Reviews with content warning for Gun violence - The Great Gatsby

I'm not American so I was never fed the American Dream narrative throughout my childhood except through American media. To me, the Great Gatsby is like a warning. You may be able to work your way up to become the glittering envy of the city, but all that luxury is actually meaningless. As for the characters, you could easily drop them into those reality shows featuring decadently rich people who are concerned only with themselves. Even the romance is like loving the idea of someone. It's not a classic about the American Dream. It's a classic about the shallow lie of that dream.

I thoroughly enjoyed the subtlety and imagery of the descriptions. Some lines were stunning. The book is short, and I found it an easy read. I learned a bit about Zelda too.

Also, gayer than I had expected. Pleasant surprise.

Content Warnings

const_elle_ations's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

Rating: 4 stars

Alright this might be one of the few "classics" I genuinely enjoyed? I'm sort of obsessed with like...the roarin' 20's and flapper culture and all that so it was a lot of fun to read, especially knowing it was written during that time as a critique of nihilism at the time? we just talked about this in APUSH so it was lovely timing lol

I kept getting characters confused - I think it's because a bunch of them were introduced at that party at the beginning and then didn't show up for half the book and then became relevant again - but other than that it was pretty enjoyable! (Although I'm extremely bitter bc I got the big spoiler right as I was reading it from this random tumblr post on my instagram feed so :))) that was great :)))

I honestly don't know what the general consensus on the characters are, but I liked most of them (except Tom. what was UP with Tom. he was cheating on his wife for a while and then totally lost it when daisy and gatsby kissed like once get a grip man) (wait also what was going on between nick and daisy??? weren’t they cousins?? in that case it was kind of weird how he kept saying how pretty she was??)

Also disappointed that Gatsby Spoilerdidn't die by jumping from into a pool filled with champagne from the balcony because I knew he would end up dead in a pool?? and i just assumed that's what taylor swift was referring to in this is why we can't have nice things lol

Content Warnings