#the chosen and the beautiful

[everiistence]

i am NEVER getting over this

#the chosen and the beautiful #HRGEHHDJD I NEED TO BE PUT DOWNNNN #it’s been a gatsby week (shot dead in the pool)

[st-just]

The night before her wedding, Daisy taught me that after the world ended, you still had to get up in the morning, and the things you ruined would still be there, needing to be fixed. When I looked at famous Jay Gatsby, soul gone and some terrible engine he called love driving him now, I could see that for him, the world was always ending. For him, it was all a wreck and a ruin, and he had no idea why the rest of us weren't screaming.

The Chosen and the Beautiful, by Nghi Vo

#quote #Romantic #poetic #the chosen and the beautiful #Nghi Vo

[lilradridinghood]

Look who started a BookTube channel!!!

anyway give Asian authors some love y'all~

#it me #the chosen and the beautiful #light from uncommon stars #babel #if you could see the sun #we belong #one for my enemy #booktube #book recs #Youtube

[literary-illuminati]

Books I Read In June

24. The Chosen and the Beautiful, by Nghi Vo

Really, I should have read this one last year when it was getting all the buzz – it actually really mostly lived up to it!

But then, I’m the weirdo who actually enjoyed The Great Gatsby in the first place. If you didn’t at least kind of enjoy all the references and narrative fuckery with the source text. It’s, well, it’s not quite fanfic imo (at least, no more than Ten Things I Hate About You is. Which I mean if you want to argue the point you’d probably win, but), and if you come into it blind you’re going to miss like a third of what’s going on.

The whole urban fantasy aesthetic doesn’t really add much beyond, like, aesthetics and vibes and making the incredibly obvious metaphor wholly and completely literal re: Gatsby’s selling his soul. But, like, the book has so much fun with all the magical ‘20s decadence and literally occulted speakeasies and gay bars and similar.

25. Capital Without Borders, by Brooke Harrington

On a fundamental level the basic conceit of ‘anthropologist spends years learning the customs and folkways of a privacy obsessed community who feel reviled by the wider world – the private wealth managers of the ultrawealthy’ is just, like, incredibly funny to me.

But despite being incredibly dry and very, like, academic, this was actually shockingly readable. Actually pretty interesting, too.

I mean, in a ‘filled with despair and loathing’ sort of way, but still. Interesting sort of dialectic where the officials who actually serve the various world powers’ state apparatuses absolutely loathe the whole deal with tax havens and matryoshka dolls of trusts and charitable foundations and everything else, but despite ostensibly having basically unlimited coercive force at their fingertips they’re more or less helpless to do anything about it. Always fascinating to get a look at the people who the world works on behalf of.

And I admit I sort of have an aesthetic fascination with the sort of elite professional who ends up being a de facto social worker and relationship councilor for the much MORE elite family they work for.

26. Plague Birds, by Jason Sanford

I…thought this was a Hugo nominee? But apparently not? So, okay, zero idea how I ended up reading it.

Possibly my new top contender for ‘non-visual media which are still, spiritually, anime”. You know, post-post-apocalyptic setting of scattered villages watched over by benign village Ais and clans of dangerous hunters in the wilderness and wandering superpowered paladins who wear red leather and have bright red hair who are bonded to a super-powerful AI in their blood, and also the only character who isn’t at least kind of a furry is the apparently 16-year-old girl whose actually a myriad old alien spy.

Anyway! Decent romp, but honestly kind of fell apart in the third act, imo. Spent too long luxuriating in the (honestly very fun) worldbuilding, so all the actual plot and revelations had to be crammed together without having nay space to breath or feel natural.

Also the protagonist turns out to be, like, the most special child to ever exist Chosen-One-but-sci-fi, which I just generally despise.

Kinda a bit less than the sum of its parts, imo.

27. Across the Green Grass Fields, by Seanan Mcguire

Hugo novella nominee number 3!

This was fun! Not really much more than fun, but still – pleasantly tropey read, in a self-consciously fairytale-like sort of way.

I’m informed that it’s part of some wider setting/universe, but honestly you really couldn’t tell reading it.

Kind of amused at the apparent coincidence that this came out at (IIRC) basically the same time as a children’s tv show called Centaurworld, which I know absolutely nothing about except a friend stole the surprisingly terrifying villain to use in D&D.

