings it all back and such a unique and interesting way! Dare I say, even more interesting than the original? Beautiful Little Fools retells the classic story from the female perspective, centering on Daisy, Jordan and Catherine (Myrtle's sister). And the female characters are more complex, more beautiful and a lot less foolish than one would believe in reading Fitzgerald's version. The story is a mix of events leading up to Jay Gatsby's death with an investigator that can't shake the case afterward. I left with the same feelings towards the men of the book that Fitzgerald portrayed. However, the insights of the women, who Fitzgerald treated as marginal characters brought so much more to the story. A re-read of the Great Gatsby is definitely in my future with a new perspective.
Thank you, Net Galley and Harper Perennial, for the advanced copy for my review.

Thank you to NetGalley, Jillian Cantor, and Harper Perennial for allowing me to read an ARC of Beautiful Little Fools! The Great Gatsby is one of my all time favorite books so when I read the description for this retelling, I was all in.

This is a story about Jay Gatsby who is found dead floating in the pool. At first, the police believe this is a murder- suicide but soon three women become the main suspects due to a diamond hairpin being found by the pool.

This is an excellent retelling of the original story and provides a female’s perspective into the original classic.

I love Cantor’s writing style! She writes with such emotion and vividness. I highly recommend this story to anyone who loves The Great Gatsby or loves an atmospheric storyline that is engaging from page one.

Mark your calendars and preorder this fantastic book now! This is the feminist murder mystery retelling of THE GREAT GATSBY that you never knew you needed.

It’s 1917, and Daisy Buchanan is enamored with a young soldier named Jay who is stationed in Louisville, KY. After a whirlwind romance, Jay ships out and asks Daisy to wait for him. We all know what happens next — five years go by and Daisy is married to Tom Buchanan, living in affluent East Egg on Long Island. And Jay has reinvented himself and made a fortune, enough to buy a mansion of his own across the water in West Egg. There, he hosts opulent parties every night in the hopes that it will draw Daisy back to him.

That’s the version we all know. But this book is told from the points-of-view of Daisy, her best friend Jordan Baker, and Catherine, sister to Myrtle. The lives of these women are bound together by the tragic events of that summer in 1922. A detective is investigating the mysterious murders of Myrtle, Gatsby, and Myrtle’s husband George — the discovery of a diamond-encrusted hairpin at the scene of the crime points to a different suspect altogether.

Through rotating POV chapters, we follow the three women trying to navigate the repressive and patriarchal society of 1920s America and find happiness, in spite of the controlling men around them. This book is fantastic, reminding me of some of Beatriz William’s historical fiction with a hearty dash of murder mystery. This book had me rethinking everything about THE GREAT GATSBY and I loved the characters so much. That’s how you know it’s a good book— I ended up liking Daisy!

Preorder your copy of this book now. I think you’re going to love it, old sport 😉

A thousand thanks to NetGalley, Harper Perennial, and Jillian Cantor for the ARC in exchange for my honest review!

“Beautiful Little Fools,” by Jillian Cantor is a retelling of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby” through the perspective of the following female characters: Daisy Buchanan, Gatsby’s love interest, whom she first met in her hometown of Louisville during the war, and then reencounters on Long Island where he has bought a house to win her back from her husband, Tom Buchanan; Jordan Baker, Daisy’s childhood friend, who during the summer of 1922 stays with Daisy and Tom at their East Egg house across the sound from Gatsby; Myrtle Wilson, Tom’s mistress, a poor woman in an abusive relationship with her husband George; and Catherine McCoy, Myrtle’s sister, who lives in New York City and is trying to free Myrtle from her abusive relationship. In “Beautiful Little Fools,” all four women have some connection to Jay Gatsby, which causes them to despise him.

The novel has an explosive start with a woman shooting Gatsby at the pool, instead of Myrtle’s husband, George, as was told in the Great Gatsby. When Detective Frank Charles investigates Gatsby’s murder, the evidence strongly suggests that George killed Gatsby and then later went into the woods and killed himself. But neither Detective Frank Charles, nor Gatsby’s friend and business partner, Meyer Wolfsheim, believes that George killed Gatsby. After the case is officially closed, Wolfsheim hires Detective Charles to investigate further. The only evidence found at the scene was a diamond stick pin.

