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
An unrelentingly dark and disquieting look at the way societies conform to committing atrocities.
A processing plant manager struggles with the grim realities of a society where cannibalism is the new normal.
Marcos Tejo is the boss’s son. Once, that meant taking over his father’s meat plant when the older man began to suffer from dementia and require nursing home care. But ever since the Transition, when animals became infected with a virus fatal to humans and had to be destroyed, society has been clamoring for a new source of meat, laboring under the belief, reinforced by media and government messaging, that plant proteins would result in malnutrition and ill effects. Now, as is true across the country, Marcos’ slaughterhouse deals in “special meat”—human beings. Though Marcos understands the moral horror of his job supervising the workers who stun, kill, flay, and butcher other humans, he doesn’t feel much since the crib death of his infant son. “One can get used to almost anything,” he muses, “except for the death of a child.” One day, the head of a breeding center sends Marcos a gift: an adult female FGP, a “First Generation Pure,” born and bred in captivity. As Marcos lives with his product, he gradually begins to awaken to the trauma of his past and the nightmare of his present. This is Bazterrica’s first novel to appear in America, though she is widely published in her native Argentina, and it could have been inelegant, using shock value to get across ideas about the inherent brutality of factory farming and the cruelty of governments and societies willing to sacrifice their citizenry for power and money. It is a testament to Bazterrica’s skill that such a bleak book can also be a page-turner.
An unrelentingly dark and disquieting look at the way societies conform to committing atrocities.Pub Date: Aug. 4, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-982150-92-1
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: May 17, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
A touching portrait of courage and friendship.
A lifetime of friendship endures many upheavals.
Ellie and Homa, two young girls growing up in Tehran, meet at school in the early 1950s. Though their families are very different, they become close friends. After the death of Ellie’s father, she and her difficult mother must adapt to their reduced circumstances. Homa’s more warm and loving family lives a more financially constrained life, and her father, a communist, is politically active—to his own detriment and that of his family’s welfare. When Ellie’s mother remarries and she and Ellie relocate to a more exclusive part of the city, the girls become separated. They reunite years later when Homa is admitted to Ellie’s elite high school. Now a political firebrand with aspirations to become a judge and improve the rights of women in her factionalized homeland, Homa works toward scholastic success and begins practicing political activism. Ellie follows a course, plotted originally by her mother, toward marriage. The tortuous path of the girls’ adult friendship over the following decades is played out against regime change, political persecution, and devastating loss. Ellie’s well-intentioned but naïve approach stands in stark contrast to Homa’s commitment to human rights, particularly for women, and her willingness to risk personal safety to secure those rights. As narrated by Ellie, the girls’ story incorporates frequent references to Iranian food, customs, and beliefs common in the years of tumult and reforms accompanying the Iranian Revolution. Themes of jealousy—even in close friendships—and the role of the shir zan, the courageous “lion women” of Iran who effect change, recur through the narrative. The heartaches associated with emigration are explored along with issues of personal sacrifice for the sake of the greater good (no matter how remote it may seem).
A touching portrait of courage and friendship.Pub Date: July 2, 2024
ISBN: 9781668036587
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: April 19, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
© 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.
