The Chosen and the Beautiful
An Instant National Bestseller!
An Indie Next Pick!
A Most Anticipated in 2021 Pick for Oprah Magazine USA Today Buzzfeed Greatist BookPage PopSugar Bustle The Nerd Daily Goodreads Literary Hub Ms. Magazine Library Journal Culturess Book Riot Parade Magazine Kirkus The Week Book Bub OverDrive The Portalist Publishers Weekly
"A vibrant and queer reinvention of F. Scott Fitzgerald's jazz age classic. . . . I was captivated from the first sentence."--NPR "Nghi Vo is one of the most original writers we have today."--Taylor Jenkins Reid on Siren Queen
"A sumptuous, decadent read."--The New York Times "Vo has crafted a retelling that, in many ways, surpasses the original."--Kirkus Reviews, starred review Immigrant. Socialite. Magician.
Jordan Baker grows up in the most rarefied circles of 1920s American society--she has money, education, a killer golf handicap, and invitations to some of the most exclusive parties of the Jazz Age. She's also queer and Asian, a Vietnamese adoptee treated as an exotic attraction by her peers, while the most important doors remain closed to her. But the world is full of wonders: infernal pacts and dazzling illusions, lost ghosts and elemental mysteries. In all paper is fire, and Jordan can burn the cut paper heart out of a man. She just has to learn how. Nghi Vo's debut novel, The Chosen and the Beautiful, reinvents this classic of the American canon as a coming-of-age story full of magic, mystery, and glittering excess, and introduces a major new literary voice.
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Community Reviews
I FINALLY FOUND IT OMG I'VE BEEN LOOKING FOR THIS BOOK FOR YEARS NOW
Okay, time to tone down the hysteria.
EXCEPT NOT BECAUSE I'VE BEEN LOOKING FOR THIS BOOK AND WISHING AND HOPING FOR THIS BOOK AND NOW HERE IT IS AND IT'S REAL AND IT'S SO GOOD AND I AM SO HAPPY
Let me back up.
BTS, right? Talented musicians and artists whose works are layered and nuanced. Their coup-de-grace? Blood, Sweat, and Tears (yes, I will fight you). It is a perfect song and corresponding music video that sucks you deep into the world of forbidden fruits and irresistible temptations and falls from grace.
It's ornate, ostentatious, lavish... The music video makes you want to drip whatever that green liquid is all over those boys and then lick it off of them.
Perhaps because much of the "Wings" album and, especially, "Blood, Sweat, and Tears" references Hermann Hesse's Demian, it already feels like it has a storyline. There is one there and it is only patiently waiting for someone to coax it out. The aesthetic is so overpowering that it needs to be transformed into a novel.
I have been looking for such a novel since I first saw the BST MV (probably in 2018 for me). I've read a whole bunch of wannabes in vain. I've read Demian twice. I almost got there with the gorgeously lush magic realism of [b:Wild Beauty|33158561|Wild Beauty|Anna-Marie McLemore|https:i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1496161758l/33158561._SY75_.jpg|50370943], but it wasn't quite dark enough. [b:The Cruel Prince|26032825|The Cruel Prince (The Folk of the Air, #1)|Holly Black|https:i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1574535986l/26032825._SY75_.jpg|45959123] is also awfully close. It certainly has the undercurrent of cruelty and the opulence I was looking for, but it was so otherworldly (being in Fae land and all) that it didn't quite hit the correct note (though that did NOT stop me from imagining Jungkook as Cardan).
Finally.
Finally.
I found this book. I was not expecting this at all. I put this book on reserve because the blurb seemed really interesting. The Great Gatsby but make it gay? And the narrator is Asian? What the hell but also hell yes! Sounded awesome to me. And it was, but it was also the answer to my literary prayers. From the very first sequence where Jordan and Daisy are floating on the ceiling in a mystery drug-induced haze, I was entranced. There is magic realism seamlessly weaving itself throughout the whole story, cropping up here and there to intrigue and then slip away, and an undercurrent of danger and monstrosity. There is cruelty and envy and spite swirling beneath the veneer of 1920s New York, tinged with magic and our own nostalgia for a time in which none of us lived. I also loved how this retelling was from Jordan's perspective and that much of the same feelings were communicated but through new eyes. Some of the Gatsby/Daisy sequences hurt so much more from Jordan's view.
Side note, the audiobook narrator was AMAZING. Her voice was deep, breathy, and sultry and lent the book this aura of mystery, immersing me into this half world of shadows and illusions. I'm going to read it again on my own, but I 10/10 would recommend going audiobook first. Amazing.
