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A review by brennieree33
The Chosen and the Beautiful by Nghi Vo
4.0
Damn. Just... damn.
This hit me harder than The Great Gatsby could. I love Jordan, and I loved her story. I felt every emotion she felt along the way, and I love this version of her so much. I think that Vo does a great job at portraying everyone's brokeness, even Nick and Jordan's.
The writing was beautiful. I had so many things underlined that just spoke to my soul. I loved it.
The fantasy aspect wasn't really necessary, nor were a few characters, but I liked them enough to let it slide. You also get to see really different sides to the classic characters, and a fresh new take on certain scenes that I really liked.
Take a shot every time they drink in this book and describe it as "burning down their throat." Actually, don't. You'll die of alcohol poisoning before getting halfway through.
Also, there's a random side character that comes up once but randomlly has the same name as BTK and now I can't stop thinking how she would randomly come up with that or if she just put it in and thought no one would notice, but either way I can't stop thinking about it.
- I love that Jordan is involved in the first date with Gatsby. It makes so much more sense, makes Nick less of a third wheel, and develops their relationship more.
-I love that Nick and Jordan have an actual love and relationship in this book. In GG, Nick really just seems to despise her and I never got why they were together other than their relationship to Daisy. But here they really care for each other.
-I like that Jordan is less jaded to Gatsby. Nick definitely had some red tinted glasses when it came to Gatsby, but Jordan doesn't. And despite that, she's able to respect them. Jordan has a very interesting perspective of being around horrible people often and yet being able to see the good parts of them, which I really admire.
-I ended up liking Tom much more in this book, which is an interesting change. Although it's probably because she hangs out with him less tbh.
-It's nice getting some more background on Daisy and what happened in her past. I think that made her much more interesting and intruiging. I liked her much better as well in this book, despite the end.
-I think the fantasy aspect had little point. While it was intruiging, we've already gotten proof that this story works without magic, and I think that makes the events and symbolism of GG more... impactful, I guess? Really, I think they could have just taken out the fantasy aspect, said that Gatsby had done some horrible evil or was running out of money (an evil to Daisy) and the story would have been more or less the same. The same is to be said with Khai and the paper troupe. They were in the book literally three scenes total and I think could have been cut out almost entirely. Something else definitely could have made Jordan more curious about her heritage and convinced her of the seriousness of the Manchester Act. Maybe Aunt Justine gives her a family heirloom, the one thing that was brought over with Jordan, or having an elderly Vietnamese woman mistakenly think she's her daughter, as some ideas. I think it would have made more sense and taken out a lot of unneccesary characters.
260 pages
TW: blood, abortion, DV, racism, manipulation, car crashes, descriptions of death/corpses, guns, infidelity
Rep: multiple people under the bisexual umbrella, Vietnamese
This hit me harder than The Great Gatsby could. I love Jordan, and I loved her story. I felt every emotion she felt along the way, and I love this version of her so much. I think that Vo does a great job at portraying everyone's brokeness, even Nick and Jordan's.
The writing was beautiful. I had so many things underlined that just spoke to my soul. I loved it.
The fantasy aspect wasn't really necessary, nor were a few characters, but I liked them enough to let it slide. You also get to see really different sides to the classic characters, and a fresh new take on certain scenes that I really liked.
Take a shot every time they drink in this book and describe it as "burning down their throat." Actually, don't. You'll die of alcohol poisoning before getting halfway through.
Also, there's a random side character that comes up once but randomlly has the same name as BTK and now I can't stop thinking how she would randomly come up with that or if she just put it in and thought no one would notice, but either way I can't stop thinking about it.
Spoiler
- I love that Jordan is involved in the first date with Gatsby. It makes so much more sense, makes Nick less of a third wheel, and develops their relationship more.
-I love that Nick and Jordan have an actual love and relationship in this book. In GG, Nick really just seems to despise her and I never got why they were together other than their relationship to Daisy. But here they really care for each other.
-I like that Jordan is less jaded to Gatsby. Nick definitely had some red tinted glasses when it came to Gatsby, but Jordan doesn't. And despite that, she's able to respect them. Jordan has a very interesting perspective of being around horrible people often and yet being able to see the good parts of them, which I really admire.
-I ended up liking Tom much more in this book, which is an interesting change. Although it's probably because she hangs out with him less tbh.
-It's nice getting some more background on Daisy and what happened in her past. I think that made her much more interesting and intruiging. I liked her much better as well in this book, despite the end.
-I think the fantasy aspect had little point. While it was intruiging, we've already gotten proof that this story works without magic, and I think that makes the events and symbolism of GG more... impactful, I guess? Really, I think they could have just taken out the fantasy aspect, said that Gatsby had done some horrible evil or was running out of money (an evil to Daisy) and the story would have been more or less the same. The same is to be said with Khai and the paper troupe. They were in the book literally three scenes total and I think could have been cut out almost entirely. Something else definitely could have made Jordan more curious about her heritage and convinced her of the seriousness of the Manchester Act. Maybe Aunt Justine gives her a family heirloom, the one thing that was brought over with Jordan, or having an elderly Vietnamese woman mistakenly think she's her daughter, as some ideas. I think it would have made more sense and taken out a lot of unneccesary characters.
260 pages
TW: blood, abortion, DV, racism, manipulation, car crashes, descriptions of death/corpses, guns, infidelity
Rep: multiple people under the bisexual umbrella, Vietnamese