The Chosen and the Beautiful by Nghi Vo (ARC Review)

Title: The Chosen and the Beautiful
Author: Nghi Vo
Type: Fiction
Genre: Adult, Fantasy, Historical, Retelling
Publisher: Tordotcom (Macmillan Publishers)
Date published: June 1, 2021

A complimentary physical copy of this book was kindly provided by the publishers in exchange for an honest review.

Immigrant. Socialite. Magician.

Jordan Baker grows up in the most rarefied circles of 1920s American society—she has money, education, a killer golf handicap, and invitations to some of the most exclusive parties of the Jazz Age. She’s also queer, Asian, adopted, and treated as an exotic attraction by her peers, while the most important doors remain closed to her.

But the world is full of wonders: infernal pacts and dazzling illusions, lost ghosts and elemental mysteries. In all paper is fire, and Jordan can burn the cut paper heart out of a man. She just has to learn how.

Nghi Vo’s debut novel The Chosen and the Beautiful reinvents this classic of the American canon as a coming-of-age story full of magic, mystery, and glittering excess, and introduces a major new literary voice.

⤖ My Review ⬻

It’s not often that I get to sit down and write a review right after finishing a book these days because of my busy schedule and because I normally need around a week to ruminate and really think about what I want to say. But I finished The Chosen and the Beautiful by Nghi Vo earlier today and I have some thoughts.

I would like to preface this review by saying that I am not the biggest fan of The Great Gatsby story. You may be wondering, then, why I picked up a The Great Gatsby retelling–let me explain. I do enjoy the time period in which The Great Gatsby is set and I also really enjoyed the visuals and aesthetic in the 2013t movie adaptation but the story itself…does not bring me joy. I won’t elaborate on that, in case any of you reading this review don’t know what happens in The Great Gatsby and I don’t want to ruin things for you if you’re still planning on reading or watching it (and it will also affect how you experience The Chosen and the Beautiful if you haven’t read it yet) so I will stop there.

Again, you’re probably wondering why I picked up The Chosen and the Beautiful. I already touched on one aspect of The Great Gatsby that I do enjoy–the time period in which it is set. I also like the idea that this was a diverse retelling done by an own voices author. Also and I don’t feel like I need to pointed out but I’m going to anyway–the cover is absolutely glorious.

I always felt that the story of The Great Gatsby was missing something…something I could never quite put my finger on. And before starting The Chosen and the Beautiful, I was hoping that this Nghi Vo would rectify that for me somehow.

Diving into The Chosen and the Beautiful I first noticed that I really liked the writing. It was evocative and descriptive and really pulled me into the story. It’s written from the perspective of the main character Jordan Baker who in this rendition is Vietnamese. It was really interesting to read how Jordan navigated 1920s New York as someone who was a part of a visible minority that was discriminated against quite a bit in that time (not that much has changed decades later). Making the story all the more multifaceted is the fact that Jordan was adopted by a wealthy white family and therefore ran in circles that many Vietnamese immigrants would not have access to in the same way. Her worldview and experiences were wholly unique to her, and it was really fascinating to read about.

I also liked the LGBTQ+ aspects of The Chosen and the Beautiful and how it shed some light of on what it might’ve been like to be LGBTQ+ in the 1920s. While this aspect of the story was not the centre of it (or even a very prominent) part of the story, I think that it still added all the more depth and substance that the original Gatsby story was lacking (for me).

As I made my way further into the book, despite all of the above, I found that the first half of the book intrigued me but didn’t quite capture my attention the way that I had hoped. That said I continued reading, curious to see how Nghi Vo’s retelling would unfold, develop, and wrap itself back up again. (And I’m so very glad that I did, because the story did hook my attention after the midway point and the wait was definitely worth it.)

So as to respect your own experience with this book and to not give anything away I won’t go into detail about what exactly it was at the midway point that got me (end it might not even apply to your own reading experience anyway) but I can’t say that I really thoroughly enjoyed this retelling and that I will be recommending it to those who are established fans of The Great Gatsby, as well as those who might might not be the biggest fans (like myself), and even those who have no opinion one way or the other. I think that there’s something in The Chosen and the Beautiful for everyone. And personally, and without giving anything away, I found that it did provide the pieces that I was missing in the original story, so I was quite satisfied!

⤖ About the Author ⬻

Nghi Vo is the author of the acclaimed novellas The Empress of Salt and Fortune and When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain. Born in Illinois, she now lives on the shores of Lake Michigan. She believes in the ritual of lipstick, the power of stories, and the right to change your mind. The Chosen and the Beautiful is her debut novel.