calling this THE GREAT GATSBY retelling is a disservice to this book.

gorgeously written, LOCAL HEAVENS is a gay cyberpunk reimagining of THE GREAT GATSBY with the same familiar cast but each with fresh take and new agency. coming to this book initially, i had my reserve since it’s pretty much GATSBY, even with the prose—i think it was good, but it might not be a strength for a debut author, because now i keep wondering if it’s really her prose or it’s Fitzgerald’s. what really reeled me back was the massive world building, the way emotions werrle written so intimately, and the way Fajardo incorporated tech into this story we all know by heart and love so dearly. LOCAL HEAVENS derives off the main story toward the end to become its own thing, like they become Fajardo’s entirely.

i still think i’d have liked this book more if it had been set in the Philippines instead of New America. i loved the Filipino take to the story and wished she had run with it more. But overall, an impressive debut!!

3.5

Some people will love this book, but I am not one of them. The world-building shone, and I appreciate what was trying to be done with the thematic writing. I also loved the callbacks to the original Gatsby! However—I was not a fan of the prose, I felt I could’ve gotten more out of the characters, and the payoff for the romance, which I was so excited for, just did not work for me; that was honestly the biggest disappointment. I’ll be reading more of Kris’ work—I just came away feeling largely Meh about Local Heavens.

Thanks to NetGalley and Bindery Books/Inky Phoenix for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

A reimagining of The Great Gatsby with a cyberpunk twist. The world in this story feels alive, layered with meaning and emotion. It reflects the core themes of wealth, control, and personal identity in a way that feels both fresh and thoughtful. I hadn’t read the original Gatsby before this, but I was excited to dive into KM Fajardo’s take, and I was hooked from the start.

The MC, Nick, is observant, a little lost, and full of contradictions. That made him feel really real and added depth to the story. The rest of the characters are also complex. They're flawed, morally gray, and compelling. The mix of genre and emotion made this a unique read.

Fajardo’s writing is really good. I think it was emotional, layered, and full of intention.

This one’s perfect for fantasy and sci-fi fans. If you liked The Great Gatsby... but want a cyberpunk twist...this one is definitely for you

Thank you to Netgalley and Bindery Books for this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

“Aren’t we all just in love with the worst people?” I hate Tom with all my heart, but in this one line, he sums up Local Heavens' love square in one devastating swing.

Swathed in neon greens, pinks and blues, Local Heavens is the queer cyberpunk Gatsby story I didn’t know I needed. Fajardo builds a unique world that is still as close to the Roaring Twenties as it is to both the current landscape and the distant future, breathing new life into a classic tale about ambition and the so-called American Dream.

Local Heavens is a tribute and a great transformation, honouring its source material while carving out something wholly original with its reimaginings. With Nick, Jordan and Daisy being people of colour, they are given an extra layer of dimension that deepens their flaws and desires, making their interactions with Gatsby and Tom (as well as the wider world) all the more impactful. The prose is a perfect marriage of Fitzgerald’s languid decadence and Fajardo’s nostalgic yet contemporary lyricism, Walking alongside Nick, you feel his perspective stronger than ever as his fascination, his frustration, and his inevitable heartbreak bleeds through the page, and makes you wish for a 'happier' end to his story.

Fajardo never loses sight of the human story at its core, but there were moments I noticed myself glazing over the world-building amid the spectacle, which is likely a fault of my own. Still, Local Heavens is an ambitious and electrifying retelling, one that respects its origins while fearlessly forging ahead. It’s a love letter, a warning, and a neon-soaked fever dream all at once. If Fajardo's work is this strong now, then I can't wait to see what she has in store for the future.

I hadn’t read The Great Gatsby before getting into Local Heavens so I didn’t know all that much about what to expect and I’ll have to say I was pleasantly surprised! Honestly, I’m pretty sure I prefer this version than the classic. I love queerness.

The world building particularly was very engaging, it took me a while to get into it and understand it but that may be personal.

Nick was a very interesting character in the way that he didn’t have the personality of a "savior" and the standard hero persona of protagonists in dystopian-ish scenario. It was refreshing that the characters all felt very realistic, some rather morally grey or straight up bad people as well.

The romance was pretty well-written as well although somewhat questionable at times in my opinion but i won’t elaborate because I want to remain spoiler-free. It definitely got me very invested at times, I loved the tension.

Some parts of the book got me way more engaged than others which is why i didn’t give it a 5-star rating but it was definitely a read I will remember for a long time due to its originality.

Nice world building and an engaging story. Objectively a good book, would recommend, just not really my thing. Unfortunately, I didn't love the prose itself, and the book felt too long. But the futuristic themes were interesting and well-handled, and I loved the aesthetics of the world.

