Chosen and the Beautiful

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.

This discussion guide was shared and sponsored in partnership with Tor books.

Book club questions for Chosen and the Beautiful by Nghi Vo

Use these discussion questions to guide your next book club meeting.

The novel opens with a wind that blows Jordan and Daisy around “like a pair of young women in white dresses who had no cares to weigh them down.” Are they truly a pair of young women with no cares? Is that how they think of themselves? Does Jordan have a reason to want to be seen like that?

While The Great Gatsby is written from Nick Carraway’s perspective, The Chosen and the Beautiful is written from Jordan Baker’s point of view. Why do you think the author chose Jordan over Nick, or even Daisy? How is the world that Jordan sees different from that of the other characters?

Jordan very much considers herself a modern girl, but easily half of the book is taken up with the past, especially her and Daisy’s shared years in Louisville. How does knowing Jordan and Daisy’s past contribute to how you understand them in the present?

There are many stories told about Jay Gatsby during the course of the novel. How do these stories work for Gatsby and against him? How do they influence his relationships with the people around him? Which ones do you believe, and why?

Despite appearing to be a heterosexual relationship on the surface, Jordan’s relationship with Nick is a relationship between a queer woman and a queer man. What do you think makes this relationship diff erent from one where both people are straight? How does their sexuality play into how they relate to each other, and how does it force them to interact with the world they live in?

Jordan’s relationship with Daisy is one of the most important in the book, if not the most important. How would you define Jordan’s relationship with Daisy Buchanan? How do you think Jordan defines it? How does Jordan’s changing relationship with Daisy affect the course of her life?

At the end of Jordan’s romance with Nick, she realizes a surprising truth about who he is. Does this alter how you viewed Nick’s actions during the novel?

While Daisy Buchanan’s marriage is obviously abusive, the abuse is passed off as a normalized thing, hardly worthy of comment. How does Tom Buchanan’s abuse of his wife impact your reading of Daisy’s affair with Gatsby and then her choice to stay with Tom? Does Jordan’s lack of engagement with said abuse affect how you see her character?

Chosen and the Beautiful Book Club Questions PDF

Click here for a printable PDF of the Chosen and the Beautiful discussion questions