micaelacccc's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0


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percys_panda_pillow_pet's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

I was SO excited when I heard that Anna-Marie McLemore wrote a Great Gatsby reimagining. Ever since I read their book When The Moon Was Ours, I was an immediate fan of the author. I think they were the perfect person to reimagine The Great Gatsby as they have an impeccable sense of language and symbolism, as well as I just love the idea of a queer author making this classic into the queer story many have always thought it was.

Now, I will be honest and say I wasn't a big fan of the original book by Fitzgerald. In addition to some bad experiences in school when I read it, I also felt like the characters were flat and unlikable, and the story boring and outdated. Now, of course, there can be many arguments that Fitzgerald purposefully wrote it this way, especially with the characters, but I am not here to critique the original story, just adding context for this review. 

Self-Made Boys takes everything I disliked about The Great Gatsby and makes them great and unique. The characters were much more likable, even Daisy, who in both versions rides the line between terrible/annoying and sympathetic. I personally enjoy reading likable characters more than unlikable usually, so this was a huge plus for me. As well, the characters just felt more real, fleshed-out, and down to earth. Instead of just acting as caricatures for Fitzgerald to use as vehicles for his main message, they actually felt like they had their own wills and purposes in the narrative, especially Nick who easily could've been relegated back to the simple self-insert for the reader that he was in the original. 

With these well-rounded characters, I felt much more invested in their lives and the outcome of each situation they found themselves in. I didn't even remember Jordan from the original and I don't know if Martha existed, but I loved the addition of more female characters. It was so easy to get connected to each character and the story was so much more rich and compelling for me. 

The unique elements Anna-Marie McLemore added to the story, from their heritage as a Latine person to their queer identity, really made this book perfect for me. There is something to be said about using personal experience in a novel that really fleshes things out in a way no one else could. McLemore is a fantastic author who knows how to write very well, and I couldn't find a single mistake in this book when I tried. I'm glad to give this book the 5 stars it deserves. 

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abitbetterbooks's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75


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readabookortwo's review against another edition

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medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0


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aspie97's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful lighthearted relaxing fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25


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shelvesofivy's review against another edition

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

5.0


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elskabee's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

I'm gonna tell my kids this is The Great Gatsby.

I never read any of the original and only made it 5 minutes into that movie version from like 10 years ago. So I went in knowing basically nothing except that people already shipped Jay and Nick from the original so there was precedent and these days I just really want to read trans stories because the cis annoy me sometimes so give me that t4t joy.

I really enjoyed the trans rep and overall queerness in the story, it was a cool speculation on queer community in the 1920's. I found most of the characters to be shallow in that YA kind of way but still just complex enough to be enjoyable and intriguing. I think if you enjoy reading about messy people and their drama this is a good one, but personally I found it a little tiring at times. The obsession with wealth, class, and aesthetics was not something I personally enjoy a lot which is why I haven't bothered tackling the OG but I think the commentary on race was interesting to read seeing as it's own voices and I'm not American. I was pleased with how well the themes of which were woven into the story.

I don't if it's just because I've been having a health crisis in the days of reading this but this shit made me cry. The queer joy and acceptance in this story is its biggest selling point in my opinion and so I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this even if it didn't fully capture my interest.

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pey333's review against another edition

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emotional medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5


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kayladaila's review against another edition

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

5.0


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aromarrie's review against another edition

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mysterious reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

”Standing here on Earth, we might think there are no green or purple stars anywhere in the universe simply because we can’t detect them. But they could be there. Whether we detect them or not.”

…Gatsby and I may have been nothing to men like Tom Buchanan, but men like that did not know we were as divine as the heavens. We were boys who had created ourselves. We had formed our own bodies, our own lives, from the ribs of the girls we were once assumed to be.


there’s nothing at this moment right now that makes me more happy than the fact that i have finally read my first anna-marie mclemore book, and that this story was the one to take the leap. it feels perfect because all their other stories are complete originals with standout material that i’ve always felt drawn to but with this classic retelling, not only did i get to see how magical this author’s storytelling is when it comes to exploring contemporary settings—but i also got to see how that magic brings to life a popular classic that i briefly remember studying back in high school, and here now it’s been transformed into something so much more profound.

while i’ve never claimed that “the great gatsby” is a favorite classic of mine, i do remmeber some of my discussions of the story and its characters, and so it was genuinely amazing having those vague memories to fall back on as i reconcile it with these reimagined characters who feel so completely authentic, it’s as if they were always part of this classic all along. this is a story about faking appearances and falling into a mirage created by one’s own biases & dreams, and the whole metaphor of drowning is one that feels very intentional as a result. characters even including nicolás, who believed himself to be the most objective & observant of all, drown themselves into certain beliefs that manipulate the way they see what’s going on around them and for that, it leaves them isolated in a shell of their own making.

