The Chosen and the Beautiful
- 272
- Pages
- about 5 h
- Reading time
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Our view
“The Chosen and the Beautiful” retells “The Great Gatsby” in polished prose, narrated by a reimagined Jordan Baker. Jordan is now a queer Vietnamese immigrant with magic of her own, and some readers who know the original enjoy watching it bend into fantasy. The writing draws praise even from those the book leaves cold; a reader who never cared for Fitzgerald’s novel may admire the craft and still not enjoy it.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
The Chosen and the Beautiful is Nghi Vo's debut novel, published in 2021. The story is a fantasy retelling of the classic American novel The Great Gatsby. It is narrated by Jordan Baker, a minor character in the original novel, re-imagined as a Vietnamese immigrant with suppressed magical powers. It was nominated for the Locus Award for Best First Novel. It was also nominated for Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Fantasy in 2021. In 2022, it was in the 15 top rated books by LGBTQ+ authors and 20 top rated books by Asian-American Pacific Islander on Goodreads.
Where the score comes from
The sources average 7.3 across 110 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 43% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Fantasy average of 8.0. That is how 7.7 comes out.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hardcover | 7.3 | 110 | 100% |
Frequently asked
How long is The Chosen and the Beautiful?
It has 272 pages — shorter than 95% of the ranked books in Fantasy.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
Same shelf — Fantasy — with scores between 7.6 and 7.7, closest to this book.
