Reviews with content warning for Suicide - The Chosen and the Beautiful

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The Chosen and the Beautiful by Nghi Vo

11 reviews

talonsontypewriters's review against another edition

mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

2.0

Vo's prose is as lovely as ever, and the magical realism elements are interesting, but the added magic and focus on Jordan are really the only major divergences from Gatsby -- overall, the story felt heavily reliant on the reader already being familiar with Gatsby (which I say as someone who is Very Normal about Gatsby), and I don't know that it really offers any more nuanced or thorough a glance at most of the characters, including Jordan. Could have definitely been a lot more fleshed out and more of a genuine retelling than effectively a companion novel, just feels a bit disjointed and shallow.

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marleywrites's review against another edition

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emotional reflective tense slow-paced

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

3.5

I wasn’t a huge fan of the original Great Gatsby story, so I’m not sure what drew me to try this novel. However, I was pleasantly surprised by this book. I appreciated the queer representation and that different people of color were in the book.

I was often left hoping for more of Jordan’s story, and was instead getting Daisy’s, which I didn’t care for much but again, what else could I expect in a retelling? I thought Jordan was well written, a complex and intelligent character. I wish we had spent more time with her backstory. I felt she was often too forgiving of Daisy, but I suppose that’s the point- everyone loves Daisy.

Things I liked about the novel include the queer representation, the way they were all interconnected (read: sleeping with) to each other, and the description of the parties & outfits, and the magic.

I wish we could see more of Jordan on the cover. I wish I could have seen her in her outfit choices. I loved reading about them.

Overall, I rated this book a 3.5/5. I wish the relationship with Kai had been more explored, and I wish I had gotten a better description of the magic Jordan and others can reform. It felt like an area that could have been expanded upon. The book was a bit slow, but the vibes were great so it was alright. I listened to this story on audiobook and it kept me engaged.

I felt like the ending took me by surprise. I felt like it undid Jordan’s character arc. I didn’t see it coming it felt confusing as she’d just harped on Daisy for murdering the woman. I’m just confused by it I think…?

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entityj's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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voxelbee's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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miak2's review against another edition

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emotional reflective slow-paced

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

2.5

“When you can't fix a thing, the best course of action can be to ruin it all so that no one can see what truly happened."

The Great Gatsby but make it gay.

This is a hard one to rate. Part of my issue is that the original story just doesn't compel me, and The Chosen and the Beautiful remains (to my vague recollection) fairly faithful to it. But it's not Vo's fault that The Great Gatsby as a premise doesn't work for me. Similarly, I just didn't like any of the characters, but they weren't meant to be likeable, so that's hardly a criticism of the book either.

What worked for me:
- Vo's writing is really beautiful. I really felt transported to the 1920s, with all the glitz and glamour and daring. Additionally, her descriptions of the magic were charming.
- I liked the exploration of Jordan as a queer, Asian American in a time that was especially unfriendly towards both identities. Her discomfort when in a Vietnamese social space was conveyed really well and hit home for me quite hard.
-There's a brilliant line about learning how a man reacts to being told no that's going to stick with me until the day I die.

What didn't work for me:
- The magic system as a whole felt largely unnecessary to the plot. Beautifully written, as I said, but I don't think it added much to the story at all. There's a scene at the end that shows how cool this magic could've been if it were more fully explored, but as it was...eh.
- Really the main thing is that this story didn't grip me at all. And, again, part of this is because the original Gatsby story isn't that interesting to me either, but Vo didn't add enough to it to make it compelling. Even during the climax, I was really just reading it to finish the book, not because I couldn't put it down.

Tl;dr there's a lot that I liked about this book, but it ultimately fell flat for me.

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circe813's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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fiveredhens's review against another edition

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challenging slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

i liked gatsby and wanted to like this but it just wasn't for me :( the writing was in the uncanny valley and none of the fun changes were used effectively imo

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rorikae's review against another edition

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reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

'The Chosen and the Beautiful' by Nghi Vo is a lush Great Gatsby retelling that incorporates a dash of magic and focuses on Jordan Baker. If you are familiar with The Great Gatsby, this follows along with the same main plot points but we get to see much more of Jordan Baker, who is the narrator of our story. Jordan in this story is Vietnamese and Vo does a great job of weaving in and commenting on her experience within upper crust White society. Vo has also added a magical element to this story, including paper cutting magic. The magical limitations of the world are never quite pinned down, which I think is one failing of the story. People float to the ceilings, shirts become birds, and there is a reveal later in the story that hints at more sinister forces but I never had a good grasp of how this magic fully functioned in the world. Where Vo uses the magic, I think it adds a great deal to the story and made the story far more interesting than the original tale.
The highlight of this story is Vo's writing. It is lush and perfectly fits to the lavish parties and eccentricities that are present throughout the story. I have long been excited to read her books and though there were a few moments where the story fell a little flat, I do think it showcases her talent. I can't wait to pick up her novellas and follow what she writes next.

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rotatinglibrary's review against another edition

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dark mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

Very slow moving, was hoping for more magic,

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booksthatburn's review against another edition

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emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This is a retelling of THE GREAT GATSBY so good that it made me finally get what literally happened at the end of THE GREAT GATSBY, which was a mystery large enough to vaguely bother me since high school, but so far not quite frustrating enough for me to circle back and fill my knowledge gap. THE CHOSEN AND THE BEAUTIFUL reframes Daisy's friend Jordan Baker as a queer Asian adoptee with a talent for magic and an uneasy position at the upper strata of a society which is intrigued by her right until it casts her aside.

Based on my hazy recollection of the original, this is a beat-for-beat retelling. Because Nick (the original point of view character) and Jordan spend significant stretches of time in separate places, this book takes advantage of that time to focus in on Daisy as she's seen by Jordan away from Gatsby, and to make explicit a great many things which were just heavily implied before. If you've never read The Great Gatsby, don't worry about it, you don't need that book in order to understand this one.

I love the use of magic, everything from the paper creations to treating demoniac as one more opportunity for vice in the midst of Prohibition. The characters are vibrant, and the way Jordan's position as simultaneous insider (affluent, friends with Daisy) and outsider (queer, Asian, adopted) sets her up to poke at the strangeness of some moments and ride with the feeling of others. Part of what this makes explicit is just how much sex was happening in and around Gatsby's parties. It starts out heavily implied, almost coy as Jordan refers to sleeping at different women's houses but not saying exactly what she did there, but gradually it becomes more and more clear. I love this portrayal of a young bi (or possibly pan) woman who knows what she wants and feels free to explore. She gets a chance to meet other Asian people and start to explore a side of herself which she lost easy access to as an adoptee. This gives her room for a storyline separate from the sensual but volatile combination of herself, Nick, Gatsby, and Daisy, and it works really well. It plays with expectation, illusion, disappointment, and surprise in a way that supports the main story but explores a part of her that their society only mentions to say they (most often Tom) didn't mean for that microaggression to catch her.

This is an excellent retelling which doesn't need the original in order to be understood. It uses the original's themes of excess, alienation, the desperate need to be loved, and the loneliness of a crowd, then combines them with marginalizations of queerness and race to give them a poignancy and context that leaps off the page.

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