I was completely consumed by this book. Which is how it should be. Because that's how Gatsby is. He consumes and is consumed completely. So many hapless New Yorkers fall into his web, and he is completely ensnared himself, by Daisy. I literally read it almost all the way through in a single sitting. I started reading the audiobook at, like, 8 AM and could not stop listening. I listened straight through to about 1:30 PM and the only reason I stopped was because I had arrived at my camping spot for a trip with my mom. My house got pretty clean that morning while I was looking for stuff to do while listening. I want to listen to it again, immediately. I haven't itched to reread a book this fast possibly ever. I want to dive into this book and live in there. I also, practically, want to reread it because it was one of those books that leaves you clues and I for sure didn't catch any of them the first time around.
Please read this book. I've tried in vain to express how much I liked it. All I can say again is that this book is the incarnation of Blood, Sweat, and Tears, and I want nothing more than to fall into it like falling into a deep, dreamy sleep, over and over and over again.
Update, October 24, 2021: Read it again, this time in book format. Still so good. Still exactly what I want. Spent an Audible credit on the audiobook so I can listen to it whenever I want. Can I read it three times in a year? I bet so. Canât wait.
Okay, time to tone down the hysteria.
EXCEPT NOT BECAUSE I'VE BEEN LOOKING FOR THIS BOOK AND WISHING AND HOPING FOR THIS BOOK AND NOW HERE IT IS AND IT'S REAL AND IT'S SO GOOD AND I AM SO HAPPY
Let me back up.
BTS, right? Talented musicians and artists whose works are layered and nuanced. Their coup-de-grace? Blood, Sweat, and Tears (yes, I will fight you). It is a perfect song and corresponding music video that sucks you deep into the world of forbidden fruits and irresistible temptations and falls from grace.
It's ornate, ostentatious, lavish... The music video makes you want to drip whatever that green liquid is all over those boys and then lick it off of them.
Perhaps because much of the "Wings" album and, especially, "Blood, Sweat, and Tears" references Hermann Hesse's Demian, it already feels like it has a storyline. There is one there and it is only patiently waiting for someone to coax it out. The aesthetic is so overpowering that it needs to be transformed into a novel.
I have been looking for such a novel since I first saw the BST MV (probably in 2018 for me). I've read a whole bunch of wannabes in vain. I've read Demian twice. I almost got there with the gorgeously lush magic realism of [b:Wild Beauty|33158561|Wild Beauty|Anna-Marie McLemore|https:i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1496161758l/33158561._SY75_.jpg|50370943], but it wasn't quite dark enough. [b:The Cruel Prince|26032825|The Cruel Prince (The Folk of the Air, #1)|Holly Black|https:i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1574535986l/26032825._SY75_.jpg|45959123] is also awfully close. It certainly has the undercurrent of cruelty and the opulence I was looking for, but it was so otherworldly (being in Fae land and all) that it didn't quite hit the correct note (though that did NOT stop me from imagining Jungkook as Cardan).
Finally.
Finally.
I found this book. I was not expecting this at all. I put this book on reserve because the blurb seemed really interesting. The Great Gatsby but make it gay? And the narrator is Asian? What the hell but also hell yes! Sounded awesome to me. And it was, but it was also the answer to my literary prayers. From the very first sequence where Jordan and Daisy are floating on the ceiling in a mystery drug-induced haze, I was entranced. There is magic realism seamlessly weaving itself throughout the whole story, cropping up here and there to intrigue and then slip away, and an undercurrent of danger and monstrosity. There is cruelty and envy and spite swirling beneath the veneer of 1920s New York, tinged with magic and our own nostalgia for a time in which none of us lived. I also loved how this retelling was from Jordan's perspective and that much of the same feelings were communicated but through new eyes. Some of the Gatsby/Daisy sequences hurt so much more from Jordan's view.
Side note, the audiobook narrator was AMAZING. Her voice was deep, breathy, and sultry and lent the book this aura of mystery, immersing me into this half world of shadows and illusions. I'm going to read it again on my own, but I 10/10 would recommend going audiobook first. Amazing.
I was completely consumed by this book. Which is how it should be. Because that's how Gatsby is. He consumes and is consumed completely. So many hapless New Yorkers fall into his web, and he is completely ensnared himself, by Daisy. I literally read it almost all the way through in a single sitting. I started reading the audiobook at, like, 8 AM and could not stop listening. I listened straight through to about 1:30 PM and the only reason I stopped was because I had arrived at my camping spot for a trip with my mom. My house got pretty clean that morning while I was looking for stuff to do while listening. I want to listen to it again, immediately. I haven't itched to reread a book this fast possibly ever. I want to dive into this book and live in there. I also, practically, want to reread it because it was one of those books that leaves you clues and I for sure didn't catch any of them the first time around.
Please read this book. I've tried in vain to express how much I liked it. All I can say again is that this book is the incarnation of Blood, Sweat, and Tears, and I want nothing more than to fall into it like falling into a deep, dreamy sleep, over and over and over again.
Update, October 24, 2021: Read it again, this time in book format. Still so good. Still exactly what I want. Spent an Audible credit on the audiobook so I can listen to it whenever I want. Can I read it three times in a year? I bet so. Canât wait.
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