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

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The Chosen and the Beautiful by Nghi Vo

33 reviews

khiwords's review against another edition

mysterious reflective slow-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

3.25

Like the original story, The Chosen and the Beautiful's plot doesn't get interesting until the last few chapters of the book. As someone who has read and enjoyed the original novel, I was expecting this. But that doesn't mean I liked it. Since this novel is set in a world of magic and Jordan was changed to a Vietnamese adoptee I was hoping more thrilling moments took place thorough out the story. It took five chapters for me to be really hooked into the story.

I wasn't crazy about the magic system.

The concept was interesting and things like demoniac and the connections to Hell were interesting but I still don't fully understand the way things work in this world. Like do other cultures have specific magic forms & how did Vietnamese people develop their skill of paper cutting. Does gender play a role in the magic you can use? Like is this something taught in schools? Nothing is ever fully explained to the point where I don't see how magic fully evaluated the retelling. The most interesting thing it did was allow Vo to change Gatsby's climb to wealth from bootlegging to opening a gateway to Hell.
Which we don't find out if it gets closed or not, or if Gatsby faced any repercussions for stopping the parties after he reunited with Daisy.

I also wasn't a fan of how Jordan essentially took on Nick's whole of being the observer. Yes, I expected that since it is the Great Gatsby and Gatsby, Daisy, and Tom have always been the most thrilling part of the original story. But this retelling was marketed as Jordan's coming of age story and I didn't feel a real connection to her until chapter sixteen. Which isn't a good thing because this book has twenty-three chapters... Like Jordan was still likable and intriguing but I was more invested in Daisy's life.

I think a big cause of this was the fact that we don't meet another Vietnamese character until Daisy takes a tour of Gatsby's house. We get a ton of moments where Jordan is an outsider in America throughout her childhood, which I applaud Vo for diving into how harmful microaggressions can be and how wealth doesn't protect you from racism. I wish we got an equal amount of scenes about her feeling like an outsider among other Vietnamese people. Chapter sixteen shows us this but I feel like we should have gotten more than one chapter focusing on this. Although the adoptee plotline was interesting I couldn't help wondering what it would have been like for Jordan to have grown up with her birth family and all of them immigrating to America when she was a girl. I think we could have seen some more 1920s Vietnamese culture and customs. Also it would have opened up an interesting discussion about being a person of color from old money in your native country, but being seen as less by similarly wealthy Americans because of your race/ethnicity.

My favorite thing about the book has to be the relationships between the characters.

Jordan being aware that Daisy isn't a good person and has a tendency to use her beauty, whiteness, and wealth to play victim, yet still sticking by Daisy because Daisy made her feel seen was so heartwrenching. Especially with the whole abortion debacle.

"Don't tell anyone," she pleaded, and I decided to pretend she said thank you.

This sums up Daisy and Jordan's dynamic perfectly. Jordan always does more for Daisy then Daisy does for her (something they are both aware of) yet Daisy never thanks her and Jordan is aware she'll never be thanked.

I was so proud of Jordan for turning Daisy away after Gatsby died. I'd love to see Jordan's life post-Daisy and I hope she finds herself better company.

In this retelling, Vo made Nick and Jordan's relationship much more romantic.

Which I found super sweet. Their romance was a mess of Nick pining for Gatsby and Jordan always preventing Nick from seeing her truer parts. Not to mention, Jordan lowkey competes with Gatsby for Nick's affection and love. The scene by the tree in the rain was everything. It rivals the scene where Gatsby's true self is revealed.

Jordan and Gatsby's relationship was also really good!

I never knew what to expect when the two of them got together in a room. There was flirty moments, and sorrowful moments, and tense scary moments. Where Nick was the only one who loved Gatsby in spite of his flaws, Jordan is the only one who was able to see both his flaws and strengths and view him as he actually wasn't. In her eyes he wasn't a villain but he wasn't the tragic love-sick man who was left heartbroken by Daisy. Instead, he was a complicated man who let his obsession and his trauma get the best of him, which caused him to make terrible choices. But this didn't mean he deserved to take the fall for Daisy's crime.

Vo has a beautiful writing style. All her sentences are chocked full of imagery and figurative language. I was left breathless by how she strung together descriptions, more than once. She definitely captured the vibe of the original classic. One of my favorite lines was:

She said things, they lit up gold in the air, and then they fell to nothing like so much cigarette ash.

At the same time, some of her sentences felt a bit odd and awkward.

... he looked at Daisy as if she were his heart left his chest...

