Reviews with content warning for Domestic abuse - Beautiful Little Fools

It is difficult to review this book because I think someone’s enjoyment of it will rely heavily on how they approach a feminist reimagining of The Great Gatsby. Personally, I found it impossible to throw off the weight of Fitzgerald’s novel while reading Beautiful Little Fools, and I was constantly comparing the two, wondering whether I could imagine Fitzgerald’s characters acting this way. Since the characters in The Great Gatsby are all some shade of shallow and terrible, they do not lend themselves to sympathetic retellings that flesh out their characters. At some points, I felt that Beautiful Little Fools did a really good job at adapting the women’s stories, and at others I felt Canton made some truly bizarre decisions that made a mockery of The Great Gatsby.

For example, I really liked the idea that Daisy used her affair with Gatsby to get back at Tom rather than out of any lingering affection for Gatsby. I also liked the book's initial depiction of Gatsby as an obsessive man who carelessly wields his power to get what he wants: a "nice guy" whose exuberant, slightly threatening charming intensity bends people to his will. However, as the book went on, Gatsby became more of a caricature of your everyday "powerful male villain," which I felt flattened his character considerably.

Putting aside the legacy of The Great Gatsby hanging over this novel, I thought that the writing was pretty good, and the plot reimagining was impressively creative. My only criticisms are that the detective chapters were unnecessary, and that the feminism was a bit basic and on-the-nose at times.

The Run-Down:

You will probably like Beautiful Little Fools if:

· You have not read The Great Gatsby or you didn't like the The Great Gatsby

· You are open to a reimagining of The Great Gatsby that frames the original book’s events in radically different terms

You might not like Beautiful Little Fools if:

· You struggle to let retellings of classic stories stand on their own

Content Warnings

ladyzbyrd's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

An incredible story through varying points of view and jumps in time! Heartache and love, rage and sadness, murder and secrets - the author takes you through them all, step-by-step.

I love the history the author had about the The Great Gatsby and the timing of it all between two pandemics, almost 100 years apart.

Will we see another retelling in another hundred years? It’s certainly inspiring in a way to dream of the future.

Content Warnings

lbutcher's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Content Warnings

paulineerika's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

This had such a great premise and I was so looking forward to it. A retelling of The Great Gatsby from the POVs of the women? Yeah, sign me up!

Unfortunately, the execution didn't quite live up to the premise. There was a lot of time spent laying the foundation for the women, but then it all seemed to go nowhere. The women, especially Daisy, ended up falling a little flat, character-wise, for me. In trying to make them more sympathetic, it felt like Cantor ended up making them less interesting. As the book went on, it also felt like there were too many stories to tell and so the stories themselves ended up not as tight as they should have been.

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emilyanne_van's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Diverse cast of characters? No

4.0

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maria1085's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

“the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.”

Fans of The Great Gatsby will love this story told from the perspective of three women. We read this for book club and we all really loved the writing, and the women’s individual stories. We felt that it stayed true to the original Great Gatsby. I really liked the strong female characters and friendships between them. I loved the time period of the early 1920s in this book. Now I need to go back and reread The Great Gatsby. This book reminded me how much I liked that original story. Beautiful Little Fools gives a voice to the women in Gatsby’s life and moved seamlessly through each POV. If you want a spin on a classic story then this book won’t disappoint!

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