The Chosen and the Beautiful is a queer literary fantasy retelling of The Great Gatsby and Nghi Vo’s debut novel (3.5/5 stars)

The Chosen and the Beautiful is a queer literary fantasy retelling of The Great Gatsby and Nghi Vo’s debut novel.

I’m a huge fan of Nghi Vo’s work, and I am almost caught up on her entire back catalogue. I think all I have left is one short story that I own as an ebook, and two short stories that will be a little harder for me to find. I love her lyrical writing; it’s so very expressive and paints vivid pictures in my mindscape while I’m reading.

It’s easy to tell that this is her debut, though, since I’m reading it long after I’ve read a ton of her other works. The typical dreamy quality is there, so I really dig the vibes here. But it feels a little bit disjoined to me on occasion.

I love how diverse the cast is. Jordan is originally from Vietnam but was “rescued” by a wealthy Louisville family. Gatsby himself has a diverse background, too, but I won’t spoil that. Practically everyone we follow in this book is queer in some way. Most seem to lean bi- or pansexual.

The magic system sounds pretty cool, but I wish it was explored a bit more. On one hand, we have people who make deals with demons for things. On the other, there’s some paper magician stuff happening that was really interesting to me.

I really enjoyed Jordan as our POV character, since she was pretty much the only good human in the original work. It really lets us see Gatsby and especially Daisy in a different light.

CW: violence, blood, murder, abortion, domestic violence, infidelity, car accident

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