This book is hard to review. On the surface, <em>Self-Made Boys</em> has EVERYTHING I normally love:

☑️ lgbtq+ rep, specifically trans, gay, and lesbian
☑️ retelling of an old story but taking out the 'cis white' narrative the original american canon has
☑️ mostly-romantic HEA
☑️ we all read the original book, right? we all knew nick was obsessed with gatsby, right?
☑️ that COVER

But... alas, while Anna-Marie McLemore is a good writer, and I was genuinely impressed with some of the prose, I'm not this is a story that can be told for a YA audience and with so few pages.. There are just too many things to tie up, and the nature of the YA genre doesn’t lend itself to this source material very easily.

There were two things that AMA did well: the way that gender and sexual orientation was approached in this novel was stellar, and the "soft" romance element was very present.

<b>CAUTION: SPOILERS AHEAD</b>

On the other hand… Borrowing some phrasing from AMA's author's note at the end of the novel, here -- while this is a "window" novel for me, in that I will never share the life experience of a non-white, non-cis person (thus, it's only a window into their experiences) like the character's AMA is writing about, I felt like the depth that a YA can explore more complex themes is usually deeper than <em>Self-Made Boys</em> offers.
Plenty of YA novels have explored these themes in great and meaningful detail, but I felt like aside from the obvious gross comments made by Tom (and Nick’s bosses), a lot of the potential discussion was glossed over until Nick could have his big stand-up-for-himself moment. Is this because <em>Self-Made Boys</em> is YA and AMA wanted to focus more on the love story, or because AMA didn't plan to go that hard in a novel with this small page count? I don't know -- the only other work of AMA's I've read is the short story "Roja" in [b:All Out: The No-Longer-Secret Stories of Queer Teens throughout the Ages|35140599|All Out The No-Longer-Secret Stories of Queer Teens throughout the Ages|Saundra Mitchell|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1514494195l/35140599._SY75_.jpg|53278915].

Maybe I'm missing the mark here, but I can't help but wonder what more we could have gotten if this novel had been longer.

I don't know; I really don't know 🤷

(Also: Gatsby is not believably 19 in this novel. Nick is not believable 17. None of the characters are believably teenagers because too many of the original Gatsby elements were kept to make their younger ages make sense).

I got this book as an e-arc from Macmillan Children's as always my thoughts are mine.
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Forget everything you know about The Great Gatsby this is as the book said a remix. Self-Made Boys follows Nicky Caraveo, a 17-year-old Transgender boy from Wisconsin who isn't used to the Glitz and Glamour that is New York. With an invitation from his cousin Daisy, Nicky sees this as an opportunity to provide for his family. As Nicky is pulled further into the decadence he meets Jay Gatsby, someone with secrets of his own.
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When I think of Great Gatsby I will only think of this version. This book was amazing I will admit it took me a good first part of the book to get into it cause it does move slowly at least to me, other than that I really loved the twist she put on the original characters instead of making Nick and Daisy she makes them people of color specifically of Hispanic descent which really plays on what the current racial and social standard was during the 1920s.
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The relationships in this story were my favorite part of the story and I wish I could go into them without spoiling the story but take my word for it they are the best part of the story. So if you wanted Gatsby with a twist, this book is for you.

In the early 1920s, Nicolás Caraveo, a 17-year-old transgender boy from Wisconsin, arrives in New York to start a new job and a new life. His cousin, Daisy, has encouraged his move, and even found him a place to stay -- a cottage in West Egg, across the water from where she is living in East Egg with her wealthy fiancé, Tom. When Nick gets to New York, he learns that things are often much different than he expected. Even Daisy has reinvented herself, with a new last name and a new background.

As Nick settles into his job, working a firm with co-workers from a much different background from him, and the other parts of his life, he finds it is often an awkward fit, especially the parties thrown by his neighbor, Jay Gatsby, that he invited to attend. Despite their seeming differences, Nick is drawn to Jay and the two soon strike up a friendship that, for Nick, soon evolves to something more -- just as the secrets that Jay, Daisy, and others are hiding threaten to come to light and disturb the lives they have so carefully constructed

This is a perceptive and creative reimaging of The Great Gatsby. From the foundation of that story, the author creates something fresh and compelling with well-drawn characters and a fast-paced narrative.

Highly recommended!

This was a great, no, excellent "re-imagining" of the classic Gatsby story. Full of diversity, love, and sending a great message, SELF-MADE BOYS bleeds queerness from the page and sends a clear message: classics all deserve a remix.

