Local Heavens: A unique speculative romance reimagining of The Great Gatsby

by K. M. Fajardo

A speculative romance reimagining of The Great Gatsby set in 2075 New York, perfect for fans of Emily St John Mandel, Natasha Pulley's The Mars House and Chain-Gang All-Stars.

'Not just a cyberpunk reinvention of The Great Gatsby, but a singular revelation in its own right' OLIVIE BLAKE

'Luring us in with glitz and glamour, neon and chrome ... A stunning retelling of The Great Gatsby' K. M. ENRIGHT

A corporate hacker. An elusive billionaire. A society trying to survive the American Nightmare.

New York City, 2075. Filipino-American Nick Carraway has just moved to the heart of the fractured New Americas, where he's struck by the city's contradictions - shining corporate towers casting bleak shadows over the slums of a crumbling middle class.

When Nick meets alluring new-money Jay Gatsby, he falls for Gatsby's frank charm and confident aura. But in a city where the wealthy flaunt tech-enhanced bodies to cheat death, surfaces aren't all they seem - and as a corporate-sanctioned cyberspace hacker, Nick knows that no secret can stay buried forever. He's the reason they don't. And his latest assignment? Investigate Gatsby himself.

As Nick becomes entangled in the dark affairs of the elite - and the devastating fallout of their actions on the city's most vulnerable - he must reckon with the limits of compassion and accountability across class and status. What takes Love, or truth? Heart, or soul?

A brilliant reimagining of Fitzgerald's classic tale of glamour, desire, and desperation, Local Heavens examines the guardrails of morality ... and the price of desire.

'Local Heavens pierces to the core of an American classic' CHLOE GONG

'Beautiful, intelligent, timely ... A phenomenal new talent' ESMIE JIKIEMI-PEARSON

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Retellings, Queer, LGBT, Fantasy, Adult

400 pages, Hardcover

First published October 14, 2025

Reviews

[K.M. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hi all, with the centennial of THE GREAT GATSBY coming up, I am incredibly grateful to get to publish my thematic response to Fitzgerald’s beloved novel this year. I hope you enjoy meeting Nick, Gatsby & co. (again, or for the first time). I’m just dropping in to answer some questions I've gotten about the project, and then I'll be disappearing fr lol. Content warnings are below.

Do you 'need' to read GATSBY before reading this book? — It's not necessary. Whether or not you read GATSBY first is more a question of which way you want to engage with LH: as a reimagining, or as its own story.

On Nick — He uses the name “Carraway” (for reasons discussed in the book) but he is full Filipino. He is, once again, the narrator, but I hope you’ll find that while TGG is about Gatsby, LH is about Nick.

Inspiration/influences — The book is as much a love letter to GATSBY as it is to cyberpunk. My most formative cyberpunk media growing up was Cowboy Bebop (1998), Feed by MT Anderson, and Neuromancer by William Gibson (and all of Gibson's work). I had a lot of fun getting to craft my own twists on classic cyberpunk world-building elements, while playing with the nostalgic romance of Fitzgerald's Jazz Age and his meditations on wealth & class.

LOCAL HEAVENS was roughly a four-year writing journey. I feel very lucky to get to debut with it. It's the queer sci-fi fever dream project I've always wanted to write, and it is dedicated to anyone who feels lonely, alienated, or trapped in the cruelties of capitalist empire and the American Nightmare. May the dock across your bay light up for you soon.

Thank you very much for reading.
🍸❤️‍🔥 -kris


Content warnings:

Classism / Discussions of body modifications, transhumanism / Racism / Depictions of death, gore, violence, mutilated bodies, self-harm / Sexual content / Mention of suicide (off-page), suicidal imagery / Allusions to domestic abuse, postpartum depression (off-page)

[Noah · Rating 5 out of 5]

You walk like a miracle, bathing in starlight / Your voice burning holes in the frame / I danced in the parking lot, cried in the taxi home / 'Cause I still remembered your name (Angela – Flower Face).