I have loved the Great Gatsby since I first read the book after seeing the movie version starring Robert Redford. Therefore, when I read the description of “Beautiful Little Fools,” I was intrigued, but a little skeptical since many “retellings” of classics are never as good as the original. I was overjoyed to find that my misgivings were entirely without foundation. “Beautiful Little Fools” is an intricately plotted tale with well drawn characters, lyrical prose and intelligent, meaningful dialog, which vividly evokes the time period of World War I and the early twenties. It was one of those books that you love so much, you find yourself searching through a list of the author’s previous works so that you can read them as well. I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves well-plotted historical fiction with beautiful prose and well drawn characters, which includes a bit of mystery.

If you're a fan of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, this novel definitely needs to be on your list. Cantor reimagines the story from a different vantage point, with POV chapters from Daisy Buchanan, Jordan Baker, and a new character Charlotte, who is Myrtle Wilson's sister, newly arrived in New York and desperate to get Myrtle away from what she perceives is an abusive marriage to George and a ill-advised affair with Tom Buchanan. The novel's premise is loosely organized around the question of who REALLY shot Jay Gatsby (assuming it's not George) and to that end, there's a policeman hanging around asking questions of all three ladies. Nick Carraway makes an appearance as do many of our favorite scenes (Daisy and Jordan's floating dresses, Daisy's discover of Tom's affair, the fatal car accident in the yellow Rolls) but this time it's seen from a female-centric gaze and that turns the whole story on its head. Fascinating premise well executed. I read it in a day.

I enjoyed hearing the female version of Gatsby, especially from that time period. There were a few plots that seemed far fetched, but the attention to detail in this book is wonderful.

Having never read The Great Gatsby (I know, mortal sin), I found this book to be quite good. I liked the character development, and the drama (lies, scandal, murder), and the wonderful setting of the 20’s. It has intrigued me enough to want to pick up Gatsby to do a full comparison. Until that time though I give this 4 stars.

In August 1922, Jay Gatsby is found dead in his swimming pool. The lead detective refuses to be fooled by three beautiful suspects. He has nothing to lose and is further induced with a monetary incentive from yet another shady character to solve the case. Daisy Buchanan is beautiful, smart and was raised as a proper Southern Belle. Long ago, Gatsby was her first love. Now she hides behind her cheating, lying husband Tom. Jordan Baker is Daisy’s lifelong best friend and confidant. She is a golf superstar and secretly having a love affair with another female player on the team. Jordan would do anything for Daisy - but the question is whether she will sacrifice herself for the truth. Catherine McCoy fled to NYC in hopes of starting a new life fighting for women’s rights and freedoms both voting and sexual. She will do anything to protect her sister from an abusive marriage and stop at nothing to transform her future. In this reimagining of the literary classic The Great Gatsby, it is the women who finally take center stage. Filled with the swanky jazz age, romance gone wrong and the women’s suffrage movement - Beautiful Little Fools brings it all back to life. This original delightful reinvention of our favorite characters is absolutely unputdownable. A must read for 2022!

I was really excited about the promise of this one, but to my mind it didn't deliver quite what I was hoping for... Rather than a reimagining, or recasting of characters, large swaths of this were more properly described as a retelling of Gatsby, in plainer and less metaphorical language.

I was most interested in the female perspective component, since the women in the original book are mostly sidelines designed to justify or amplify the men's actions, but found the presentations of them to be almost as flat (albeit in a different way) as the originals. They still felt like stereotypes, just more fleshed out. It The story didn't explain their motivations, it just told me what they were (if that makes any sense), and it was oddly unsatisfying as a result...

The magical lyricism of Fitzgerald's story, with its metaphors and allegorical symbolism (yes, green light at the end of the dock, I'm talking to you), turns out to have been a significant part of the magic of the original for me, because its noticeable lack here really struck me. This one is a lot more straightforward, and that made the story a lot less engaging and magical for me. I just never felt that spark here - it was fine, just not what I was hoping it would be. If read as a stand-alone, without a long-time love of the original, it's probably a more enjoyable read- but for me, it didn't quite hit the mark I wanted it to.