Read if: you love the Great Gatsby, cyberpunk, or tragic love stories that will make you feel something

There's something about knowing the way a story ends and just hoping that maybe this time it will be different. The characters in this book were so amazing and the reimagining of their stories was so masterfully done. K.M Fajardo wrote those characters with so much love that I couldn't help but love them as well. The writing in this book was so good. There were so many sentences I wanted to annotate and I will absolutely be picking up a physical copy upon release just to have this on my shelves.

This story revisited and expanded on the themes of The Great Gatsby but also had so much more to say and to add, and I treasured every addition. The amount of work and passion that the author put into this book is evident. The cyberpunk elements were so well done and added so much to the story.

Without giving to much away, this book was great on so many levels but the relationship between Nick and Gatsby was the highlight for me. The building of their relationship was a masterclass in show don’t tell and has cemented Fajardo as an auto buy author for me.

Thank you to Netgalley and Bindery Books/Inky Phoenix Press for the e-ARC one exchange for an honest review. Review posted on Goodreads and rating posted on storygraph. Review linked on twitter.

3.75 stars!

I have many thoughts, most of them very positive! I can't say I needed a queer sci-fi retelling of The Great Gatsby in my life but I'm glad I live in a world where I can have it.

One day, corporate hacker Nick Carraway gets an unusually new assignment which leads him into the sparkling, new-money world of the mysterious Jay Gatsby. With massive dueling corporations looming over him and an increasingly chaotic social scene around him, Nick must navigate the tangled truths of the New York City elite even as he begins to fall for the man he's meant to be hunting. I'm one of the few people who were overachievers in English class in high school and don't like the original Great Gatsby. This, of course, is a lot more up my alley and even if I'm not a fan of the original, there were definitely points where I was excited to be reminded of it (I knew some gay shit was happening in that elevator!!). I have to applaud the writing because it is gorgeous and I like how fleshed out the setting was, even if some of the details of netdiving and the corporations kind of went over my head. The characters are all slightly more likable version of the ones in the original, except for Tom of course, but still have some grit and irrationality for flavor. One general downside of retellings is that the story ends up being pretty predictable, but I don't think most people mind that and there's enough added here that it doesn't feel beat-for-beat. The slow burn on Nick and Gatsby's relationship was great and I liked the little transcriptions between chapters. I think the messaging about class is a little heavy handed, but that's true even more so in the original in my opinion, so I'm not mad.

Admittedly, I think the premise of this book isn't really for me but it is really well executed. This is also the first book I've read from Bindery although I've been following them since day one, so I'm happy to be a part of a kind of publishing experiment, I think it's going great!

Thank you to K. M. Fajardo and Inky Phoenix Press for this ARC in exchange for my full, honest review!

Happy reading!

Finished this book and immediately had to go back to the first page and read it all over again because of how intimately this story touched my soul. The only way I can describe the feeling of reading this is that the entire time, it felt like an incorporeal wisp of greatness that I spent the entire time trying to grasp and never got close enough to it.

Local Heavens paints a gorgeous picture of the dark, unsavory truths of capitalism while also creating a complex sea of relationships that perfectly illustrate the deep desires of love and connection inherent to human nature. Fajardo's cyperpunk New Americas is a perfectly opulent and ghastly backdrop for a story that interrogates greed and capitalism, questioning what it means to benefit from a corrupt system and how much culpability we hold in the wake of it.

Truly, one of the few retellings that stands its own against the original source material.

Thank you, NetGalley for an arc! To start, as someone who has never read The Great Gatsby, (yes, I’m just as confused as you are, my English class’s reading material was different), but has seen the movie a million times and considers it a comfort favorite; this was a DELICIOUS (queer) retelling of the classic story—though I probably missed a few references but I’ll read the original (one day).

“Aren’t we all just in love with the worst people?” I hate that I’m quoting Tom but in this circumstance, this quote comes off as a faraway observation of the unlikely foursome that is Jay Gatsby, Daisy Buchanan, Nick Carraway, and Jordan Baker. The tragedy of it all, the woes of falling in love under a ruse and setting plans but the heart gets in the way, the longing in hopes for a different outcome! And all of it against the most unlikely backdrop—a cyberpunk future, which was a bit hard to chew in the beginning but the world-building was so lush and the high-tech was so cool, namely the ocular mods and that food simulation place (cannot get that whole sequence out of my head). The cyberpunk world building cranked the politics and power of the upper and lower class on high and it was very interesting to see the many ways NYC took a toll on Nick. 