this whole high society that lives in 1920s New York are a group practically living inside their own bubble, and no matter the numbers that tell of the downfall soon to come for them all if they don’t play more carefully, they live as lavishly and splendidly as their mirage allows them to. nicolás having an interest in math made those numbers feel really daunting, and i loved how the author integrated that kind of knowledge to the actual story itself as we see him observe different patterns that are always rooted down to the bare bones, no subjective meaning to be found. the fact that other characters show otherwise and reveal how tricky those numbers can seem was really wise on the author’s part because the more the story i read, the more i had to reckon with certain scenes that i viewed through one lens, only to end up seeing in in a completely different one later on.

what stayed very consistent though was, as i mentioned earlier, how familiar these characters felt to their original counterparts, it was astounding to witness. nicolás being our main narrator was such a joy because this was our nick carroway, except he was trans and he was latino, and he’s related to our daisy buchanan, who seemed to try to fit the most with the general appearance of her original character as she passed herself off as white, but her own character journey reveals a much more complicated picture that is just her own. gatsby’s character has always been elusive in the classic and in this retelling, it feels the same; although he comes off as so much more sweet & kind-hearted than i could’ve expected, and maybe it’s because all these characters are just so young, but it’s also like…the way this author has written them, it stays true to the source material, but there’s something so earnest about the way these characters interact with each other; seeming to follow a certain caricature that society pictures them as, only then to shed parts of themselves so that they can feel more intimate with the people they care about.

if there’s any character i can think of that i feel like was the most cookie-cutter of them all, it was tom buchanan, the disgraceful idiot that he is, who is cunning in his own way and very sharp in manners but didn’t feel all that original. and that’s maybe just the very point, as alluded to in the second quote i inserted above, tom doesn’t stand out much because he doesn’t feel the need to—he feels his money and white background does enough to make him a strong foothold in everyone’s story, but really he’s just taking up too much space. anything memorable that came from scenes including him is witnessing the tension that is navigating these conversations between high society members with nicolás at the fringes, trying to make sense of what the right thing is to say and what’s the correct way to act.

there was one scene i can recall very vaguely—only because my memory is absolutely horrid—where i felt as if i was sitting on the edge of my seat, easily about to fall over the precipice like these characters were, because a very dangerous game was being played and tom deemed himself the winner. as the story continues to unfold though, it becomes very apparent how easy it is to fool a winner like him. all those high society conversations and the lingo and mannerisms, while not at all my thing, were such an integral part of the original “great gatsby” that i couldn’t help but admire the author for how much they leaned into it, because with nicolás’ background, it only becomes that much more intimidating; knowing the odds stacked up against you as a minority and barely trying to grasp onto any strings that keep you leveled up.

it was nice how that was one aspect that made nicolás & gatsby bond; even if they shared some different reasons for feeling that kind of animosity, seeing how they grow closer & closer was really heartfelt. the conversations nicolás had with other characters were just as engaging, though, most notably with jordan & martha; the latter causing me to experience a huge case of gay panic because she was an absolute gem that makes me wish i could see her have her own story. i mean c’mon:

“People always find something wrong with how much or how little women are doing,” Martha said. “We don’t do as much as they think we should, we’re boring or frigid. If we do more than they think we should, we’re easy or fast. There’s no winning. So I kiss exactly as many or as few girls as I want.”



“I hope you find her.”

“Who?” Martha asked.

“A girl you want to smudge your lipstick.”


i can’t even recall if she was from the original classic but either way, martha wolf is a legend in her own right and there’ll never be a scene where she wouldn’t take my breath away, that’s that on that.

ultimately, i had such a positive experience with this story. it feels so profound how much history & meaning the author had put into this, making the classic go even deeper as this story explored what it’s like to be queer & trans in the earlier 20th century of America, and even if there wasn’t enough terminology to put a label on the way these characters felt—there were concepts like lavender marriages & small-knit communities of people who find little alcoves that are just for them to be them and it was so heartwarming getting to see nicolás experience that kind of community and also open himself beyond his home in wisconsin.

which, speaking of, while his family aren’t physically present in the story, nicolás’ parents are one aspect of what drives nicolás in his pursuit of making them proud and feeling as if he owes a debt for all that they’ve done for him in the support they’ve given. daisy’s parents equally hit a heavy note in all the letters she writes to them as we see in brief interludes throughout the story, a sad tension seeming to permeate the words seeing as there’s some radio silence on their end. much more of it could probably be better explored from other reviewers but all in all, this book will have such a huge impact on a lot of readers i know that for sure. the entire concept of this remixed classics series is brilliant in of it itself because it pushes marginalized voices to the forefront and adds another layer to classics many readers love and will only love even more once they see the meaning that each one of them evokes when certain voices are given a chance to be portrayed.

i look forward to reading more of anna-marie mclemore’s writing now that i’ve gotten a good taste of the genius storytelling they’re capable of, and it’ll probably definitely be very emotional, which will be a pleasant emotion to have, i hope.

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