Week 28

Okay, so, now in the depths of July, my reading speed is slowing down. Though, I did pick up some non-fiction as well this week, and while I try to keep these reviews for fiction, I feel like it’s important to note that I read and really enjoyed WHAT WE TALK ABOUT WHEN WE DON’T TALK ABOUT FAT by Audrey Gordon, so. Y’know.

This week: The Chosen and The Beautiful by Nghi Vo

#45) THE CHOSEN & THE BEAUTIFUL by Nghi Vo

It’s a retelling of THE GREAT GATSBY but told by Jordan Baker, wherein she’s also a queer Vietnamese woman - if that sounds up your alley, it probably is!

Also, it’s a paranormal fantasy wherein there is magic and demons and whatnot.

I have some…mixed feelings, I guess? Although that seems like an overly negative description of something I actually liked quite a lot.

Nghi Vo’s prose, as always, is beautiful, and her descriptions of the alternative 1920’s setting of this book are vivid and delectable. Jordan as a character is really fun, both embodying a stereotypical flapper woman but also with pieces of added depth, and her struggles with her own heritage as well as with the people around her are really interesting.

Also, the centralization of queerness to the story is lovely. Jordan, Gatsby, and Nick all seem to be bi or pan, and Daisy is implied to be perhaps asexual, though the label itself isn’t used. It feels profoundly powerful for Vo to have taken these characters, baked into the canon as it were, and to queer them, spin them into something new, something more possible.

I guess my only holdback is that I kind of wish Vo had gone a little bit further, done a little bit more. I don’t know what precisely I would change, but in the end, I found myself a little disappointed that the book didn’t do more than it did. Particularly, with regards to the fantastical element, I wanted that to have more of an impact.

Also, the themes. Vo definitely seems to be playing with the themes of the original novel, while also introducing some of her own, but it didn’t go quite far enough for me. I guess I just wanted more.

Like I said, though, I still quite enjoyed this, and I am fully excited for whatever Vo does next.