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A review by noirverse
Beautiful Little Fools by Jillian Cantor
4.0
Rating: 3.5 (rounded up).
I was slightly wary picking up this book, thinking that it was unlikely that it was going to live up to its bold premise, but I'm happy to say that it did.
There's flaws present, but overall, it was a thrilling read that I couldn't put down. It took myself some mental adjusting getting used to the characters and the direction the story was going, but before long, I enjoyed every POV and thought it brought something unique to the original canon. It's partly a backstory reveal for various female characters, and partly a rewrite of the original plot. With retellings, there's often the issue of feeling like you're not gaining anything new when the retelling hits ground that the original story already shows us, but I thought this book did a good job of going over those parts without feeling like a chore.
There's a few criticisms I do have. I did think the plot dragged a bit in the early middle, before the retelling of the original plot fully kicked in. There were a few moments here and there when more subtly could've been used, but it didn't bother me that much. Some of the build-ups to the various reveals in the climax could've been developed better. This book could've easily felt like a cheap gimmick, but it pulled off what it was presenting me with a great amount of skill and only a slight amount of wobbliness on the landing.
I will say that you probably need to have a fair amount of open mindedness for the story being twisted, as several things from the original are majorly changed in service to the plot. I liked the story, but I see it more as a total AU to the original rather than a companion piece to it, as it does go out of its way to make Daisy (and the rest) more likable as people while majorly toning down or ignoring their original flaws.
If you have any interest in the idea of a feminist retelling of Gatsby and don't mind the thought of Gatsby being a full-on villain, I recommend this book!
I was slightly wary picking up this book, thinking that it was unlikely that it was going to live up to its bold premise, but I'm happy to say that it did.
There's flaws present, but overall, it was a thrilling read that I couldn't put down. It took myself some mental adjusting getting used to the characters and the direction the story was going, but before long, I enjoyed every POV and thought it brought something unique to the original canon. It's partly a backstory reveal for various female characters, and partly a rewrite of the original plot. With retellings, there's often the issue of feeling like you're not gaining anything new when the retelling hits ground that the original story already shows us, but I thought this book did a good job of going over those parts without feeling like a chore.
There's a few criticisms I do have. I did think the plot dragged a bit in the early middle, before the retelling of the original plot fully kicked in. There were a few moments here and there when more subtly could've been used, but it didn't bother me that much. Some of the build-ups to the various reveals in the climax could've been developed better. This book could've easily felt like a cheap gimmick, but it pulled off what it was presenting me with a great amount of skill and only a slight amount of wobbliness on the landing.
I will say that you probably need to have a fair amount of open mindedness for the story being twisted, as several things from the original are majorly changed in service to the plot. I liked the story, but I see it more as a total AU to the original rather than a companion piece to it, as it does go out of its way to make Daisy (and the rest) more likable as people while majorly toning down or ignoring their original flaws.
Spoiler
I particularly had mixed feelings about the fact that the story went out of its way to make Gatsby the one to kill Myrtle while tying it into a theme of Daisy having no agency when I was curious to see how the book would deal with that moment of Daisy's character, but it did so by not dealing with it at all.If you have any interest in the idea of a feminist retelling of Gatsby and don't mind the thought of Gatsby being a full-on villain, I recommend this book!