Nghi Vo is the author of the novels Siren Queen and The Chosen and the Beautiful, as well as the acclaimed novellas of the Singing Hills Cycle, which began with The Empress of Salt and Fortune. The series entries have been finalists for the Nebula Award, the Locus Award, and the Lambda Literary Award, and have won the Crawford Award, the Ignyte Award, and the Hugo Award. Born in Illinois, she now lives on the shores of Lake Michigan. She believes in the ritual of lipstick, the power of stories, and the right to change your mind.
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A Best Fantasy Novel from the Last 10 Years for Book Riot A Best of
2021 Pick for NPR "Deserves to be read alongside the book that
inspired it. Vo's prose is beautifully supple, and the novel shines
when she reads "Gatsby" against the grain... A sumptuous, decadent
read."--The New York Times "Nghi Vo is one of the most original
writers we have today."--Taylor Jenkins Reid on Siren Queen "A
luminous shift in perspective for a classic, this retelling will
never let you look at Gatsby the same way."--TIME Magazine "I love
it with the passion of a thousand burning hearts... Vo's audacious
amendments shift the register of "The Great Gatsby," creating a
story that galvanizes Fitzgerald's classic and leaves a new one
vibrating alongside... from the old bones of an American classic,
Vo has conjured up something magically alive."--The Washington Post
"This is a wholly enthralling vision of the American Dream as
observed and experienced by one suspended in a liminal place --
accepted, but not really a part of the whole; apart, but not quite
separate. Vo gives us a dreamy, sharply-drawn glamour; a vibrant,
penetrating exploration of character. The Chosen and the Beautiful
is exactly enough -- but why not indulge with a reread?"--NPR "Vo
has crafted a retelling that, in many ways, surpasses the original,
adding logic and depth to characters' motivations while
still--uncannily--unspooling the familiar story. Astonishingly
crafted, with luscious prose and appeal for both fans of the
original and those who always felt The Great Gatsby missed the
mark."--Kirkus Reviews, *starred review* "Extraordinary. . . Vo's
immersive prose never ceases to captivate. The Gatsby-related
details and hints of magic will keep readers spellbound from start
to finish." --Publishers Weekly, *starred review* "An utterly
captivating series of speakeasies, back-seat trysts, parties both
grand and intimate and romances both magical and mundane. . . . Vo
is a remarkable writer whose talent for reviving Fitzgerald's style
of prose is reminiscent of Susanna Clarke channeling Jane Austen in
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. But it is Vo's additions to
Gatsby's original plot that truly shine. . . . [She] has
transformed The Great Gatsby utterly." --BookPage, *starred
review*
"The Chosen and the Beautiful finds Jordan fighting for her place
in this Gatsby-adjacent world as an outsider, a plight that Vo
illuminates in heartbreaking specificity."--TIME Magazine "What if
The Great Gatsby except sexy star golfer Jordan Baker is a queer
Vietnamese adoptee? And there's magic? You have our
attention."--USA Today "Enter Nghi Vo's lyrical, fever-dream spin,
in which golf-playing heartbreaker Jordan Baker is a queer
Vietnamese adoptee with a penchant for magic." --Oprah Daily
"The story has Gatsby's kaleidoscopic extravagance, with Jordan
playing the lead role. Beautifully written and magical, The Chosen
and the Beautiful is destined to become a classic."--Ms. Magazine
"Soaked in gin and dark magic, The Chosen and the Beautiful is one
of 2021's must-read novels."--Bustle
"Vo's resuscitation of Gatsby suggests comparisons with Jean Rhys's
celebrated Wide Sargasso Sea. . . [both] brilliantly elevate
less-central characters, adding depth and gravitas to women
underdeveloped, overlooked. . . . Vo creates an extraordinary
multi-layered literary experience that both enriches and eclipses
the overexposed original." --Shelf Awareness "Nghi Vo has written
us the adaptation of The Great Gatsby that we deserve: a sparkling
novel of excess and over-indulgence told from Jordan Baker's point
of view."--Book Riot "Turns Fitzgerald's American classic on its
head to present a world recognizable in outline, but brought to new
life in imaginative detail. The Chosen and the Beautiful is
magical, quite literally. In this Jazz Age New York, ghosts haunt
mansion corridors, flappers drink special elixirs that make them
float, and members of the elite have obtained their fame and
fortune by selling their souls to demons."--The Daily Beast "One of
the buzziest fantasy releases of the month is an alternate universe
adaptation of The Great Gatsby, keeping the dazzle of the 1920s
while adding the challenges of being a queer Vietnamese adoptee.