There are good books, there are bad books, and then there are books that put you knee deep in a Silent Hill brain fog that renders you completely out of it for the rest of the evening because your mind is only focused of sifting through all the emotions that it made you feel. Sure, Local Heavens is surprising in its floaty dream-like prose and hellish yet hauntingly awe-inspiring cyberpunk backdrop, but also simply because it told the same broad strokes narrative of the original story and somehow made me have love and grace for Gatsby. The character, that is, I’ve always loved Gatsby, the book! Because the thing is, it’s a special kind of thing for a book to have me feeling anything except pure contempt for a rich billionaire who steps on heads and hearts to get their way, and yet that’s exactly what happened here with Local Heavens. I’ve always enjoyed Jay Gatsby as a character because of what he represents, airy and stylish and lacking in substance as he was, but I’ve never really been interested in “siding with him” the same way Nick Carraway so proudly does at the end of the original text. He’s a character who doesn't have any depth on purpose. And while him being bi this time around (though you could argue he was in the original too) did quite a bit of heavy lifting in endearing him to me, the simple fact that this retelling focuses harder on his tortured yearning (for both Daisy and Nick) rather than his immense wealth carried me over the finish line to the “Jay Gatsby” fan club side of things. If that makes me easy, then I’m totally okay with that! Hey, my favorite movie is In The Mood For Love directed by Wong Kar-wai, so is any of this a surprise? Add a healthy dose of aching want and stolen looks and I’ll be seated. Anyway, I think I’ve gotten ahead of myself a little bit, because I haven’t even properly introduced this book. There’s a proper order to these things, and I messed it up! Local Heavens is a Great Gatsby retelling in a stricter sense than you would expect in that... well, it's just straight up The Great Gatsby! You know how it goes: Nick Carraway moves to New York at the behest of his second cousin, Daisy, and as he gets further entangled in her whirlwind lifestyle, he learns of the enigmatic Gatsby, a fancy rich man who throws lavish parties in the hopes of attracting a certain someone. The last time I read a Great Gatsby retelling was with this beautiful book called Self-Made Boys by Anna-Marie McLemore, and I remember reading this review of it where the guy spent his whole review just straight up explaining his interpretation of the original book rather than talking about the one he just read! Like, come on dude. And not to name names, but yeah, that was me who wrote said review of Self-Made Boys. My bad.

So yeah, when I heard that there was yet another retelling of The Great Gatsby to sink my teeth into, and that it was set in a futuristic cyberpunk world that feels a little too familiar for comfort, I couldn’t wait to read it! Granted, my only real understanding of the cyberpunk genre is from the game Cyberpunk 2077 (which in turn is based off of a board game from the 80’s) that stars Keanu Reeves as Johnny Silverhand (his second best performance after Alex Wyler from The Lake House, and I really mean that), but I do love the original Gatsby a whoo~oole lot! With four “o’s,” can you believe that? Oh yeah, also Idris Elba is in the game too, and it's his best character since Knuckles the Echidna! Anyway, even though I’ve gotten the gist of the way this cynical and futuristic world works from Cyberpunk 2077, where characters "mod" their bodies with cybernetic enhancements or how society lives in a capitalistic hellscape where corporations control everything and there’s an overwhelming sense of societal alienation where everybody’s more than willing to just go with the motions simply because they’re familiar with it rather than actually being happy with their circumstances, I was still surprised at how easy it was to completely fall into step with this book’s narrative, and I have no doubt that I would have fallen just as hard had I not had any prior knowledge whatsoever. That’s what’s so great about The Great Gatsby, because it really has always been one of the best stories to adapt because it works as a good introduction to literature in a general sense, but also because it’s just a wonderfully poignant book with a timeless appeal. Hey, it’s universally beloved, and I can see why! Well I mean, mostly universal, because I remember one time my dad was asking me for a book recommendation... and because I can’t really give hand him something like Lace by K.C. Wells or The Prince’s Lover by Anna Wineheart, I figured the safest option would be good ole The Great Gatsby… to which he gave it back to me after three days with ten pages read. This isn’t shade against my dad, mind you, I’m just saying that I'm aware that even though I love the book, it’s not for everyone. Maybe that’s why there are so many retellings of the narrative, because it’s such a deeply human story, that it could really be applied to almost every situation and social or political climate. Though I will say that the updated setting did add a different flair to the original Gatsby scenes that were carried over. For example, instead of losing his thin veneer of charm in lieu of unhinged intensity by screaming and acting a fool, the 2077 Gatsby instead pops his Sandevistan and whips out the Mantis Blades on Tom’s punk ass. It felt a little video gamey, to say the least. Sure, the effect carries the same narrative weight, but it can’t be denied that the visual displayed here is a bit more, I don’t know... funny?