Careful and awe-striking writing too, here’s a couple of my favorite quotes: “No, in fact, I’ve just left it all behind in search of a better beverage,”  (I do just love Nick and Jordan’s relationship in this book), “Because, Because, Because—”. 

All in all, as close as I was to giving this only 4.5 stars, I absolutely had to go five stars for this fantastic debut (first 5 star read of the year down 🙂‍↕️)! I will be running to get my physical copy when this is released! For some reason now, I want to rewatch La La Land just as much as I want to rewatch The Great Gatsby and that’s probably saying something.

This book was so beautifully well done. It’s a love letter to the past - it honors the original work with so much care and devotion. It’s a promise to the future - not only in the futuristic cyberpunk setting, but in a renewed interest in speculative sci-fi fiction that will undoubtedly blossom after it hits bookshelves. And it’s a gift to the present - because while it wrecks you, the reader, it does it in the best way possible. It’s gorgeous prose and enthralling 4th part will sit with me for days. I loved it, and I was not a huge fan of The Great Gatsby when I read it 25 years ago. This renewed my interest in the work; however, I’m also pretty sure that it won’t live up to the author’s incredible updates and twists. Loved it. Thank you to Bindery Books, Inky Phoenix Press, and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

New refreshing take on a classic story bright and vibrant writing. Different enough from the original that whole things are familiar it’s still a whole new story to get lost in. Our characters are both charming and complex. The world is also so interesting, being a this high tech future version of our world. It was a lot to take in at first, but the way it was written made it easy to understand. Overall a pleasure to read and I would highly recommend!

Local Heavens wrecked me, in the best way possible. The timing of this book couldn’t be any better. Fajardo took a risk on doing a retelling of a beloved classic and absolutely nailed it. In this revisiting of Gatsby, Fajardo’s writing stoked emotions I haven’t felt in a long time and though familiar with the original story, I questioned how everything would end. Fajardo’s Gatsby knows how to take large parties to the next level. Thank you for my digital ARC from NetGalley and Bindery Books/Inky Phoenix Press in exchange for an honest review. K.M. Fajardo is an author I will be eager to read again.

This book is the most stunning book that I have ever read.

First of all, the cover is magnificent, and the cover artist should get a raise for this one! That is what caught my eyes first, and I am glad It did!

Then, we have the story itself.

The world building is unique, and unlike anything that I have ever read before in my history of reading. Sci-fi can be a little hard to get into, but the author made it seem easy enough by explaining what needed to be known, when it needed to be known.

I came from the author's YouTube channel, and I can't believe that I got to read this story early. I will read this authors grocery list, and I will definitely be picking up her next work!

Thank you to Netgalley and to the publisher for an early copy.

Local Heavens is a queer reimagining of The Great Gatsby that blends sci fi elements with precise, evocative prose.

One of the most exciting parts of this for me (especially as a big reader and massive fan of the video game, Cyberpunk) was the world building. The cyberpunk elements melt into the story and carry the original sexiness of the jazz age forward - in addition to the contemporary issues of class, status, identity and corporate greed.

I also loved the diversification of the main character, Nick. He is Filippino-American and the inclusion of Filippino culture and language was very well done and added another layer of dimension to the character and world. This book brings new depth to the characters and relationships in the original Gatsby, and in doing so, K.M. Fajardo perfectly captures longing, tragedy and beauty.

This is the way a classic should be retold.
Many thanks to Netgalley, the publisher and K.M. Fajardo for this brilliant ARC.

What a book. What a glorious book. It really says a lot that a book that's a retelling of a story so familiar—and to me, beloved—could keep me up until three in the morning because I couldn't put it down for the last 30%.

Local Heavens is a cyberpunk retelling of The Great Gatsby, focusing on a Nick Carraway sent from Manila to New York City on behalf of his cousin, aiming to look into a mysterious cybertech CEO whose company is looking to pair with her family's—one Jay Gatsby.

Reader, I loved this book. I was set up for success with it—any queer retelling of Gatsby is always going to be a want-to-read for me, and this one was no different. The author, K.M. Fajardo, popped up on my TikTok feed with a video that had maybe 20 likes at the time pitching this book, and I instantly pursued the author on all social media to make sure I didn't miss a detail, including when it would be available here on NetGalley.

But my excitement for this book also set my expectations high—and Local Heavens surpassed them. For me, one of the grandest, and often overlooked themes of The Great Gatsby is the American Dream, and how the idea of it damaged so many along the way either in pursuit of it or loss of it. The cyberpunk aspect of this story and the destruction of our world in pursuit of wealth, creating a cavernous division between the have and have not, was so soulfully true to the original text. The author also did an incredible job matching the beats of Gatsby at their core while never feeling entirely beholden to the story.