Another beautifully written story by Jillian Canter.I was immediately swept into the world of the women of Gatsby.A prequel that explains s much reveals the strength of these women,I was so involved could not put it down.A novel I will be recommending and an author I always recommend.#netgalley #harperperennial.

"Gatsby" has been one of my favorite books since high school, so no way was I going to pass up a "sequel" of sorts that tells the story of what happened to Daisy, Jordan, and Myrtle's sister after the tragic ending of "The Great Gatsby". It was everything I needed it to be. As for the title, I loved it, though it frustrates me now knowing that the original quote was something that Fitzgerald ripped off from his wife, Zelda. That however is a story for another day. The cover is gorgeous and this might be one of my new favorites.

I enjoyed Beautiful Little Fools and I would consider it a companion novel to The Great Gatsby. In fact, a few times I wished I had reread Gatsby before reading this one. It is a great look at the story from the perspective of the women involved. They are no longer minor characters. I also appreciated the details about Louisville as I currently live in the area. I know that The Great Gatsby is required reading in most schools and I would love to see Beautiful Little Fools added as well. What a great chance to explore the bigger picture.

I LOVED THIS BOOK.

In an age of binge-watching and Google, it always feels nearly impossible NOT to feed ones curiosity about most topics. As someone who has been a HUGE fan of Gatsby for decades, I've always wanted MORE of the story but sadly without many outlets for such information. Of course the "Leonardo movie" was all the rage a few years back and I do feel it did great justice to Fitzgerald's story, I appreciated the perspective of Beautiful Little Fools even more.

This story was the perfect complement to the original and I loved the feminist approach to the three main characters: Daisy, Jordan and Catherine (Myrtle's sister). It was kind of like reimagining a Disney fairytale (or even the newer movies) where the ultimate goal of the story is not always ROMANTIC love. There is something more there: strength, freedom, friendship. Damsels in distress don't need to be saved; they need to know how to save theirselves! And this book did just that for its main characters.

Thank you so much for writing this story, Jillian Cantor! I will absolutely be adding a copy to my shelf.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley and am voluntarily posting a review. All opinions are my own.

Beautiful Little Fools is a reimagining of The Great Gatsby, but instead centering the women of the classic novel and injecting a murder mystery into the plot. While I haven’t read the original classic, I feel this book worked well on its own, while also working to respond to the issues I had on hearing about the book in passing, one major one being the emphasis on the male characters. Jillian Cantor, by bringing the women center stage as more than just accessories or forbidden desires of the men, unpacks the issues of the women in the 1920s, grappling with the mix of tradition and progress that highlighted women’s roles at the time.

I loved the pacing of this, interspersing between a detective investigating the suspicious murder-suicide of Gatsby and George Wilson and the events of leading up to and chronicling the summer prior that make up the original novel. Each of the women is incredibly compelling. Both Daisy and Myrtle are used by the men in their life, and feel pressured to stay in marriages or relationships that are unhappy for their own safety or comfort, and I love the irony of how the connection between them was further unpacked beyond what I heard it was in the original novel.

I also love that you get the two single women, Catherine and Jordan, as a contrast, to show the limitations women had. Jordan has some prospects with her golf career, but even that is called into question. And Catherine, who to my understanding, is an original character created for the book, is an objective voice on her sister Myrtle’s dire situation, especially when she can no longer speak for herself.

While I already had reason to dislike the men of The Great Gatsby (Nick excepted, by virtue of him being boring), I found myself loathing them by the end of this one. I didn’t blame any of the women for wanting to kill Gatsby, and was shocked when I found out who did it, especially when I thought things fell into place just a few pages prior, especially when all the pieces for the supposed “murder-suicide” came together at the end.

This book is fabulous, and I’d recommend it whether you’ve read The Great Gatsby or not.

