Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

Beautiful Little Fools by Jillian Cantor

1 review

kayceeraereads's review against another edition

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

5.0

I was ecstatic when The Great Gatsby entered public domain in the last few years and could not wait to get my hands on the books that were going to come out of it. Scott’s work left so much up for interpretation and to the imagination (I can still hear my English teacher in high school asking me about that green light), and I was absolutely not disappointed. If you are not familiar with The Great Gatsby, I would certainly read the spark notes of the story, or take some time to read it before picking this one up (or reading this review, which contains spoilers for F. Scott Fitzgerald’s original work). 

George Wilson shot Jay Gatsby.  That’s what everyone agrees happened, until Detective Frank
Charles finds a diamond hairpin at the scene. Now, the women surrounding Gatsby’s secretive life are under a microscope as the detective tries to figure out who it belongs to and what really happened on that August day in West Egg.

The Great Gatsby is turned on its head and takes on a new feminist retelling with Jillian Cantor’s Beautiful Little Fools. This version of the tale focuses on Daisy, Jordan, and Catherine (Myrtle Wilson’s sister) and makes them the main characters instead of props for the men in the story. We get to see how all of these women ended up together that summer and how it all led to the death of Jay Gatsby.

To me, this was a perfect book (and I adored the original work, despite my issues with the author). It was well paced–especially for a mystery novel, it kept me on the edge of my seat even though I knew that Gatsby would always end up dead in his pool. I applaud Cantor for fleshing out all of the characters (except for Nick, who’s head I was very glad to not be in in this version) and making them so much more complex. We get to see Daisy’s pain and what drove her to marry Tom; the reason for Jordan’s aloofness and chronic lying; the humanization of Myrtle through the eyes of her sister; and how none of the men were “good” and put what they wanted before the women. Where the original was a critique on greed and the consumption of Americans in the 1920s, Cantor’s version is a feminist take on what it was like to be a woman in the 1920s and how they were at the mercy of the men around them, unless they take their lives (and other’s deaths) in to their own hands.

This has become a new favorite for me that I plan on revisiting!

Thank you, NetGalley and Harper Perennial, for this ARC!

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