“I wasn’t sure I had one–a belief in any perfect, untouchable oasis. Then again, I had always moved through life a little too skeptically. I’d been raised to mind the gaps. The deceptively small ones. The ones you think you can jump, even though you know those that try never make it.”

But outside of the futuristic set-dressing, I’d argue that Local Heavens is less “Cyberpunk 2077 meets The Great Gatsby” and more… um, let me pick something out of my hat… The Great Gatsby with a Date Me, Bryson Keller twist? Sure, let's go with that. Gatsby doesn't want Daisy, but rather the idea of her and the nostalgia that his past relationship with her holds just the same as the original book, but what's added here is his newfound love towards Nick Carraway. It gives Gatsby an "out" in that he's allowed to become more than his 1920's counterpart simply because the veil is lifted from his eyes. In his love for Nick, he finds a balm for his doomed relationship with Daisy. What I'm saying is that 1920's Gatsby just needed some dick. Just kidding... or am I!? I feel like I should reiterated that Gatsby is one of those stories that could be placed anywhere in time and fit perfectly; you could set against the backdrop of the early 2010’s, where every song was about how the world was going to end so we should just drink and party the night away, or you could place Gatsby and Daisy and Tom right in the middle of today, where everyone’s an influencer and they all live together in a TikTok house creating “content” together. I'd read it! A story about superficial people doing whatever it takes to never feel something real and instead focusing on the idea of feeling something? Yeah, it really is a universal story. Otherwise, my main takeaway here is that… man, I sure do read a lot of gay ass books, don’t I? I mean, The Great Gatsby has always been a gay ass book in my opinion, but with Local Heavens I’m vindicated in that it's proof that you could retell the original text with barely any changes outside of superficial ones and Nick Carraway and Jay Gatsby would still have electric chemistry. In other words, Nick Carraway and Gatsby fuck in every iteration of The Great Gatsby, and no, I won’t be taking questions. My answer is this book right here! On a more serious note though, I’ve always been steadfast in my understanding of Nick Carraway as a queer man, but I’ve never actually liked the thought of a relationship happening between him and Gatsby. To me, the story is so ill-suited for a romance that the thought of any of these characters “living happily ever after” seems either incorrect. Either that or the entire context of the narrative has to change in order to seem right like in Self-Made Boys. The Great Gatsby is a romantic tale about people who can’t romantically connect with each other. This book doesn’t really change the characterizations of the original Gatsby, but rather writes them from the perspective from an author that actually likes the characters. What I mean is that it wasn’t just Nick Carraway that's written with purposeful vagueness, Gatsby and Daisy are also used as examples of people who have long since whittled away whatever “flaws” they might have once had to the point where they walk through the world like porcelain dolls who could shatter at any moment.