Anyway, like, 3/5? The last thing I read by the author was Middlegame, and this is just honestly a pretty big let down by comparison. Doesn’t help that the general vibe kept me mentally comparing it with The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland In A Ship Of Her Own Making, either (not a flattering comparison for it).

28. A Master of Djinn, by P. Djèlí Clark

Hugo novel nominee number 4!

As a fan of pulpy weird alternate 20th centuries, this really was catnip to me. Buddy cop antics in a Djinn-haunted steampunk Cairo at the turn of the 20th century! A heroine who insists on wearing perfectly tailored English suits at all times despite living in early 20th century Cairo! A climax involving a giant robot and an evil wizard trying to restore the British Empire!

The vibes were sublime.

Beyond the amazing aesthetics there isn’t much to write home about, honestly – the setting is largely set dressing over a fairly conventional plot. Fun set dressing! The bit where the Brits and Americans are basically losing at imperialism because they went hard on the whole witch hunting things while everyone else went digging for local spirits to try allying with doesn’t necessarily make much sense, but is very funny to me.

29. Project Hail Mary, by Andy Weir

And Hugo Novel Nominee Number 5!

So I think I mentioned but – I did not know this was by the The Martian guy until I started reading it, but oh my fuck can you tell.

The tone is very..specific. I found it pretty grating, honestly, but not nearly enough to outweigh all the things the book has going for it.

So, it’s hard sci fi. Like, ‘extended asides to explain the scientific processes and technological breakthroughs as they happen for the education of the reader, most of the acknowledgements section is thanking different scientists for their help making it accurate’ hard sci fi. Honestly it’s to the books credit that the writing is just kind of twee and self satisfied, and not soul-witheringly dry.

The decision to have the protagonist wake up with amnesia and then slowly fill out the backstory as he makes do on the spaceship orbiting Tau Ceti he woke up from a medically induced coma in next to two dead crew mates was frankly an incredibly good decision, because the earth chapters are a) clearly just an excuse/justification to get him to Tau Ceti and b) just incredibly boring.

But, like, I really cannot overemphasize how much I just adore first contact scenarios where both parties are awkwardly trying to understand each other and work out some sort of mutually intelligible way to get information across and solve some desperate problem together. The aliens were so lovingly amazingly weird, too – both the astrophage and whatever Rocky’s species are called.

I literally read it travelling halfway across the continent, so can confirm that it’s a great airport read.

If Hollywood isn’t a bunch of cowards they’ll spend $100 million to make this one a movie too.

30. The Past Is Red, by Catherynne Valente

Hugo novella nominee number 4! Getting close!

Valente’s pretty easily one of my favorite writers currently working, and this did absolutely nothing to change my mind about that. I mean, a bit heavy handed – the setting is quite literally the city-sized island of trash floating above the waves after the seas have risen and drowned the entire world – but still, it’s the sort of ever so slightly surreal magical realism I’m really very fond of.

The prose was just relentlessly sharp and occasionally mean spirited and really consistently great, imo. For whatever reason ‘hope that’s just greed, going by it’s maiden name’ has gotten thoroughly stuck in my head.

Tetley as a protagonist is just generally amazing and wonderfully tragic and interestingly broken, really.

Anyway, haven’t read Elder Race of A Spindle Splintered yet but really solidly my favorite of the hugo novellas I’ve read so far.  

#book review #monthly tally #The Past is Red #catherynne m. valente #project hail mary #andy weir #a master of djinn #p. djèlí clark #across the green grass fields #seanan mcguire #Plague Birds #Jason Sanford #Capital Without Borders #Brooke Harrington #the chosen and the beautiful #nghi vo #analysis/review

[npdclaraoswald]

Another Instagram crosspost! I made a post of my favorite queer books last pride month, so here's some of my recent faves!

ID in alt text and book summaries under the cut.

