The Chosen and the Beautiful, by Nghi Vo

It’s hard to know what, exactly, to say about The Chosen and the Beautiful. It’s a retelling of The Great Gatsby from the point of view of Jordan Baker, and I am HERE FOR THAT. Here for any retelling that de-centres the horrible Gatsby and Daisy, who are just awful people, and brings a fascinating minor character to the foreground. I’m also here for re-imagining Jordan as a bisexual Asian orphan adopted by a wealthy American family, with a complicated identity and backstory. And once I realized what was going on (I had to go back and reread the first few pages because I’d missed a vital piece of the book summary blurb), I am even here for this all taking place in a 1920s New York where magic is real, people make pacts with the Devil, and Gatsby might be a vampire.

All that sounds as intriguing as all get out, and the book is beautifully written — at least as beautiful as Gatsby, in my opinion. Yet despite the first person point of view, Jordan remained an elusive character for me, and the potential of the magical world the book inhabits never seemed fully realized — yes, people have magical powers and it’s interesting, but what does it add to the story? I never fully felt that the fantastical elements were essential to the story. So for me, this was — not a disappointment, exactly, because I definitely enjoyed the experience of reading it, but a novel that didn’t completely fulfill its potential promise.