That’s why Gatsby losing his shit and showing the world that there is a real human man under all that perfume and those Talented Mr. Ripley ass suits was the breaking point for Daisy, because it forced her to contend with the fact that she too has a beating heart. They were always doomed from the start because Gatsby offered her an easy fairy tale to get lost in, "to get whisked away by a dashing knight in shining armor," so when he showed her that he was as fallible as anyone, she went back to the familiar, to Tom. Even the way she’s described informs us of this eventuality; she doesn’t walk into a room, she floats. It does a good job of showcasing how she’s seen in universe as this untouchable ethereal creature, but also hints at the fact that she really moves through the world as more like a ghost than a person. And the fact that neither characters are truly able to reconnect with their humanity is treated with judgement and shame from and through Nick Carraway. The only difference with Local Heavens is that because it goes a bit further than the original novel, pulling back a bit more layers to both Gatsby and Daisy, it also allows us more time to reflect on why they did the things they did rather than just calling them “careless people” and being done with it. Anyways, in case it isn’t clear, I LOVE talking about The Great Gatsby, no matter where or when it takes place, I’ll be here to read through it all over again. It’s the original queer subtext book in my book, and that’s kind of where I want to leave off on, because through the years I’ve often wondered at just why it’s so easy to interpret Nick Carraway as queer. For me, the reason why it’s such an popular theory isn’t just because of his near constant adoration of Jay Gatsby, but rather the fact that Nick is more of a narrative device in the stricter sense; only there to serve as a fly on the wall to the larger-than-life characters around him. The sad reality is that Nick’s hollowness and lack of depth have allowed us to fill in the holes ourselves, so it's easy for those who don't feel like they have a place in this world to see themselves in his masquerade, his code-switching, and his otherness. I think it’s common for LGBT+ folks to see themselves as only ever existing in the orbit of another’s life, and that’s the exact reason why Nick Carraway speaks to us so deeply. None of this is an insult, by the way, because I think it's beautiful how we've basically adopted Nick into our own community! He’s whittled himself away until he only exists in passing mention, so it’s no wonder why he got lost in the superficiality of Gatsby and Daisy’s world. And while I adore Self-Made Boys by Anna-Marie McLemore, I can’t lie that Local Heavens gets to the core of what I believe the original was trying to say about excess, glamour, and those who aren’t just incapable, but also uninterested in seeing others as anything more than mere concepts.

Well I know these words might mean nothing now / While I'm stuck in this ghost town, your softness still haunts me / Someday, I'll find my way out of here, if you don't change your mind, my dear / I'll take you with me.

[camila]

i’m seated. the bookshop employees are scared and asking me to leave because it ‘isn't out yet’ but i’m simply too seated.

[Drusilla · Rating 4 out of 5]

I feel completely empty. Rarely has a book left me feeling so sad and hopeless.
One note: I have never read the original and am only vaguely familiar with the story. Therefore, I don't know how much of this book is the author's own work and how much is not.
What I really enjoyed, though, was the setting in a cyberpunk future. For me, it was perfect. At first, I felt like I had landed in Blade Runner. The atmosphere was so fitting, and then it took on something different and unique.
That's what made me read the book to the end, even though I hate the plot itself.
The interwoven relationships between the individual characters were far too much for me. The cheating and manipulation and the emotional layers that are violated were just painful. And then, just when you think a happy ending and a real relationship are finally possible, you get stabbed in the chest. God, how I hate the plot.
Just thinking that even in the distant future there will be no discernible changes in society, that the same hateful instincts will still drive humanity, leaves me feeling numb and hopeless.

“Everyone wants to demerit the Western nations these days,” he went on. “To destroy prestigious American names for fake ones.” He waved a hand at Gatsby. “Well, as soon as we do that, we let the Americas be run by any common swindler, or any third-world corporation. Or perhaps⁠—”
“Perhaps we’ll have intermarriage between races next,” said Jordan sarcastically. “Or imagine if we let men kiss one another in the street.” 🫩🫩🫩

And on top of that, the emotional immaturity of the characters. I don't know what to make of it all.

“Sometimes you love someone like a bad habit. You love them because it’s all you’ve ever known how to want, and you don’t know who you’d be otherwise.” His chest heaved with each inhale. “And suddenly when you realize there’s something else you want just as much⁠—if not more⁠—you try impossibly to have both. Only to ruin it all.” 🥺🥺🥺

I remember thinking that if I stayed in that pool forever, if I turned my head away from the cherubs, that I might see him floating beside me, with that promise of a smile, toward those paradises he dreamed up so fervently. 😭😭😭

It was probably a bad decision to read something like this just before Christmas. I think I urgently need to go through my tbr pile and find something more uplifting.

[Robin · Rating 5 out of 5]

i need a minute

knows it’s a GG retelling: haha i wonder what happens
*rocking back and forth on the floor* haha i wonder what happens

Bookstagram | Blog

[gnomercy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an ARC!

I finished this book in less than twenty four hours, but waited a bit to write the review because I doubt I can do the novel true justice. I wanted to sit with it, let it wash over me, keep it in my mouth like candy. It was the first time in a while I didn't feel inundated with info-dumps, but trusted as a reader. I felt as if I had the space to unpack this, that it was more than just the text on page. It was at once the original work and something else entirely.