Let me start this off by stating that I was inherently biased going into this, for a few reasons: I love, love, LOVE “The Great Gatsby” and can quite literally talk about it and analyze it for hours (and have written several literary criticism papers on the book already), so it’s an automatic add to my tbr list when I see a Great Gatsby retelling, and then when I found out it was QUEER and written by Anna-Marie McLemore?!? SIGN ME UP

(Not to mention that I’ve been on the “Nick was in love with Gatsby the whole time” train forever lol)

McLemore crafts such beautiful, real stories, with authentic LGBTQ+ and Latin American representation, and Self-Made Boys is no exception. It’s the Fitzgerald story that everyone loves, but with a fresh infusion of romance, identity, and all of the glamour of the original. It’s a great remix of the classic.

Since most people who read this are already going to know the general plot of the Great Gatsby before picking this up, I just want to highlight some of the major places where Self-Made Boys really changes up that traditional narrative— don’t worry, no spoilers :)

-Nick is short for Nicolás Caraveo; Latin-American AND trans & LGBTQ+ representation!!
-Daisy, his cousin, has changed her last name from Fabrega to Fay and has erased all signs of her Latine heritage to pass seamlessly as white
-Jay Gatsby is also trans!!

And even though I’m heavily biased, Self-Made Boys was an incredible read and a great twist on the original Great Gatsby. If you’re like me and love the Great Gatsby, definitely pick this one up, and even if you didn’t care about the original Great Gatsby, you won’t be able to stay away from this glittering gem.

I love the retelling of classic literature to be more inclusive! McLemore has turned one of the books I didn't like reading in literature class into something I want all my friends to read. She has turned a story of frivolous opulence into a heart warming story of two young men in love! If you like the House on the Cerulean Sea, I recommend this for your next read.

Self-Made Boys is a beautifully done retelling that I can't wait to share with others! This is a beautiful queer retelling of The Great Gatsby that keeps in line with the story's original themes, but unlike the original, the main characters are not cis or white. I have really been enjoying reading this "Remix" collection that basically takes characters you would typically find in the background of classic stories(or omitted altogether) and centers the retelling around their journey. In doing this, marginalized communities will be able to see representation of their race, ethnicity, or sexuality in the classic stories they may have been assigned to read for homework(or for pleasure) but never saw themselves represented in the forefront.
*I received an advanced readers copy from NetGalley for free and am leaving this review voluntarily*

Thank you to Fierce Reads and Netgalley for an arc of this one!

Great Gatsby remix with two trans leads? Umm....yes! Written by one of my all time favorite authors, Anna-Marie McLemore? Double yes. Also includes a sapphic relationship??? YES.

I am so happy I was lucky enough to be able to listen to this in advance. I preordered this one way back before it even had a cover because I am a simp for anything McLemore writes. I was not at all disappointed with this one!

Nick and Jay are so perfect. T4T romance and discussions of race and the whole title Self-Made Boys being used for trans boys and everything everything everything about this retelling. The Great Gatsby is one of those books that I absolutely loved reading years ago but looked back on and saw all the problems with it, so it is so incredibly nice to be able to read something that takes so much of what I love from the classic and updates it in a way that is thoughtful and meaningful. McLemore's voice is beautiful and elegant as always.

Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny, Racism, and Transphobia
Moderate: Infidelity, Violence, and Homophobia
Minor: Car accident and War

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for an ARC of this book.

When I was an English teacher, The Great Gatsby, was often on my syllabus. I know the source material as well as a teacher can after teaching it for more than a decade.

McLemore took the source material and reimagined it into this gorgeous remix. I saw the echoes of the source materials that they purposely plants in their own imagining. Fans of the Fitzgerald will likely delight in the nods to the original and find the new plot refreshing. It wasn't the same story, yet it absolutely captured the heart of the original.

Readers who come to this story with no knowledge of the Fitzgerald novel will enjoy the web of characters. Daisy will infuriate, but also evoke sympathy. Tom is a terrible brute--and he will be hated. Readers will likely be propelled through the novel hoping that the brute gets his just desserts and the sympathetic characters get something--some joy.

I cannot wait to add this book to our library.

This book was beautiful. Personally, I love the Great Gatsby, and was incredibly excited to pick up this retelling. It did not disappoint. The bountiful representation felt easy and natural, especially for younger readers who only know of the original Gatsby. Daisy, a character that I found aggravating in the original, had me rooting for her from page one. The way that this book diverges from the original is wonderful, and well written. All in all, I will be recommending this book to everyone, and I will definitely be purchasing it for my library.