One hot August day during the summer of 1922, Jay Gatsby is shot dead in his West Egg swimming pool. It appears to be an open and shut case of murder/suicide when the body of George Wilson, a local mechanic, is found in the woods nearby. Wilson supposedly went there and shot Gatsby, after Jay did a hit-and-run that killed George's wfe, Myrtle. Then a diamond hairpin is discovered in the bushes by the pool, and three women fall under suspicion. Each holds a key that can unlock the truth to the mysterious life and death of this enigmatic millionaire. Daisy was once in love with Jay and planned to marry him..... until her family was torn apart by a terrible tragedy and she was forced to find a wealthy man to marry...which unfortunately landed her into the arms of the philandering Tom Buchanan. Daisy's best friend Jordan Baker has a secret that she has been keeping, and Jay not only discovered it, but was threatening to expose Jordan if she didn't help him win Daisy back. Catherine McCoy, Myrtle Wilson's sister wants to avenge her sister's death.
This book was excellent. I was drawn in and felt like I was there, living in the 1920's among the Gatsby's and the Buchanans on West Egg. I was completely engrossed and did not want to put the book down for anything. This may be my new favorite book by this author. I highly recommend this reimagining of "The Great Gatsby". I think you will love it as much as I did.

I enjoy prequels and familiar stories told from a different point of view (especially if it's a female point of view), so I was excited to read this book. I did enjoy the prequel part. The origin stories presented here seemed pretty in keeping with what I remembered of the characters from The Great Gatsby. That changed when the events of this book caught up to the ones in the original, though. Neither Daisy nor Jay seemed much like the characters in the original story. I accepted that to a point since in The Great Gatsby we only got to know the characters from Nick's point of view. However, I felt the author's interpretation of the characters was only possible because a couple things that were said/done in the original were left out here. That didn't set too well with me.

It seemed that the author tried to provide a more satisfying ending to the story, which I appreciated, but again, it didn't seem quite consistent with the characters from the original.

Thank you to NetGalley for the early read.

Even though this book doesn't come out until 2022, it is definitely one of my top reads of 2021. I love The Great Gatsby (book & both movies), so I was thrilled to read this adaptation that tells the reimagined perspective of the women from the famous story. The book was very transportive and atmospheric, I was hooked from page one. The author's take on what happened at the end of The Great Gatsby, along with the creation of the women's (Daisy, Jordan, Myrtle, and Catherine [Myrtle's sister]) backstories were exactly what I could have seen happening, I would love to see this book adapted into another movie, or a short series on streaming, because it is so well written and is a side of the story that is begging to be told.


I received this eBook free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

***Spoilers for F. Scott’s Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby” included in review, just in case***

I’m a big fan of literature that takes place in the 1920s and a fan of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic, “The Great Gatsby”. But, Fitzgerald was a middle-aged white guy writing about the events unfolding during the summer of 1922 in West Egg from the POV of unreliable narrator Nick Carroway… the females in Fitzgerald’s story (like most things in that book) were either inconsequential or metaphors.

“Beautiful Little Fools” takes the narrative out of the hands of the males and puts it into the hands of the female characters: Daisy, Jordan, Myrtle, and Catherine. Mixed into a switched-up first-person POV that bounces between the past and the present (and with a police detective who’s been hired off the books to find out the truth of who really killed Jay Gatsby added in to provide a devil’s advocate voice to the book), these four women all become fully fleshed-out and realized people who aren’t just metaphors or background noise in some middle-aged white male’s book.

This is definitely a character-driven novel. And I have mixed feelings about that, because I think it’s missing a lot of ambiance and atmosphere it sorely needed. The book takes place in the 20’s (for the most part), but it doesn’t feel like a novel that takes place in the 1920s. Where I felt this the most was in the dialogue. The characters, save maybe Jay Gatsby himself (with a few pithy bon mots), don’t speak in the vernacular of the 1920s. And in a dialogue-heavy novel, it really sticks out.

But the characters, oh, they work. They work so well. Seeing them whole is to see them broken. Daisy with her cold grief and emptiness, Jordan with her quiet fears and cynicism, Myrtle and her desperation, and Catherine with her unflinching pessimism and anger.

If you love all things 1920s, you might be a little put-off by the anachronisms or the lack of depth. But if you loved “The Great Gatsby” and might want another lens to look at the work through, this is a great book to read. Definitely worth the time.