It wasn't enough that it made reading difficult, but it was enough where I noticed. I also wish she played around more with sentence length. No matter the classic, I'm not a fan of reading long sentences back to back to back. I love when an author can change the pacing with the length of a sentence.

Lastly, the queer aspects of the book were handled very well. Jordan's attraction to both men and women was treated as valid; her romances felt tangible and real. Like anytime she had a thing with a woman it wasn't fetishized in any way. Nick and Gatsby are queer in this retelling as well. I liked how Vo doesn't ignore the fact that homosexuality isn't accepted in the 1920s, but at the same time, she doesn't dump a bunch of trauma onto us. Instead, we see queer characters loving privately yet fully and joyfully. The Cendrillon was everything. My only complaint is that we should have seen more of it.

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moonyreadsbystarlight's review against another edition

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reflective

4.0

I reread The Great Gatsby right before reading this and had such a fun time analyzing and seeing the parallels between them. As a retelling, I'd give it 4.5+ stars. The pacing, the detachment, some specific thematic elements were absolutely spot on. They even use some dialogue from the original.

This is a difficult book to rate because some of the issues that I had with it honestly made a lot of sense because it's a retelling of Gatsby. I'm not sure that I really like Gatsby as a story, but I really enjoy analyzing and criticizing it. And this responded to some of the things that I thought about in my reread of Gatsby. In particular, I really love the queer elements that were added. Not just the fact that it was queer, but the way that the scenes and the relationships between the characters were done was really great. This also looked at race and racism, which was a problem that I had with Gatsby. The way that it approached it was quite realistic considering all of the context in the story.

However, some of the issues that I had with Gatsby also showed up here. I can't fault the author for it because I think it was a good choice to make for the retelling even if it isn't in line with my preferences as a reader. There were a lot of different fantasy elements that were added to the 1920's setting. While there was a little that was explained, there was a lot that wasn't. I'm not a reader that really needs that much world-building explained to enjoy the book, but the lack of context was even distracting for me. That being said, the original also has elements like that, so this is probably just recreating that. Additionally, even if the specifics aren't elaborated in, the thematic resonance in the fantasy elements is really excellent.

So, I have complicated feelings about this work. I wouldn't recommend it to every reader, but I had a really great time with it going from a more analytical perspective with the original in mind.

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taylor_annotates's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated

5.0

I will read anything Nghi Vo writes.

Content Warnings

audeira's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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olivia_piepmeier's review against another edition

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dark mysterious relaxing fast-paced

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

4.0

For people that had to read The Great Gatsby (TGG) multiple times throughout their education and/or watched the movie(s) a lot, this will likely feel like a familiar but new friend. At least that's how I felt to me. It immediately starts off establishing this world is a little different in a magical way, or not. TGG is written from the perspective of Nick and this is written from the perspective of Jordan, so one could argue this was all happening in the original book but we didn't get access to this side of the story until now. Vo does such a great job making this feel like the original story in the way it's written with beautiful, floral language. It wouldn't have worked as well if this read in a way that didn't feel like it was the same characters or time period as TGG, especially because it's a book that's hammered in the heads of all US public schools and English majors. The fantasy elements to this are subtle but work well, though I did find myself a little confused sometime about what was happening.

After reading this, I feel a little salty Jordan got such minimal air-time in TGG. Fitzgerald wouldn't have done her justice like Vo, though, so it's okay. Just like TGG, everyone is a mess. Truly. They're in their 20s and Gatsby is not but he's hella obsessive. Mistakes are made left and right. It ends in a way that I feel hope for only Jordan, out of all these characters. Unfortunately, part of the reason why she's on to new things is due to a super racist legislation that was passed. Jordan's racial background is not the focus of her character, but it's a facet that is mentioned just enough to help the reader understand how she viewed herself, others viewed her, and how she played a part in this different version of the 1920s.

Overall, a very satisfying read! It was fun to go back into a new and improved world of TGG.

Content Warnings

vitacat11's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious reflective 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

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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

Content Warnings

forbearance's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious reflective tense 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

5.0

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lotten4's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

3.0

Not much happened but it was unique and well written

Content Warnings

aardwyrm's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

4.0

I wasn't one of the poor children caught by the Great Gatsby in high school, either in one of those long-running grudges against the concept of symbolism after too many conversations about green lights and painted eyes, or caught like a character by the glamor. It was just a book. This is a much more interesting and meaningful book, through the simple expedients of handing the camera to a more interesting person and reflecting on the world, not just the idea of the world. Also there's some demons and stuff.

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