An intriguing and delightful queer romance that does not quite bring Gatsby back to life.
A sequel to F. Scott Fitzgerald’s masterpiece imagines the life of a gay Jay Gatsby.
“I had scarcely got Gatsby across the threshold…when to our astonishment it became clear that there was something resembling life in him yet,’’ writes narrator Nick Carraway at the beginning of Odasso’s novel. Instead of dying from a gunshot wound, as he did at the end of Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, this Gatsby recovers under Nick’s tender care and in his bed. Somewhere between fan fiction and literary thought experiment, Odasso’s book sets up Nick and Gatsby as lovers and ships them off on a steamy honeymoon through Canada, England, and France. The couple settle in Boston, where Nick’s cousin Daisy reappears in their lives. Daisy created tension in the original and has come back to complicate things. This time, the drama revolves around her daughter, Pam. A bright and sassy girl with more love for books than boys, Pam is starting to realize who she really is—and who she could be—with the help of her supportive gay uncles. As in the first book, keeping up appearances is a dilemma for all the characters, but here, Nick and Gatsby’s tender love for each other helps them push through society’s expectations. There is something both silly and charming about the premise. Casual fans of the original will probably have a good laugh before getting drawn into the rather engaging romance Odasso has created (although they may need a Cliff’s Notes refresher before the first chapter). The novel’s prose feels impressively witty and natural—if more inspired by the general time period than Fitzgerald himself. The sex also maintains a careful balance: passionate and surprising without being lurid. But Odasso seems more interested in a queer family navigating the world of The Great Gatsby than directly engaging with or reimagining Fitzgerald’s mythic figures. Ironically, true Fitzgerald devotees may find this Gatsby to be a bit of a fraud.
An intriguing and delightful queer romance that does not quite bring Gatsby back to life.Pub Date: Sept. 28, 2021
ISBN: 978-1953910875
Page Count: 170
Publisher: DartFrog Blue
Review Posted Online: Nov. 17, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Have tissues ready as you read this. A small package will do.
A love story about a life of second chances.
In Nassau, in the Bahamas, casino detective Vincent LaPorta grills Alfie Logan, who’d come up a winner three times in a row at the roulette table and walked away with $2 million. “How did you do it?” asks the detective. Alfie calmly denies cheating. You wired all the money to a Gianna Rule, LaPorta says. Why? To explain, Alfie produces a composition book with the words “For the Boss, to Be Read Upon My Death” written on the cover. Read this for answers, Alfie suggests, calling it a love story. His mother had passed along to him a strange trait: He can say “Twice!” and go back to a specific time and place to have a do-over. But it only works once for any particular moment, and then he must live with the new consequences. He can only do this for himself and can’t prevent anyone from dying. Alfie regularly uses his power—failing to impress a girl the first time, he finds out more about her, goes back in time, and presto! She likes him. The premise is of course not credible—LaPorta doesn’t buy it either—but it’s intriguing. Most people would probably love to go back and unsay something. The story’s focus is on Alfie’s love for Gianna and whether it’s requited, unrequited, or both. In any case, he’s obsessed with her. He’s a good man, though, an intelligent person with ordinary human failings and a solid moral compass. Albom writes in a warm, easy style that transports the reader to a world of second chances and what-ifs, where spirituality lies close to the surface but never intrudes on the story. Though a cynic will call it sappy, anyone who is sick to their core from the daily news will enjoy this escape from reality.
Have tissues ready as you read this. A small package will do.Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9780062406682
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 18, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
A heartbreaking, laugh-provoking, and absolutely Ephron-esque look at the beauty and fragility of everyday life.
A woman faces a health crisis and obsesses over a local accident in this wonderful follow-up to Sandwich (2024).
Newman begins her latest with a quote from Nora Ephron: “Death is a sniper. It strikes people you love, people you like, people you know—it’s everywhere. You could be next. But then you turn out not to be. But then again, you could be.” It sets an appropriate tone for a story that is just as full of death and dread as it is laughter. Two years after the events of Sandwich, Rocky is back home in Western Massachusetts and happily surrounded by family—her daughter, Willa, lives with her and her husband, Nick, while applying to Ph.D. programs; her widowed father, Mort, has moved into the in-law apartment behind their house. When a young man who graduated from high school with Rocky’s son, Jamie, is hit by a train, Rocky finds herself spiraling as she thinks about how close the tragedy came to her own family. She’s also freaking out about a mysterious rash her dermatologist can’t explain. Both instances are tailor-made for internet research and stalking. As Rocky obsessively googles her symptoms and finds only bad news (“Here’s what’s true about the Internet: very infrequently do people log on with their good news. Gosh, they don’t write, I had this weird rash on my forearm? And it turned out to be completely nothing!”), she also compulsively checks the Facebook page of the accident victim’s mother. Newman excels at showing how sorrow and joy coexist in everyday life. She masterfully balances a modern exploration of grief with truly laugh-out-loud lines (one passage about the absurdity of collecting a stool sample and delivering it to the doctor stands out). As Rocky deals with the byzantine frustrations of the medical system, she also has to learn, once more, how to see her children, husband, father, and herself as fully flawed and lovable humans.
A heartbreaking, laugh-provoking, and absolutely Ephron-esque look at the beauty and fragility of everyday life.Pub Date: Oct. 28, 2025
ISBN: 9780063453913
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 17, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
PERSPECTIVES
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