I am so glad Gatsby is out of copyright because then you get THIS! Such a fun retelling with BETTER love stories. It was great! Love it!

I received a complimentary copy of this book through NetGalley. The opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Self-Made Boys is a book I can not wait to share with students - but mainly the eighth graders I work with. It is a beautiful queer retelling of Gatsby that perfectly balances the themes of the original - class, identity, mental illness, and modern issues. Unlike the original, are characters are not cis or white. Instead, we explore so many identities that have always been present in America and will make young readers feel seen. This story puts characters that live in the background of classics in the forefront, creating a story full of empathy, depth, and diversity. It feels as honest and as lovely as all of McLemore's work but honors the original beautifully.

While I do think this would work better for readers who have read the original, I think it has an audience of readers who have no interest in it. I like the original Gatsby, and I will encourage my students to read it, but I know they will find more value in the representation this story provides. I would love to see how readers experienced both stories, and dive into the difference in the issues tackled in them. Overall, I will recommend this to my older students and perhaps use it in a retelling library display.

I was expecting more of a beat-for-beat retelling of The Great Gatsby, and this wasn’t that. That said, I ended up really enjoying it! Fans of The Great Gatsby may find themselves disappointed at first, but I urge them to stick with it and follow this new direction. I did feel there were some themes in the original that were misrepresented in Self-Made Boys, and that did bother me, but the rest of the book is enjoyable enough that I didn’t care so much about the misses.

This was a wonderful re-imagining. A story full of pinning, mystery, queer awakenings, misunderstandings, and racial inequalities, Self-Made boys knocks it out of the park! The romance was, at times, bitter-sweet; set against 1920's glamorous New York and the constant desire to achieve the American Dream. I also appreciated the added conflict Nick and Daisy's Latinex heritage added to the story as two people experiencing their shared heritage in vastly different ways. Self-Made Boys was a unique retelling of a classic story that I enjoyed immensely.

Thank you to NetGalley and Feiwel Friends for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

When I learned about Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby going into the public domain, the first thing that came to mind was the hope that someone would write a retelling (or remix in this case) where Nick and Jay fall in love. In this novel, Anna-Marie McLemore does that and so much more. They have given us the most beautiful queer reimagining of The Great Gatsby.

While it is set in the 20s, doesn’t exactly have “period-typical queerphobia.” It’s not entirely absent, as evidenced by Nick’s surprise about the acceptance and presence of queerness in the people around him, but McLemore puts the readers in something of a queer bubble through most of the story, allowing queer joy to wash over us despite the time period.

Though we don’t see overt discrimination against trans and queer people, the same cannot be said of racism. With several Latine characters, the author does not shy away from representing what the life of a brown person of the time would look like.

And it all comes down to the language. The stories and experiences of race, transness, and queerness are written with such care. There are so many lines in this book that I know are just going to stick with me for a long time. The writing is absolutely beautiful, and to me, is up to par with the original’s flowery prose.

Still, McLemore is not faithful to the source material, taking many departures. The original is more of a loose outline that they take pieces from and it makes the book all the better.

The plot itself is very compelling. I was so captivated, and though I did fall into a reading slump at the beginning of reading this book (through no fault of the book!), I devoured most of it in two days.

I also loved all the characters (except Tom). Nick is just as much of an unreliable narrator in this as in the original due to his obliviousness. Jay’s character is slowly built up as Nick learns about him and you can’t help but love this wonderful man as you learn as well. Daisy is an enigma and so deceptively smart.

This book made me laugh, tear up, and just made me so so happy. All in all, though I enjoy the original, I would take McLemore’s Self-Made Boys over Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby any day. Please read this book, I cannot recommend it enough.

This is absolutely fantastic! I reread the original book last summer and while I appreciated it and was glad to read it as an adult, I wasn't wowed by it, mainly because I wasn't a fan of most of the characters, especially Daisy. But the way McLemore has reimagined these characters works so well.

Let's start with Daisy. She's still not the most likable of characters and seems most concerned about outward appearances. The way she invites Nick to stay with her in NY, but then immediately disowns him and passes him off as the son of her family's maid raises red flags immediately. But when you read some of her letters and you learn more about her family, you know she's a girl who is just trying to do the best she can. But McLemore has the ability to paint her as a flawed, but sympathetic character. I liked her way better in this book than in the original.

Nick as a brown transgendered person with a head for math was so perfect. I always wondered if he might like Gatsby in a romantic way (especially in my most recent rereading), so McLemore's portrayal of him worked so well. I loved the friendship he formed with Jordan, who was another character who was way more interesting and likable in this version than in the original.