Borderline by Mishell Baker follows a young woman named Millie recruited into an organization that guards the border between our world and the fae world. Artistic inspiration comes from a mystical tether to a fae and when a fae noble goes missing goes missing, Millie, despite being a new recruit, has to investigate across LA, meeting fae nobles and celebrities who owe their fame to their bond. Bisexual

Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger takes place in a fictionalized America where magic is normal. Elatsoe, a young Lipan Apache girl can summon the ghosts of dead animals. One night, she is visited in a dream by her cousin who tells her he has been murdered, though his death has officially been ruled an accident. Elatsoe travels to his town to investigate and encounters magical beings and a town full of secrets. Asexual

The Wicker King by K Ancrum follows a popular boy and a misfit who maintain a close and intense friendship despite their social differences. Jack begins experiencing visions of a parallel world existing alongside their own and demands August's help in fulfilling the prophecy the fantasy world centers around. The two become more and more codependent upon each other as they try to figure out whether Jack is hallucinating and how to fulfill the prophecy if it is real. Mlm- I don't remember if they specify any labels.

Into the Drowning Deep by Mira Grant follows multiple perspectives of the crew of a ship going out to investigate the sinking of one of the company's other ships seven years prior. The sunken ship had been out to film a mockumentery on the existence of mermaids, but before they sank, they uploaded incredibly realistic footage of the crew being attacked by mermaids. The new ship is crewed by scientists and media personnel to discover both what happened to the other ship and whether the mermaid attack was real. Main character is bisexual with a lesbian love interest.

Phoenix Extravagant by Yoon Ha Lee follows an artist in a fantastical version of Korea during Japanese colonization. Though Jebi has no interest in politics and is perfectly happy to live under colonization as long as they get to paint, their sister hates the colonizers and kicks them out of the house when they apply for an artist's position in the colonial government. While in the government's employ though, Jebi discovers some of the horrors the government regularly commits and resolves to steal the government's dragon automaton and fight back. Nonbinary

The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea by Maggie Tokuda-Hall takes place in a fantasy world that is divided by colonialism. Evelyn, the daughter of a noble family, is forced onto a ship by her mother to be delivered to her arranged husband. Flora, who has taken on the identity as Florian the pirate, is part of the pirate crew who masquerade as a transport ship before selling the passengers into slavery. Flora is assigned to guard Evelyn during their journey as she will fetch the highest price once sold, but the two begin to bond. Especially when the rest of the crew capture a mermaid that they plan to sell as well. Florian and Evelyn resolve to free the mermaid and escape together. Lesbian and nonbinary.

Our Bloody Pearl by DN Bryn follows Perle, a mute siren who has been captured and tortued by the pirate captain Kian as a prize. When Kian's ship is attacked by another pirate, Dejean, he finds and promises to free Perle, but because they are so injured from Kian's treatment, Dejean must take them back to his island to heal. The two slowly warm to each other as Perle heals and they hide from Kian, who is intent on revenge. Intersex and asexual

Eight Kinky Nights by Xan West follows Jordan, who just got divorced and moved to New York for her new job and is rooming with Leah, her best friend of decades. Because her ex wife wasn't interested in kink, Jordan has no experience with BDSM despite desperately wanting to be part of the community and explore herself as a dom. Since Leah is an experienced sub and works as a sex educator, she introduces Jordan to members of the community and decides that her Haunnuka gift to Jordan will be eight lessons on kink. Lesbian and grey ace

Ace of Spades by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé follows Devon and Chiamaka, the only two black students at a prestigious private school. Devon is a scholarship student and a loner and Chimaka is rich, popular, and Head Girl. They have nothing in common before they both become the only targets of Aces- an anonymous online bully who starts outing all of their secrets and tormenting them. The two must work together to figure out the mystery behind Aces and why they are being targeted. Gay and sapphic

Full Disclosure by Camryn Garrett follows Simone, a young HIV+ girl who is starting over at a new school after being forced to leave the old one as a result of serophobic bullying. When she starts crushing on and hanging out with a popular boy in school, she begins receiving anonymous letters threatening to out her as HIV+ if she doesn't leave stop spending time with him. She must decide what to do while attending a support group for other HIV+ teens and learning more about the community. Bisexual

Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters follows three people. Ames detransitioned after experiencing a violent hate crime and is now presenting as a man and in a casual relationship with his boss, a straight woman named Katrina. When Katrina becomes pregnant and informs Ames that she does not want to be a single mother and will only keep the baby if Ames enters into a committed relationship with her, Ames realizes he cannot live the rest of his life with someone who sees him as a man. So he invites Reese, another trans woman and his ex who broke up with him when he detransitioned, to co-parent with them since Reese has always wanted to be a mother and he knows Reese understands that though he presents as a man, he is not cisgender. The three try to make their new relationship work as the pregnancy continues. Trans, lesbian, detransition

Mooncakes by Wendy Xu and Suzanne Walker follows a young witch who comes across her childhood crush, a werewolf, fighting a demon in the woods. The two of them investigate the demon and reconnect. Nonbinary

The Tea Dragon Society by K O'Neill follows a young blacksmith learning how to care for Tea Dragons and bonding with the dragons' care takers' young ward. Nonbinary, gay

Exile and Pride: Disability, Queerness, and Liberation by Eli Clare is an essay collection centering on disability, class, queer identity, and environmental justice. Author IDed as a lesbian at the time of writing, but recent editions contain a forward clarifying him as trans

Everyone on the Moon is Essential Personnel by Julian K Jarobe is a short story collection featuring sci fi and fantasy stories. Variety of representation

A Place Called No Homeland by Kai Cheng Thom is a poetry collection centering race, sexuality, gender, and trauma. Trans

The Chosen and the Beautiful by Nghi Vo is a Great Gatsby retelling focusing on Jordan Baker, who in this version is Vietnamese and was adopted into the Baker family. It is also set in a fantastical version of the 1920s where Gatsby's magic is more of his gilded glamour and Jordan's is one more factor in how her peers exoticize her. We follow the events of the original book and her relationship with Daisy while Jordan reflects on being a queer Asian woman who is treated like an exotic attraction by her peers. Bisexual

Dread Nation by Justina Ireland takes place in a world in which during the Civil War, zombies began to rise. The war was quickly ended in order to fight the zombies, but the fighters on the front lines are black and Native people who are forcibly conscripted into service at the age of eleven. Jane is training in both fighting and ettiquite so that she can serve as a bodyguard to upper class women, but when one of her friend's little sister goes missing, she begins investigating the disappearance that leads her to a conspiracy. Bisexual

#bookblr #arcadia project trilogy #elatsoe #the wicker king #into the drowning deep #phoenix extravagant #the mermaid the witch and the sea #our bloody pearl #eight kinky nights #ace of spades #full disclosure #detransition baby #mooncakes #the tea dragon society #exile and pride: disability queerness and liberation #everyone on the moon is essential personnel #a place called no homeland #the chosen and the beautiful #dread nation

[yourqueerbookshelf]

The Chosen and the Beautiful, by Nghi Vo

“Who had time for the future in a summer like that one?” LGBTQIA+ Representation: Pansexual MC,

Genre: Historical Fiction/Magical Realism

You know how we all wanted a queer retelling of The Great Gatsby? This is it (but it’s also something different)! The Chosen and the Beautiful is told from the perspective of Jordan Baker (a side character in the original Gatsby novel) – a girl who was “adopted” from Vietnam as a baby and brought up in wealthy 1920’s American society. This is a world of magical realism, where Hell exists and lions are brought to life from paper, and where everyone seems to want a little bit of everyone. Jordan is a woman who seems to accept herself fully, but who also struggles with her cultural identity. She is as American as anyone around her, but as she grows and becomes more and more of a full person, it becomes harder and harder to deny that something might be missing – that something might have been taken from her. The people around her “don’t mean her” with their casual racism, and the magic she has is as foreign to her as Vietnam.

#nonmonogamy #pansexual representation #magical realism #historical fiction #lgbtqia #the chosen and the beautiful

[wordsgood]

I’m currently reading the chosen and the beautiful and, like an idiot, I was checking out the goodreads reviews, and it’s so funny to me that so many of the 2- and 3-star reviews are basically like, “I picked this retelling of the great gatsby even though I didn’t like the great gatsby and now I’m shocked and appalled that this retelling of the great gatsby is actually very similar to the great gatsby but with magic and from a different perspective. too bad this retelling of the great gatsby is so similar to the great gatsby which I did not like, I might have liked this book more if it weren’t a retelling of the great gatsby.”

