Reviews

What a great reimagined feminist take/retelling of The Great Gatsby. As part of a required book to read and discuss in high school, the original was almost a chore for me to read and I don’t remember much of the plot line (could be my age now though!) but I did enjoy this book. Told from the points-of-view of three females mentioned in The Great Gatsby (Daisy, Jordan and Catherine), the mystery of Jay’s death is revealed along with how their lives and lies were intertwined. This was much more of a character driven book with exceptional character development.

mermiller's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense 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? Yes

4.0

januaryghosts's review against another edition

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mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

truthmonkey's review against another edition

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medium-paced

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

3.0

March book for the Decades challenge (1920s). I have read worse books inspired by Gatsby. I liked the idea of focusing on the women but the added behind the scenes content stretched belief sometimes. Also it changed the perspective on a few characters. I guess that was the point but it didn’t sit well with me.

csparacino's review against another edition

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fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

emilypolle's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes

5.0

A retelling of The Great Gatsby from the perspective of the women. I really enjoyed how it gave the reader information from before the original story, but then followed the same timeline and filled in gaps. Well done and gave new insight into why things happened in the original book! Would recommend for any Gatsby lover!

kikipix's review against another edition

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Love a good “the other side of the history” take on a story. Being a take on The Great Gatsby it’s hard to avoid an expectation of the roaring 20s and glam aesthetic in the book. While this book is meant to illuminate that it wasn’t in fact, all crystal coupe classes and diamonds hair pins, it did take place amongst this glamour and that’s what makes the story tantalizing - and yet the book largely left that up to just the reader to create. I would’ve liked to have had a little bit more of the setting integrated with the story. It could be the intent was to make it not feel like the mistreatment of the women was distinctive to that period, to emphasize how much of what transpired seems to still occur in present day be it 1920s or 2020s, but that’s me giving benefit of the doubt and I would’ve like to have seen that made more clear if that was the case.

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