The Chosen and the Beautiful

Nghi Vo

Jun 2021 · Sold by Tordotcom

About this ebook

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 Best of Summer Pick for TIME Magazine | CNN | NBC News | CBS News | Book Riot | The Daily Beast | Lambda Literary | The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel | Goodreads | Bustle | Veranda Magazine | The Week | Bookish | St. Louis Post-Dispatch | Den of Geek | LGBTQ Reads | Pittsburgh City Paper | Bookstr | Tatler HK

A Best Fantasy Novel from the Last 10 Years for Book Riot

A Best of 2021 Pick for NPR

“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.

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Ratings and reviews

The Chosen and the Beautiful is a beautiful book that recounts a bit of The Great Gatsby ("GG") BUT in a whole new perspective from the unique eyes of Jordan Baker, an Asian-American bisexual. The original players from the story are present, but with "a few more" details added into it that spins the book into a different focus. Our focus is Jordan versus just Gatsby. The story is set in the 1920s and captivatingly written with many new insights into what a woman faced. It is told from Jordan's first-person POV. I love the colorful and "over-the-top" characters in each of the scenes appropriate to the era. The pace is slower than I expected but provides a lot of mystery and drama. At first glance, the plot may seem simple, but as the reader dives into the book, the story takes a turn that will bring in the conflict and climax that will further explain the reaction of people affected by the War and times. Disclosure: Based on what friends tell me, the story is still faithful and is an excellent ode to the original story, so I did not expect the story to change. Given this, would I need to read/watch GG to appreciate this book? I don't think so. I believe I got the sentiment and "feels" I needed and enjoyed it immensely! I do not plan to read the GG, but I may try to watch the movie adaptation later on...but at the moment, this book sufficed my hunger for the story. Being Asian with privileges, Jordan has a particular skill set in the story that allowed her into the world of the elite and fortunate. She was groomed to her role to be an entertainer and companion who is stable yet detached. Her control is one of the things I admire about her. She learns to be an excellent companion and confidant to essential people. She gives what she can "at the moment" and protects herself from emotions seen as weak, such as "forever" and "commitment." She uses people around her as others did with her. Her arrangements were mutually beneficial for both parties, giving her many allowances and access to private people and locations. I enjoyed how Jordan is "fluid" and seems to fit in anywhere and everywhere she goes. She strikes a good balance of strength and obedience but is calculative and shrewd. Jordan's backstory is not immediately disclosed to readers. Her story is slowly peppering in various chapters that build-up to the climax and bring readers into an exciting ending. I love how the author spins the story with many little twists while still faithful to the original story. Jordan's perspective, insight, and involvement made the story a more colorful and interesting one supporting the rest of the main characters - Jay, Nick, Daisy, Tom, and others in between. The story imparts a few critical behind-the-scenes details sprouting from the author's imagination, based on mystery and the mystical. This book is different from the other books I've read in the past. It is not a demanding book. It is patient with me but slowly crept into my subconsciousness until there was no way but to finish it. I started having trouble putting it down! Even if I was not with the book, my mind kept drifting into the various scene in my head until I continue to the next chapter. It did not make me crazily obsess or rush through it but made me yearning to keep reading. I like how the author ended the book - enough to make readers think about what happened after or the "other possibilities." In summary, I highly recommend The Chosen and the Beautiful to readers who love historical fiction, retelling genre books, and even those who might love supporting independent and creative new authors. It will make readers want to read it as you slowly get sucked into the beautiful and curious world of this particular version of Jordan Baker. The story is poignant and eerie haunting - with no clear victor in the end. Warning: this book will make you think constantly and reread chapters, and when it all ends, you will be back at it again. This book is my first encounter with the author, but it will surely NOT be my last.

"..he had a dreaminess to his eyes as well, as if he were somehow fundamentally unmoored from the world, perpetually startled by its sharp edges and small cruelties." 'The Chosen and the Beautiful' by Nghi Vo is a faithful re-telling of The Great Gatsby, wrapped lovingly.. and perhaps a little obsessively, within the cool contours of magical realism. Though I normally like my re-tellings to vary enough that they can be difficult to recognize at first glance, this one is so full of interesting, creative magical elements and interpersonal nuances that I think varying from the original tale too much would have done it a disservice. Told from the perspective of Jordan Baker, a queer adoptee originally from Tonkin/Vietnam by a wealthy white family, she has access to social tiers others would not have in the 1920's. She's free-spirited and has the money to pretty much do whatever she likes with her time and that just so happens to mean lots of exclusive parties. While it seems she has everything, she's still treated as an almost collectible oddity by her peers and the most important things remain behind sealed doors for her. "..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." Gatsby and Daisy, Nick and Tom, even the Wilsons are all still present here. Yet some of the dynamics have changed, modernizing the feel of the atmosphere. I enjoyed the way the reveal at the end was tucked away, marked only by character reactions and small side comments.. never directly addressed. At first pass, the scene just feels a bit off.. like there's something that doesn't quite make sense.. and then it does. Tinged with Faustian themes, the author gives us a much more visually vibrant world, however. The magic is otherworldly.. life seemingly made of paper, ghosts sharing space with the living, and all sorts of other intrigues. I loved the infernal twist on the bootlegging business and really enjoyed the way obsession was explored. It went far beyond just two people in this telling and became more of a spiral of obsession instead.. with one always drawn inexorably toward another until all were essentially connected. At times, the book reads like a fever dream.. and disoriented, you wonder if that's real or if it's the character being affected. "She was half out of her robe like a snowdrop unsheathed after the winter, fragile and more than a little raw." Vo is a beautifully lyrical writer who does an excellent job of creating an underlying premonition of dread while dazzling the reader with exuberant scenes and imaginative illusions. If you like a bit of mystery or a sense of fatalism in your stories, read this book. I promise you will not make it all the way through without finding at least one surprise waiting. (I received this title as an ARC. All opinions are mine and freely given.)

My husband's loves her so it must be she good love him long time.

About the author

Nghi Vo is the author of the novels Siren Queen and The Chosen and the Beautiful, as well as the acclaimed novellas of the Singing Hills Cycle, which began with The Empress of Salt and Fortune. The series entries have been finalists for the Nebula Award, the Locus Award, and the Lambda Literary Award, and have won the Crawford Award, the Ignyte Award, and the Hugo Award. Born in Illinois, she now lives on the shores of Lake Michigan. She believes in the ritual of lipstick, the power of stories, and the right to change your mind.