#the chosen and the beautiful #amreading #if you don’t like a book then don’t read a retelling of it! #and if you’re reading it for the hashtag representation then maybe set aside the source material from your critique! #like feel free to dislike any book and for whatever reason #but you’re giving leopards-eating-faces party energy here. if you go in a bar you expect to see alcohol you know?

[the-butter-churner]

for the book asks: 2!

OOH, of all time??? I don’t know if I can pick!!!

1. Prince Caspian & The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (Books 2 & 3 in the Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis)

2. The Chosen and the Beautiful by Nghi Vo

3. Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Sir Terry Pratchett

4. American Gods by Neil Gaiman

5. Wonder by RJ Palacio

Honorable mention to the Riordanverse, I tried to include books from all my different eras of reading, especially some from my childhood— I definitely forgot some gems.

#aj answers the call #book asks #wonder #voyage of the dawn treader #prince caspian #the chosen and the beautiful #american gods #good omens

[showsandshowtunes]

what can i say, i contain multitudes

#the duality of man #books #the chosen and the beautiful #the king's men #crime and punishment

[tetedump]

She sobbed just once, utterly miserable in the way that only a person who is capable of being utterly happy can be.

- The Chosen and the Beautiful, Nghi Vo

#how did i not know this was a great gatsby retelling? it's *phenomenal* oh my gosh and i'm only a chapter in #// #books books books #the great gatsby #the chosen and the beautiful #nghi vo #jordan baker #quotes #reading #quotation #book quotes #book quote #currently reading #college #university #uni

[highladyluck]

Picked up The Chosen And The Beautiful at the airport and I am well-pleased with the number of disaster bisexuals at hand!

#the chosen and the beautiful #disaster bi

[st-just]

You weren't meant  to look at people the way Lieutenant Gatsby looked at Daisy Fay. You couldn't peel your skin back and show them how your heart had gone up in flames, how nothing that came before mattered and nothing that came afterward mattered as long as you had what you wanted. In that one still moment, it was as if Daisy had, all unknowing, taken Jay Gatsby's heart for her own, and he would spent the rest of his life trying to get it back.

The Chosen and the Beautiful, by Nghi Vo

#quote #poetic #Romantic #romance #nghi vo #the chosen and the beautiful

[submissive-and-readable]

Holy shit Nghi Vo is writing a sequel novella for the chosen and the beautiful ABOUT NICK AND GATSBY!!!!

#im so excited im gonna be sick #its being released next year april how ami supposed to wait??? #and tcatb is one of my favs ever #i need this so bad #nghi vo #dont sleep with the dead #the chosen and the beautiful

[literary-illuminati]

Okay, finished The Chosen and the Beautiful.

And okay, so ‘an explicitly queer, urban fantasy retelling of The Great Gatsby from the perspective of an Vietnamese-American Jordan Baker’ admittedly sounds like a project someone would make up to put in the mouth of their unkind caricature of an English major, but it’s actually really good!

Absolutely lovely prose and imagery (and imagery and vibes are pretty much the only things the magical elements actually added, but worth it imo), and generally a really solid retelling (even if it’s like twice the size of the original).

#the chosen and the beautiful #nghi vo #SFF #tht

[commonplacenook]

Stars didn't talk like people did, and I couldn't listen with my ears, but when I closed my eyes, they appeared to throw moving pictures across the darkness.

Nghi Vo, The Chosen and the Beautiful

#quote of the day #fiction #reading #books #booklr #nghi vo #the chosen and the beautiful

[queerographies]

[The chosen and the beautiful][Nghi Vo]

Clicca qui per acquistare il libro Titolo: The chosen and the beautifulScritto da: Nghi VoTitolo originale: The Chosen and the BeautifulTradotto da: Marina CalvaresiEdito da: MondadoriAnno: 2024Pagine: 276ISBN: 9788804751953 America, anni Venti. Jordan Baker cresce negli ambienti più raffinati. Non le manca nulla: denaro, istruzione, la stoffa per il golf e inviti alle feste più esclusive…

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#2024 #Fantasy #fiction #LGBT #LGBTQ #Marina Calvaresi #Mondadori #Narrativa #Nghi Vo #Oscar Mondadori #Oscar Vault #queer #The chosen and the beautiful #The Great Gatsby #USA