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The Chosen and the Beautiful by Nghi Vo

31 reviews

kodiex's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

5.0

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octopus_farmer's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I don’t remember specifics of The Great Gatsby’s language to comment on it as an adaptation, but I thought the book was great. At first the Gatsby stuff seemed the weakest, but it came around. I was surprised by certain plot points and not by others, but it was a fun intrigue and glamour. I would reread.

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entityj's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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owlieali's review against another edition

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mysterious reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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gaycornbread420's review against another edition

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mysterious slow-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

2.0

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voxelbee's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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hngisreading's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

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merle_bookdragon's review against another edition

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emotional funny lighthearted mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I really, really enjoyed this book. I had not read and/or seen the Great Gatsby before, I only knew the basics of what has been widely shared in popular culture, like his crazy parties and his yearning for Daisy. Beyond that I went into this story with basically zero knowledge of the story.

I loved the writing style, and the mystery of it all. I liked that there was always a lot hidden away from the reader, that not everything (like the magic) was always explained in minute detail because this wasn't the book for a pages long description of the magic system. This was a book in which the magic enhanced the other-worldliness and magic of the Jazz Age and in a very discreet way in supported different beliefs and attitudes, for example relating to class.

I think I am really glad that we got to see Jordan's POV in this story. I read about 10 pages of The Great Gatsby in the middle of it, hoping to somehow read them alongside each other (I failed) but even after those few pages I was not a fan of Nick's POV. But I guess a lot of that has to do with the fact that he is a male character written by a male author and in this case we have a female narrating character written by a female author. Jordan was "different" from the people around her in so many ways and it was so interesting to see her point of view but also how her position and class privilege have influenced her. I loved her free attitude (even if she had adopted it to protect herself) and that she wasn't afraid to visit places that were maybe improper to be in (even if her background allowed her more freedom in the eyes of society).
I especially enjoyed seeing the Cendrillon, simply a wonderful place that I would love to visit sometimes.

By now I know that many events in this book mirror the ones in The Great Gatsby quite closely but I am glad that I didn't know before because this way some things still came as a surprise to me.

I loved Jordan's paper cutting and wish we had seen more of it.

The entire scene with paper Daisy and real Daisy (and then the latter killing the former) was SO interesting had I could honestly analyze it for a good while. The same goes for the scene in which she (finally, after it was already teased in the blurb) cut out a man's heart. Specifically, Nick's. The paper heart, the names and places written on it... her making a new one with only an edge of lipstick... just ... paper Nick is so interesting to me.

Anyways, that's it for now I guess lol.

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khiwords's review against another edition

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mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

3.25

Like the original story, The Chosen and the Beautiful's plot doesn't get interesting until the last few chapters of the book. As someone who has read and enjoyed the original novel, I was expecting this. But that doesn't mean I liked it. Since this novel is set in a world of magic and Jordan was changed to a Vietnamese adoptee I was hoping more thrilling moments took place thorough out the story. It took five chapters for me to be really hooked into the story.

I wasn't crazy about the magic system.

The concept was interesting and things like demoniac and the connections to Hell were interesting but I still don't fully understand the way things work in this world. Like do other cultures have specific magic forms & how did Vietnamese people develop their skill of paper cutting. Does gender play a role in the magic you can use? Like is this something taught in schools? Nothing is ever fully explained to the point where I don't see how magic fully evaluated the retelling. The most interesting thing it did was allow Vo to change Gatsby's climb to wealth from bootlegging to opening a gateway to Hell.
Which we don't find out if it gets closed or not, or if Gatsby faced any repercussions for stopping the parties after he reunited with Daisy.

I also wasn't a fan of how Jordan essentially took on Nick's whole of being the observer. Yes, I expected that since it is the Great Gatsby and Gatsby, Daisy, and Tom have always been the most thrilling part of the original story. But this retelling was marketed as Jordan's coming of age story and I didn't feel a real connection to her until chapter sixteen. Which isn't a good thing because this book has twenty-three chapters... Like Jordan was still likable and intriguing but I was more invested in Daisy's life.

I think a big cause of this was the fact that we don't meet another Vietnamese character until Daisy takes a tour of Gatsby's house. We get a ton of moments where Jordan is an outsider in America throughout her childhood, which I applaud Vo for diving into how harmful microaggressions can be and how wealth doesn't protect you from racism. I wish we got an equal amount of scenes about her feeling like an outsider among other Vietnamese people. Chapter sixteen shows us this but I feel like we should have gotten more than one chapter focusing on this. Although the adoptee plotline was interesting I couldn't help wondering what it would have been like for Jordan to have grown up with her birth family and all of them immigrating to America when she was a girl. I think we could have seen some more 1920s Vietnamese culture and customs. Also it would have opened up an interesting discussion about being a person of color from old money in your native country, but being seen as less by similarly wealthy Americans because of your race/ethnicity.