Local Heavens is a cyberpunk retelling of The Great Gatsby, which, if you weren't aware, is my favourite classic. The bar was high for me, and Local Heavens delivers on all fronts.

The writing style has Fitzgerald's meticulous decadence, which I'm happy to sink my teeth into any day of the week. While doing this, it still retains aspects of a style outside of the original's, which I think is crucial in any retelling. Some old lines or metaphors were adjusted to suit the new setting, which I thought was a necessary addition. It definitely ran the risk of poor execution, but not in this case; it managed to hold its own very well. Jordan's interlude, while still remaining as strongly written as the rest, felt as though it had its own, clear voice outside of Nick's--and that is very difficult to accomplish. I could go on about the prose for weeks, but I'll stop. Just trust that the writing alone was enough to secure Fajardo as an author I will be reading voraciously in the future. Understanding another author's style to this extent, while maintaining clear hints of one's own, is a Herculean feat. I deeply admire it.

The worldbuilding may be confusing for some, but I rather appreciated the work I had to put in on my end to understand it--that's good, that's what I want and like, especially as a frequent sci-fi/fantasy reader. It was evident there was thought put into not only how the world's "current" systems work, but how they got there in the first place. I would've loved more elaboration, but I understand how this can be limited by page counts and run a risk of, indeed, info-dumping. What matters was that it was interesting, and did a good job of setting up basic "laws" of the technology as well.

Above everything else, the characters were what really blew me away. They are, at once, the same as the original work and entirely different people. Nick remains my favourite, as he's always been (I have always thought him very intriguing, and not at all who he says he is), but the changes made him not only more entertaining, but more down-to-earth. The choice of having Nick be a person of colour and how it played a role in the way he interacted with the elite was fantastic. It created another, crucial layer on top Fitzgerald's initial critique--which, alongside the added aspects of the role of technology and the effects of late-stage capitalism, really rounded out the point of the original novel and modernised it. From the moment I heard it was a cyberpunk Great Gatsby, I knew it would work. The themes, criticism, characters, and plot of the original novel graft almost perfectly into such a setting.

It'd be a poor review if I didn't mention the relationship between Nick and Gatsby. Without saying much, as it is worth the experience, I was not only deeply invested in their development, but appreciated the quiet way it built up. There was no explicitly stated tension, and not only is that perfect for their relationship, but it is how I prefer relationships to be written in general. This was done very well, especially considering how many plot points and other relationships had to be juggled. (Also a bisexual Nick has always made sense to me, I thought the same when I read the original work. I also appreciate that the scene in Chapter 2 of the original work was properly understood. Glad we all agree that's what Fitzgerald was implying.)

Local Heavens is timely, but more than that, it is aware the reader does not need to be badgered with quotables and dialogue stating the obvious. The disastrous effects of capitalism are clear even before Nick sets foot in the cyberpunk version of the Valley of Ashes. Attraction between characters brims under the surface, unsaid, for hundreds of pages before it releases. Every scene is exquisitely written. Quite frankly, this is the exact kind of book I not only want to read, but write myself. I can't stress enough how much I recommend it, if not for your own love of The Great Gatsby, but then for your enjoyment.

[Jillee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hmm…complicated feelings about this one (so I wrote an essay).

So first, I did my self-imposed homework and re-read The Great Gatsby right before diving (lol) into this one. Consequently, all similarities and differences between the two narratives were immediately obvious—which led me to question: how close should a retelling be? We retell fairytales, but fairytales are archetypal and so firmly stamped in the cultural landscape that we associate crumbling towers with princesses, red cloaks with wolves, gingerbread with evil witches, and so on; they’re made to be retold. But this isn’t a fairytale. In fact, it’s the antithesis of a fairytale. Any hope to be found is in the margins, in what we take away as Nick reflects on the futility of it all, on the dreams that are always a little out of reach, but that we as humans can’t seem to stop trying to grasp.

Gatsby is a strange one. 100 years old as of 2025, and arguably Fitzgerald’s magnum opus, it marks a shift in his philosophy from his first novel This Side of Paradise. While disillusionment permeates both novels, there’s a certain maturity to Gatsby that reveals the change in his internal dilemmas, and it’s strange and beautiful to witness a century later.

