Review: Beautiful Little Fools

Beautiful Little Fools by Jillian Cantor
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Wow, just wow! I don't give too many books 5 stars, but this book deserved it for sure! I made sure that I re-read "The Great Gatsby" before starting this, but I found that I really hadn't needed to do so. This book does very well as is and gives you as much information as the original book. The twist is that this book is told from the women's perspective and gives us a different take on what happened at the end of "The Great Gatsby." The imagery, language, emotions were perfect. I adored the fact that this book was a bit easier to understand than the first one. "The Great Gatsby" was a bit too erudite (!) for my liking. This book didn't talk down to me, yet it was still intelligent in its prose. The relationships between Daisy, Jordan, and Catherine and their outside relationships, their perspectives on life in that era were phenomenal. Everything happening just proved that adage that 'money can't buy you happiness.' For a while, I sympathized with Mr. Gatsby but quickly came to see that he was not all I thought he was. Tom just made me furious and wished that he was the one to die. But, oddly, neither book made it clear to my satisfaction how Gatsby came by all his money, although I'm sure it was nefarious! It is a perfect 'what if' book. I HIGHLY recommend this book. *ARC supplied by the publisher Harper Perennial, the author, ATTL/Edelweiss, and NetGalley.

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SYNOPSIS:"USA Today bestselling author Jillian Cantor reimagines and expands on the literary classic The Great Gatsby in this atmospheric historical novel with echoes of Big Little Lies, told in three women’s alternating voices.

On a sultry August day in 1922, Jay Gatsby is shot dead in his West Egg swimming pool. To the police, it appears to be an open-and-shut case of murder/suicide when the body of George Wilson, a local mechanic, is found in the woods nearby.

Then a diamond hairpin is discovered in the bushes by the pool, and three women fall under suspicion. Each holds a key that can unlock the truth to the mysterious life and death of this enigmatic millionaire.

Daisy Buchanan once thought she might marry Gatsby—before her family was torn apart by an unspeakable tragedy that sent her into the arms of the philandering Tom Buchanan.

Jordan Baker, Daisy’s best friend, guards a secret that derailed her promising golf career and threatens to ruin her friendship with Daisy as well.

Catherine McCoy, a suffragette, fights for women’s freedom and independence, and especially for her sister, Myrtle Wilson, who’s trapped in a terrible marriage.

Their stories unfold in the years leading up to that fateful summer of 1922, when all three of their lives are on the brink of unraveling. Each woman is pulled deeper into Jay Gatsby’s romantic obsession, with devastating consequences for all of them.

Jillian Cantor revisits the glittering Jazz Age world of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, retelling this timeless American classic from the women’s perspective. Beautiful Little Fools is a quintessential tale of money and power, marriage and friendship, love and desire, and ultimately the murder of a man tormented by the past and driven by a destructive longing that can never be fulfilled. "