My favorite thing about the book has to be the relationships between the characters.

Jordan being aware that Daisy isn't a good person and has a tendency to use her beauty, whiteness, and wealth to play victim, yet still sticking by Daisy because Daisy made her feel seen was so heartwrenching. Especially with the whole abortion debacle.

"Don't tell anyone," she pleaded, and I decided to pretend she said thank you.

This sums up Daisy and Jordan's dynamic perfectly. Jordan always does more for Daisy then Daisy does for her (something they are both aware of) yet Daisy never thanks her and Jordan is aware she'll never be thanked.

I was so proud of Jordan for turning Daisy away after Gatsby died. I'd love to see Jordan's life post-Daisy and I hope she finds herself better company.

In this retelling, Vo made Nick and Jordan's relationship much more romantic.

Which I found super sweet. Their romance was a mess of Nick pining for Gatsby and Jordan always preventing Nick from seeing her truer parts. Not to mention, Jordan lowkey competes with Gatsby for Nick's affection and love. The scene by the tree in the rain was everything. It rivals the scene where Gatsby's true self is revealed.

Jordan and Gatsby's relationship was also really good!

I never knew what to expect when the two of them got together in a room. There was flirty moments, and sorrowful moments, and tense scary moments. Where Nick was the only one who loved Gatsby in spite of his flaws, Jordan is the only one who was able to see both his flaws and strengths and view him as he actually wasn't. In her eyes he wasn't a villain but he wasn't the tragic love-sick man who was left heartbroken by Daisy. Instead, he was a complicated man who let his obsession and his trauma get the best of him, which caused him to make terrible choices. But this didn't mean he deserved to take the fall for Daisy's crime.

Vo has a beautiful writing style. All her sentences are chocked full of imagery and figurative language. I was left breathless by how she strung together descriptions, more than once. She definitely captured the vibe of the original classic. One of my favorite lines was:

She said things, they lit up gold in the air, and then they fell to nothing like so much cigarette ash.

At the same time, some of her sentences felt a bit odd and awkward.

... he looked at Daisy as if she were his heart left his chest...

It wasn't enough that it made reading difficult, but it was enough where I noticed. I also wish she played around more with sentence length. No matter the classic, I'm not a fan of reading long sentences back to back to back. I love when an author can change the pacing with the length of a sentence.

Lastly, the queer aspects of the book were handled very well. Jordan's attraction to both men and women was treated as valid; her romances felt tangible and real. Like anytime she had a thing with a woman it wasn't fetishized in any way. Nick and Gatsby are queer in this retelling as well. I liked how Vo doesn't ignore the fact that homosexuality isn't accepted in the 1920s, but at the same time, she doesn't dump a bunch of trauma onto us. Instead, we see queer characters loving privately yet fully and joyfully. The Cendrillon was everything. My only complaint is that we should have seen more of it.

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moonyreadsbystarlight's review against another edition

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reflective

4.0

I reread The Great Gatsby right before reading this and had such a fun time analyzing and seeing the parallels between them. As a retelling, I'd give it 4.5+ stars. The pacing, the detachment, some specific thematic elements were absolutely spot on. They even use some dialogue from the original.

This is a difficult book to rate because some of the issues that I had with it honestly made a lot of sense because it's a retelling of Gatsby. I'm not sure that I really like Gatsby as a story, but I really enjoy analyzing and criticizing it. And this responded to some of the things that I thought about in my reread of Gatsby. In particular, I really love the queer elements that were added. Not just the fact that it was queer, but the way that the scenes and the relationships between the characters were done was really great. This also looked at race and racism, which was a problem that I had with Gatsby. The way that it approached it was quite realistic considering all of the context in the story.

However, some of the issues that I had with Gatsby also showed up here. I can't fault the author for it because I think it was a good choice to make for the retelling even if it isn't in line with my preferences as a reader. There were a lot of different fantasy elements that were added to the 1920's setting. While there was a little that was explained, there was a lot that wasn't. I'm not a reader that really needs that much world-building explained to enjoy the book, but the lack of context was even distracting for me. That being said, the original also has elements like that, so this is probably just recreating that. Additionally, even if the specifics aren't elaborated in, the thematic resonance in the fantasy elements is really excellent.

So, I have complicated feelings about this work. I wouldn't recommend it to every reader, but I had a really great time with it going from a more analytical perspective with the original in mind.

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