Plus, ghosts both metaphorical and perhaps literal."--Den of Geek
"Beloved for her "Singing Hills Cycle" novellas, Vo goes
ambitiously full-length with her tale of queer Vietnamese adoptee
Jordan Baker, who uses magic to get what she wants in a 1920s
Gatsby-like framework." --Library Journal "Vo remains an excellent
stylist. . . Recommended for readers of Vo's previous shorter work
or readers of historical fantasy in general." --Booklist "A
dazzling reckoning with the fragile and beguiling fantasies we
conjure to make sense of the past. It is also a (re)vision of The
Great Gatsby, a mesmerizing, fearless unravelling of a text at the
heart of the American literary canon."--Ancillary Review of Books
"The Chosen and the Beautiful is the perfect reinvention of the
classic summer reading list standby."--The Week "Vo's prose is lush
and extraordinarily detailed, and so reminiscent of Fitzgerald's
writing but somehow even more atmospheric and lyrical." --The Nerd
Daily "Nghi Vo's stellar transformation of The Great Gatsby recasts
the 'careless' Jordan Baker as a woman of depth and sharpness, a
socialite forced to live in the margins of others' lives. In Vo's
telling, the glitter of Gatsby's parties conceals a sinister
struggle--one where the players must survive on charms both literal
and figurative, and the line between the invented and the real is
endlessly blurred. Like Jordan's own paper creations, The Chosen
and the Beautiful captivates with its artistry and its power."
--Helene Wecker, author of The Golem and the Jinni "The Chosen and
the Beautiful is gorgeous and gripping, shining with language that
shows us all the facets and dangers of yearning. Nghi Vo subverts
and expands the possibilities of an American story, and magic is in
the marrow of every sentence. I'm in awe of this book's expansive
imagination and its exploration of what it means to discover
desire, make your own myths, and define your belonging." --K-Ming
Chang, author of Bestiary and a National Book Foundation 5 Under 35
Honoree "Luxurious, thrilling, and sexy, Nghi Vo's debut novel
dives into the world of The Great Gatsby and wears it like a second
skin. A shapeshifter of a book that had me hypnotized from the
first pages, The Chosen and the Beautiful brings new intensity to a
story you thought you knew." --Adrienne Celt, author of Invitation
to a Bonfire
"Exquisite, incandescent, and queer AF! The Great Gatsby is great
precisely because of the stories it's not telling. . . . Now, Nghi
Vo has brought the subtext to the surface, and given us the Gatsby
we deserve and the Jordan we need as we enter a new era of horrific
inequality and impending cataclysm."--Sam J. Miller, author of
Blackfish City "Decadent. Visual. Imaginative. Genius. Not enough
words to praise this page-turning novel of sorcery, infernal
compacts, and enchanted elixirs, in an altogether different 1920s
New York. Nghi Vo snips apart, then magically weaves together a
familiar story in a wholly original and decidedly unfamiliar way.
Redo all the classics. And do them like this!" --P. Dj�l� Clark,
winner of the Alex, Locus, and Nebula Awards and author of Ring
Shout "A sumptuous novel that tangles with race, magic, sexuality,
and class. Nghi Vo creates a world that drips with champagne and
magic, where outsider's views are the only ones that matter, and
it's impossible to be sure who is or is not other. It's bold to
play in the realm of The Great Gatsby and Vo's acerbic Jordan Baker
is the perfect woman to do it." --Erika Swyler, author of The Book
of Speculation "This book is Gatsby the way it should have been
written-dark, dazzling, and fantastical. Of course Jordan Baker
should have been the main character. Of course everyone should have
been messing with magic. Vo has created a perfect response to
Fitzgerald in tone, voice, and theme." --R. F. Kuang, winner of the
Astounding Award and author of The Poppy War "The Chosen and the
Beautiful is a subversive, sexy, atmospheric, sweltering,
gin-soaked, Hell-haunted vision of Gatsby's New York, with prose
that will pull you under. I loved it." --Alix E. Harrow, winner of
the Hugo Award and author of Starling House "Crisp as paper and
delirious as a fever dream, this is a redrawn Gatsby daubed in gold
leaf and lip rouge and blood. Nghi Vo gives a freshly imagined
Jordan Baker her due, while infusing her glittering New York with a
bottomless magical menace that feels both excitingly new and
cosmically true to Fitzgerald's original." --Melissa Albert, New
York Times bestselling author of The Hazel Wood
"Nghi Vo's perfectly honed prose embodies the intoxicating,
knife-sharp dazzle of cruel wealth and hollow people. This book is
as sharp and strange as the taste of a licked silver spoon--it's
breathtaking."--Shelley Parker-Chan, author of She Who Became the
Sun "I adore this Jordan and her shimmering rage, the way it laces
all her party glamour. It adds a queer vitality to this story that
really resonates with me, her flamboyance being so rageful. The
prose is like a bite of caramel that rips out your teeth. It's
seething, creamy. It has a bloody taste." --Hannah Abigail Clarke,
bestselling author of The Scapegracers "Vo's writing is flawless
and a type all its own. The writing itself made The Chosen and the
Beautiful untypical of fae stories; even though there are
commonalities and genre conventions present in the novel, Vo blends
them with the world, history, and characters in a way that just
feels natural."--Lightspeed "Sensual, evocative, decadent language
intensifies the glamour and ruin of the twenties, the poetic prose
testifying to Vo's masterful command of language."--Strange
Horizons
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