Some classics hold their relevance for decades, others for centuries. It’s too soon to know for certain how long Gatsby will endure, but it’s safe to say a century on that everything Fitzgerald said (and with such brevity!) is just as important and accurate now as it was then. And in 180 pages, that disillusionment and insight wrapped in gossamer packaging is something I doubt we’ll ever see again. (I, sadly, am a cynic, but I hope to be proven wrong.)

All that to say, adapting a new version of Gatsby is a tall order to fill.

While I can’t speak for those who never read The Great Gatsby, for me Local Heavens doesn’t quite stand up as its own story simply because it leans so heavily on the original. I wonder what someone who read Local Heavens first and Gatsby second would have to say about the similarities, because to me they were at best distracting and at worst a crutch. So where do we draw the line? Where does a story become its own story, an homage to the original and not just a pale imitation? Truly, I’ve no idea. (As I’m drafting a very loose Wizard of Oz retelling, I’ve thought about this A LOT.)

The prose is overall good, and I sensed the author trying to imitate Fitzgerald’s style, but unfortunately, I didn’t feel as immersed in this world as I did in Fitzgerald’s, and I attribute this to the writing not being quite as evocative or sensory, but rather flatter and more distant, though there are times when I found it very effective (mainly in scenes between Nick and Gatsby). I think also at times the metaphors felt not necessarily bad, but out of place. (I also just read some amazing prose writers on a semi-regular basis and compare everything to them, so most newer books just don’t scratch that itch, and I admit I’m super picky about it. Thy mileage will vary. This is still better writing than I’ve seen from many recently published books.) Still, it’s harder to picture this world, which feels in some ways a bit generic sci-fi and less unique to the story than it should (I watched two episodes of Andor a day or so before starting this and felt as if I could interchange the landscapes). But then, I’m not as well-versed in Cyberpunk and my favorite sci-fi tends to lean to the weird. (Again, thy mileage will vary.)

On setting, I didn’t get a great sense of what it was like to dive into cyberspace, or the war that apparently involved a lot of this(?), or why it’s so dangerous; glimpses, yes, but no stakes aside from one scene with Owl Eyes (a character I didn’t enjoy much here, sadly). It’s difficult at times to follow the ‘tech talk’ and to be honest, it’s probably the least interesting part of this book. I’m not sure how much of that is just me (a modest reader of this genre) or if it’s something that will be an issue for a lot of people, so…mileage. Nick is also supposed to be a corporate spy, but this storyline feels flimsy by the midway point and lacks tension for its entirety.

The dialogue is at times word for word from Gatsby, and aside from that it feels a bit mixed in how it melds with the world. Likewise, there are times when it becomes too expository. I was also surprised that certain characteristics, like Gatsby’s habit of calling everyone ‘old sport,’ were not replaced with terminology more fitting to the setting. This comes off as a missed opportunity.

There’s also a tendency in the writing to explain where no explanation is necessary, rather, to tell something that’s already been shown via subtext. I love subtext. It lets the words breathe. It pirouettes what’s said into something new and meaningful that will look just a little different to every person. Gatsby is full of it, and here we are a century later still obsessed. Subtext holds just as much power as the words themselves. Unfortunately, there were so many times where what could have been a really impactful scene ended up falling flat because of explanations tacked on.

As for characters, it’s a mixed bag. I generally enjoyed the changes here, but I had a hard time buying some of the flip-flopping that goes on in the second half of the book with who has feelings for who (also some of the behavior in general just didn’t add up to me by the last quarter and devolves into melodrama). I’d say the buildup to these things is decent, but not great, and so I questioned it several times. I believe the issues I had here are a byproduct of keeping some of the same dialogue, same plot points, but making tweaks—sometimes it works smoothly, and sometimes it doesn’t. Nick as a character is a bit static here, and while that's not necessarily bad (I'm happier when I see the ways a retelling tries to be its own thing), I can't help comparing him to OG Nick, who becomes more cynical as the plot progresses (and thus the ending hits harder thematically). This Nick feels cynical from the get-go, which makes his reactions to later events fall flat in some ways. While I don't think they should be the same character--obviously--I also don't always get the sense that this Nick (or any of the other characters) are as well rendered and dimensional as they could be. It seems like they're halfway who they were in the OG version and halfway new characters, but that crucial blending (how they exist in this specific world at this specific time) isn't always there. That said, the highlight of the latter half is definitely the developing relationship between Nick and Gatsby, and I’ll admit…the ending kind of got me, even if part of it felt off in the very last bit (maybe too close to the original, and I think it could have bloomed into something new there; or hell, maybe I just want them to have a happier ending).

