Daisy, Jordan, and Myrtle's sister Catherine share their own points of view in alternating chapters in the years leading up to (and through) the events of The Great Gatsby. A detective named Frank has chapters that take place right after Gatsby's murder (uh, spoiler?) as he tries to figure out who killed him and why.

I really loved the voices of all three women--two we are familiar with and one new. The struggle to define oneself as a woman is a prevalent theme explored throughout. I rooted for them and ached for them, while being incredibly impressed that Cantor created an original and believable backstory for a classic we know so well.

Nitpick: the story's language is very straightforward and plain, lacking Fitzgerald's dreamy nuance and stunning metaphors. These characters deserve a richly described world and I was missing that.

Still, Beautiful Little Fools is not to be missed. These characters are so close to my heart and I relish any opportunity to revisit them in a new and interesting way.

So many authors have tinkered with THE GREAT GATSBY, but most have failed, until Jillian Cantor. She got it right, very right, when she extrapolated the female stories from the novel. Oh, she made me reread GATSBY and helped me understand interesting new interpretations of the dynamics of the characters.

Her portrait of Jordan Baker was especially intriguing. It was perfectly written and made so much sense in light of the novel. I enjoyed placing the new Jordan in the novel. I loved the character of Catherine, since she was able to shed so much light on GATSBY.

Obviously, both this and the original are both fiction, there is no way to know the backstories of the characters, but Cantor has brought them to life.

I found this book hard to put down and I loved fleshing out even superficial characters in the book.

Thank you Netgalley for such a thought provoking novel.