I also loved what McLemore did with Gatsby and he was much more of a presence in this book than in the original. I remember thinking in my reread that for all that the book is titled The Great Gatsby, the original story was much more about Nick than it was about Gatsby. I liked Martha and their business arrangements, but I don't remember if there was a Martha in the original.

The ending was so perfect! Tom was a spoiled and entitled pig and he deserved everything he got.

This is one remake where I loved it more than the original. Sorry, Fitzgerald.

I received an advance review copy from NetGalley for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. This book is being published on September 6, so look for it in a bookstore or library near you. I will definitely be doing a reread.

I went back and forth with this book a little bit. There were so so many things about this book I loved, though there were still a few things I didn’t.

I have never read The Great Gatsby, but from reading this, I’m pretty sure I won’t ever choose to read it, assuming that I won’t like it much. What I DID like about this remixed retelling was how it was different from what the original seems to be. I loved Nick and his story. I loved him so much. He was so kind and sweet, coming to New York from small farm town Wisconsin. I loved the background he comes from and how he is living his truth as a boy.

Daisy made me crazy! She just made me angry at almost every turn. And the relationship and the interactions between Gatsby and Daisy compared to Gatsby and Nick confused me, though I don’t want to reveal too much in my review.

I loved the discussions about prejudices; racism and classism, and queerness in this book. All in all this felt like a 3.5 star rated book in which I am rounding up to 4 stars.

A queer retelling of classic stories is always an easy sell for me. A queer retelling of the Great Gatsby did not need any selling to get me on board, especially when written by Anna-Marie McLemore who has yet to turn out something I didn't enjoy.

Nicolás Caraveo, a seventeen year old trans boy, goes to New York City to follow a chance at sending financial support to his family and the chance to live his life as young man amongst those who have never known as anything else. When Nick arrives he finds that his cousin Daisy has been living her life as a white woman in East Egg, erasing her Latina heritage and family connection to Nick to do so. As Nick is introduced to the world of East and West Egg, he is also drawn into the optimistic and glittering world of Jay Gatsby and his parties that are designed to draw the attention of one neighbor in particular - Daisy. With Jay and his friends, Nick sees the comfort and joy of queer folks living openly amongst themselves.

There is a special place in my life for the Great Gatsby and the very different views queer folks have had on it from how it was taught in high school. The claiming of Nick was never a stretch. Moving the book to a truly queer lens gave all the opulence and pressures of identity the context the original does not hold for me. As always the kindness that McLemore offers their characters makes the novel sparkle. They are given the space to be messy and emotional and true. There is a softness to McLemore's writing that pairs so beautiful with the Great Gatsby as a setting. But they do not shy from the cruel side of Fitzgerald's world, and that balance of the beauty and opulence and determination and costs really makes this retelling as special as it is.

Included as a top pick in bimonthly September New Releases post, which highlights and promotes upcoming releases of the month (link attached)

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley and am voluntarily posting a review. All opinions are my own.
It’s a tough competition, but Self-Made Boys is now one of my favorites among the current Remixed Classics lineup. It perfectly reimagines a tragic, sometimes problematic classic, adding layers to the characters, along with an infusion of queerness and exploration of Latine identity.
I love the dual meaning to the title, both exploring the loaded term of being “self-made” in an economic sense and the idea of young trans teens being able to define themselves as “self-made” in a more literal sense. But Anna-Marie McLemore also clarifies the importance of one’s community to build you up when it comes to both types of “self-made” people, and that’s expressed very well in the relationships among the characters.
Where Nick may have been more of a passive, admiring observer, while Gatsby is the flashy protagonist in the more traditional rendition, both get their time to shine here. McLemore builds on the implied sexual tension between the two, a pure love in the midst of the decadence around them, amplified by the similarities they share beneath their surface-level differences.
Daisy is always something of a controversial character, and McLemore utilizes that well. She’s still somewhat bored by the decadence around her, but she’s also trying to keep up with it, including attempting to pass as white, abandoning her Latine heritage (which is initially a shock to Nick). However, there’s more to her than meets the eye, and much more to her long-lasting connection with Gatsby as well.
Given the darker bent to the original, I appreciate how McLemore found a way to provide their characters with a more optimistic ending, while sticking close to the plot beats of the original. Being “self-made” further comes into play again toward the end, as the characters attempt to manipulate the narrative as it appears to the public.
This is a wonderful, sensitive retelling of the classic story, and will satisfy anyone who also sensed the lingering tension between Nick and Gatsby or who is looking for a more inclusive take on the story.