I loved the idea and premise (I mean, The Great Gatsby from the point of view of Jordan Baker, who is a bisexual Vietnamese adoptee AND magician??? Sign me up!!!) but I wish more had been done with it.

Nghi Vo's writing is beautiful, and Jordan's narrative voice was engaging, but I found the story little more than a direct retelling, with magic hamfistedly shoved in. It's been a while since I read The Great Gatsby, but the plot points here matched the original to a T - something I find interesting if the adaptation takes place in a different place or time, but rather unimaginative when it's done in a story like this, set in the same time period. I feel that more could have been done with Gatsby's origins - it's revealed that he

sold his soul to the devil

and then that aspect of his character is left hanging. The magic in general feels underused, and yet vital to the story at the end - as other reviews have pointed out, you can't have both. Either keep it subtle, or let it affect the story the way that it did.

Jordan's complex relationship with her ancestry could have been explored more, too, as without that exploration her decision and actions at the end feel rushed. Maybe I got distracted during the audiobook, but a lot of the plot seemed to meander around the concept of magic without really engaging with it in a meaningful way. The story would have been near-identical without its addition, and near-identical to the work it's based on. Maybe that's why magic was added - to differentiate the two enough.

That said, I still enjoyed my read (or rather, listen); Jordan's character is compelling and unapologetic, and it was interesting to see this classic from the point of view of someone affected by social struggles in the form of the racism perpetuated against Asian people during that time period - Tom's rant at the end held a lot more weight for this Jordan, for instance.