Gatsby

by Jeremy Holt, Cunha (Illustrator)

An epic rager based on a timeless classic—welcome to the new Roaring ‘20s with GATSBY!

When middle-class Singaporean student Lu Zhao spends a summer on Long Island with his rich cousin Tommy, his assimilation into the opulent American lifestyle straps him into a collision course fueled by designer drugs, sex, deceit, and murder. GATSBY reimagines F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel as an LGBTQ-tinged, multicultural thriller for the Internet age.



When middle-class Singaporean student Lu Zhao is invited to spend a summer on Long Island with his rich cousin, Tommy, before attending Columbia University in the fall, his assimilation into the opulent American lifestyle straps him into a collision course fueled by designer drugs, sex, deceit, and murder. Set in present-day Long Island, Gatsby reimagines F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel as an LGBTQ-tinged, multicultural thriller for the Internet age.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, LGBT, Gay

192 pages, Paperback

Published May 30, 2023

About the author

Jeremy Holt is a non-binary author whose works include Gatsby, Made in Korea, Virtually Yours, Before Houdini, After Houdini, and Skip to the End.

An original art page from After Houdini was acquired by The Houdini Museum of NYC, where it now hangs in its permanent collection. And Skip to the End was one of three works of fiction that The New York Times included in an in-depth expose titled Kurt Cobain: What to Read and Watch, 25 Years After the Nirvana Leader’s Death.

They have received high praise from Brian K. Vaughan (Y the Last Man, Saga, Paper Girls) and NYT crossword constructor David Kwong. Originally from no place in particular, they’ve lived in Italy, Singapore, England, Norway, Texas, Vermont, and Brooklyn, before settling in Kingston, New York.

Reviews

[Jonathan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Choppy pacing that relies too heavily on readers' familiarity with the original text. Ultimately a retelling that doesn't make any new commentary and thus doesn't feel totally necessary.

[Cameron Rhoads · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful modern retelling of this classic from a LBGTQ and multicultural perspective for the Internet age. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

[Sneha Jaiswal · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jeremy Holt’s “Gatsby” follows Singaporean student Lu Zhao, who is spending the summer at his wealthy cousin Tommy’s mansion, where he meets Tommy girlfriend Dahlia and best-friend Alexis. When a new billionaire neighbor hosts a lavish party, the group is intrigued to find who the mystery host is. And thus unfolds a tale of wealth, drugs, love and obsession. I felt like Holt's Gatsby was a modern mash of Zuckerberg and Tim Cooke, whose vision is to take the social media experience to the next level.

I liked the artwork by Felipe Cunha, it’s quite like your regular DC/Marvel comic-books, with darker warm tones dominating the panels. However, the character designs for Lu Zhao and Tommy Zhao were almost similar, especially after Lu gets a makeover, making it easy to get confused between the two cousins through the story. So some more variation in the character illustrations would’ve made the reading experience richer.

Less than 200 pages long, the characters didn't really leave an impression on the reader and maybe the creator should've either gone for a longer graphic novel or a comic-book series.

Longer review - https://abstractaf.in/gatsby-graphic-...

[Patrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really liked the blending of the Gatsby story with modern technology and different ethnicities as well as different sexualities and genders. It was a great look at how a story could have different elements and still be a relatively understandable and relatable story. We get great snippets of how Gatsby is viewed both as himself and through the eyes of others. We also are given a interesting perspective of how technology might have dark roots and what the implications of those roots would be. I loved the artwork and character development and storytelling. And I thoroughly liked that there were different identities and how those identities would play into their perceptions of the world. I would recommend this to anyone who wants to look at interpersonal connections between middle class and the echelons of society. I also recommend it to anyone who likes queer people of color retelling of classic American novels.

[Courtney Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a Great Gatsby expert/apologist, I jumped on this adaptation when I saw it advertised on Kickstarter. Now, I admit I have a deep love of the source material. The Great Gatsby is one of my favorite novels of all time, and there have been many different types of adaptations, so it’s hard to pit them against one another. This one, however, has a very contemporary stance that still feels like the original text in many ways.

In this version, a student named Lu Zhao moves to America in preparation for his freshman year at Columbia University. While there, he stays with his cousin Tommy and is introduced to the high life of America through raging parties, drugs, and the drama of rich kids. Gatsby is introduced into the story as a new guy in town who made it rich off of a fantastic new app. He’s also an ex of Tommy’s and returns to town to use other people to convince Tommy that they belong together. While that is happening, Lu Zhao is learning about gender and sexuality for whatever reason. I’m not sure why those aspects of life just don’t seem to have crossed his mind, but it’s all accepted with an open mind. Rather than the car crashes and murders of the original text, this adaptation involves gang rivalry and drug pushing along with the usual violence. I thought this served the story well in making it feel more modern and including the app creation, as it is very closely described in many of the AI discussions currently in the media.

This probably isn’t a five-star book, but reading so many terrible Gatsby adaptations has skewed my judgment since I enjoyed this one. It’s a fun, mostly fresh take on the tale, and I think if given to the right reluctant readers, it would be a hit among the high school set.

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[ElphaReads · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved the concept and I enjoyed the way that Holt updated the story to fit a modern Internet age of billionaires, classism, and a new American ideal, but I thought that a number of the characters didn't quite capture the themes of their inspirations, and that felt like a huge disappointment to me. I think that had it been longer and had we been able to better delve into the backstories it would have been more effective.

[Sinisa · Rating 1 out of 5]

Made a mistake and dived into this just because I saw title. It is horrible like every virtue signal for woke was thrown into this that it didn't even make sence. And plot was horrible it is like some week copy of the original story but every detail that was interesting in original book is made more dumb.

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting modern interpretation of The Great Gatsby

The story ends in a fairly unsatisfactory way, which some might argue is true to its inspiration, but otherwise it paints an investing picture while inserting a decent amount of modernity into the classic tale. I think the book may have benefitted from having more time to grow, but it was worth the read regardless.

[Cole · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had high hopes for Gatsby reimagined as an LGBTQ tale, however it fell kind of flat. The pacing felt slow and it felt like a mashup of different stories that didn’t totally mesh. It takes a while for something poignant to catch your attention. The dialogue also felt forced and odd.

The ultimate twist at the end is somewhat interesting, but a little too late to redeem this story.

[Josh Newhouse · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m not a fan of the original but I gave this a shot. It had good world-building but ultimately felt soulless to me.., what was the purpose… which character was likable? Also the art was sometimes a little confusing… there is a solid core.

[Lizardley · Rating 1 out of 5]

Stilted dialogue, lifeless backgrounds, not a single interesting relationship between any of the characters (maybe Dahlia and Christina??), and nothing to say either as an original work or an adaptation.

If you’re looking for an adaptation of The Great Gatsby that tackles race, gender, and sexuality in a thoughtful and compelling way, might I recommend Anna-Marie McLemore’s “Self Made Boys”.

[Natasha · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to give this 3 stars but ultimately, I just didn’t like it that much. Conversation is so important in graphic novels and the character interactions just felt so contrived.

[allison · Rating 1 out of 5]

this is not and will never be gatsby just feels like they wrote a story and threw the name gatsby on for the funnies