Reviews with content warning for Toxic friendship - The Great Gatsby

Why is this book so romanticized? Why do teachers and professors teach on it? Why was it popular enough to be made into a movie? Why do people throw parties with "Gatsby" as the theme? This book revolved around nothing but horrible, selfish people, who did nothing but cheat on each other and put each other down. No one cared about anybody else, they all just did what they wanted and no one cared enough to stop them. I will say that I am impressed by how much the author was able to fit into 110 pages. I was not a fan of any of the characters, they were all very two-dimensional and cheated on each other, or at least knew someone was cheating or being cheated on and said nothing about it. And also, the way that they talked to each other and about each other was horrible even though they pretended it wasn't. I hated this book and I'm glad it was a short read.

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carlycormier_'s review against another edition

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fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

“He smiled understandingly-much more than understandingly. It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it... It faced-or seemed to face-the whole eternal world for an instant, and then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favor. It understood you just as far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would like to believe in yourself, and assured you that it had precisely the impression of you that, at your best, you hoped to convey.”

During quarantine, I've taken up reading again and I am very glad that I have. I am, however, upset that it took me as long as it did to read this brilliant little book! I flew through it in a day I was so hooked. I was reluctant to pick this one up out of fear that I would envision or compare it to the film (which I saw ages ago). Fitzgerald's superb writing is a big reason why I was able to separate the two and enjoy this more.

It’s a story of false hope, ego, disillusionment, hypocrisy, the idealization of love from naive eyes, romanticizing the mundane, unreliable narration, and the collapse of a rose-colored bubble. Fitzgerald fills this story with poetic imagery that dances across the pages, pulling you in deeper and deeper.

To annotate the book in this review would not do it justice. Simply spectacular and way better than any movie could hope to be.

It was as dazzling as you would expect it to be.

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tifftastic87's review against another edition

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reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

I genuinely don't understand how this book is one of the "great American novels." Maybe there is something to take away about how wealth is a disease or that being a socialite doesn't mean you are liked, likeable, or capable of friendship. But there has got to be a better way to do that then to tell the story of wealthy people getting drunk, complaining, fighting and running around on their spouses.

Nick, the narrator, reminds us so many times that hes one of the few honest men, that I fail to believe he is a reliable narrator at all.

Gatsby, whom we know so little about until the end, is honestly a man who is so stuck on the past when he "fell in love" with an 18 year old barely legal Daisy that he spent his whole life accumulating wealth to get her attention. He throws wild parties just to hope she'll come.

The women, Daisy and Jordan, are pretty much here for decoration and to be an object for the men to either fight over (Daisy) or be guided by (Jordan). The exception is Myrtle who is there to simply show you how horrible Tom is and for Nick to describe as fat and bossy.

She carried her surplus flesh sensuously as some women can.

Tom is a racist, white supremacist piece of garbage who cheats on his wife, abuses his mistress and just talks trash about everyone.

I disliked every single character in this book. I loathed every page. I am so glad I was never forced to read this in school.

Only giving it some credit for the accuracy in which Fitzgerald describes drunk people and the way he sets scenes.

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gretchenplz's review against another edition

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challenging reflective tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.5

I'm not counting this as a re-read because I'm not sure I consider my high school opinion as law, especially on literature.

However, I just don't vibe with this book. It has an air of pretentiousness that I cannot get with, like the author is dangling a secret in front of us on a string like a "gotcha" or an "I know something you don't."

I do understand and appreciate both the significance of the book and the message this book sends, and I feel that modern society would be smart to remember it, but that isn't the case. If anything, they glorify the very issues that Fitzgerald so desperately tries to convey.

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saliwali's review against another edition

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dark reflective relaxing sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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agatha_hopkins's review

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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