As a lover of Nick Carraway, the way he was treated as a character—with such thoughtfulness and care, when often he's relegated to a piece of clay to serve whatever storytelling purpose—was thrilling, as was the depiction of all of the characters and their future interpretations. Jordan Baker was a highlight for me, and the way her and Nick's relationship in its various forms gave the book such a spirit. The subtle differences between them and the way they went about life represented both the reasons they cared for each other and the reasons they were, in the long run, incompatible.

Speaking of compatibility, the way the relationship between Nick and Gatsby was represented was... Perfect. I could use more eloquent words, but perfect is the right one. The way they foiled each other and made mistakes all on a journey of slow falling for one another, to the point where you hardly know where any of it began, was artful. Gatsby himself is a difficult man to write, and Fajardo does it with all of the passion of a fan of the original work and all of the creativity that the mastermind behind this novel requires.

The cyberpunk elements to the story were also presented in a way that was digestible, so I never had to spend a large amount of time trying to figure out what was going on with all of the tech—it came easy, with the world vivid in Farjardo's prose, allowing me to simply relish in the creative story and rich characters laid out in front of me.

I cannot wait to get my hands on a physical copy of this to annotate the life out of—thank you for the eARC of this beautiful book in exchange for my honest review.

PS: Extremely niche comparison but last summer I saw a musical version of The Great Gatsby at the ART in Boston, with music by Florence Welch, and haven't stopped thinking about it and its music since—this book is truly that adaptation's spiritual cousin. This comparison is for the niche crossover of people who will have watched and will read both.

A beautiful, rich book. It is artfully mysterious,yet introspective with layered characters and twists. The authors study of the original The Great Gatsby makes for an fulfilling retelling that can lure both Gatsby fans and sci-fi readers. I enjoyed the unique cyberpunk universe and can't wait to read more from K.M. Fajardo.

Local Heavens is one of those rare books that stops you in your tracks, again and again, with devastating lines and gut-punch twists. I usually tear through books in hours, but this one lingered—both in pace and in my mind long after.

The prose is lush, immersive, and electric, pulling you straight into the story, walking beside Nick Carraway and feeling everything he feels—joy, anger, fear. Each character—Nick, Gatsby, Jordan, Daisy—is given new depth, both lovingly and critically.

You might be skeptical about a cyberpunk retelling of The Great Gatsby. But trust me—it WORKS. I was blown away by how this version remains faithful to the original’s commentary on class, wealth, and morality, while making the story entirely its own.

Simply put: this is essential reading. It belongs in classrooms, book clubs, bookstores, and beyond. We need books like this.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an Advanced Reader Copy in exchange for my honest review.

“But if God was real that night, then he was crafted in the image of Gatsby’s and Daisy’s mindless joy.”

Thank you NetGalley and Inky Phoenix Press for providing me with an early copy of Local Heavens for review

There’s a few things you should know before I dive into this review. The first, I’m a little bit obsessed with Gatsby. Secondly, ever since Gatsby entered the public domain I’ve been not so patiently waiting for someone to do something worthwhile with Fitzgerald’s third novel. And reader, this might be it.

Local Heavens transposes the social, technological, political, and economic instability of the original works roaring 20’s into a futuristic 2075 were corporate net diver Nick Carraway meets his latest assignment, alluring new-money Jay Gatsby. Nick finds himself swept up in the complicated affairs of the city’s rich and powerful and contending with the devastating impacts their whims and wants have on those less fortunate.

This is going to be a long review, so I’m going to say this now. If you’re a fan of Gatsby (especially as a queer text), of cyberpunk media, of commentary on capitalism and climate. Read. This. Book.

Okay, now were was I.

I don’t quite know how to articulate my sheer love for this book without this turning into a 2000 word essay in which I unpack everything I adore from Fajardo’s careful reconstituting of Nick Caraway’s iconic character voice into something entirely her own to the careful way she balances both adding and subtracting from Fitzgeralds original novel.

This book is written with a precise kind of elegance, every word; page; line of dialogue; string of prose serves an exacting purpose. The Cyberpunk elements are explained efficiently and integrated effortlessly into the narrative.

Fajardo asks what the American Dream means in a world run by the 1%, in a world devoid of wonder, in a world in which technology might drive us into the ground before it pushes us forward. This book is timely and intelligent and so fucking good.

I loved this… A wonderful reimagining of Gatsby in a Blade Runner-esque world that was a total joy to read, so fun. Kris has done something very cool here! Must recommend for all of my English-lit nerds who enjoy a sci fi moment.