I keep thinking of this comment I read in a review (for a totally different book) about the writing being nice but lacking substance. It’s sort of how I felt about This is How You Lose the Time War, word salad thrown together to sound cool but hiding flat characters and an incredibly shallow story that mostly comes off as generic in the end. Contrast that with my favorite read this year, Roadside Picnic, which has competent, raw writing that doesn’t try to be pretty but does manage to unsettle and immerse. Not only is that book one of the best and most subtle commentaries on commodification I’ve ever read, it’s also emotionally devastating, and I still think about it almost daily months later.

For me, Local Heavens resides somewhere between Time War and RP (notably, all three novels are sci-fi) in its writing and what it seems to be trying to do. It’s more coherent and readable than TW but lacks the raw beauty and philosophical depth of RP. It suffers a bit from a trend where so much of the narrative seems to be carried by vibes and aesthetics, but doesn’t probe beyond the surface, or gives the most obvious commentary that we’ve all heard before, ad nauseum. Yes, corporations are exploitative. Yes, the rich tend to get richer at the expense of the poor. In the instances where Nick is talking with Owl Eyes, the revolutionary/rebel talk felt like something I’d seen before many times. Tale as old as time, as they say. Tell me more, make it unique, make it something I haven’t seen or heard before, or at least give me a remix that I can really believe in. I admire the effort, but we’re only scratching the surface here. And I’ll say here that what I enjoyed most thematically (and imo, what carried the most depth) was the use of names (that scene!), false names and true names, and names we use like armor or cloaks to conceal our innermost selves. That aspect was lovely.

It feels like this is attempting to be in conversation with the original, but the author mentions not needing to read Gatsby to understand this. So I’m a little confused about where it all stands. Its very existence and how much it borrows from Gatsby kind of demands comparison, which is unfortunate, but even if you write the loosest retelling ever, you’re going to invite that. It’s as inevitable as taxes. And I think what it comes down to is that a lot of this feels like a futuristic aesthetic superimposed over the same story that still comes off very 1920s so that at times it’s easy to forget this is the 2070s (the last quarter was the most futuristic to me and where I felt most immersed). To bring in my handy old metaphor, it’s like the author threw Gatsby and various sci-fi elements in a blender but rather than a smooth, well-blended concoction, there are a lot of chunks floating around. People are still using the same curse words, the same mannerisms…and I guess it’s plausible, but just think how much those things change between one decade, let alone fifteen. It’s possible to look perpetually in your 30s but Alzheimer’s hasn’t been cured? Bodies are modified, but what effect does that have on hunger, on the desire for intimacy? Time and circumstances alter people on more than just the individual level. We make fun of each other by the generation for a reason, characterize ourselves by what we do or don’t care about as a collective, but that only occasionally feels touched on here.

So…I definitely didn’t dislike this book (like I said, the ending got me, and I enjoyed the name part), but I also didn’t like it as much as I wanted to, as I’m sure others will. Gatsby is one of my favorites, top 5 easily. And while fantasy and lit fic are my most-read genres, I like and occasionally love sci-fi. I was primed for this. And like I said, it’s readable, and there are some lovely lines and beautiful thoughts to be found in the pages. I just wanted more of that.

But in the end, I come away thinking just a little more about what it could have been rather than what it is, and I guess that means I’m floating in the margins, suspended by the potential.

Thanks to NetGalley and Bindery for the ARC

[ivanareadsalot · Rating 5 out of 5]

I would like to thank NetGalley and Bindery Books for the opportunity to read and review this ARC.

Something in his leisurely movements and the secure position of his feet upon the lawn suggested that it was Mr. Gatsby himself, come out to determine what share was his of our local heavens.

-F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby (1925)

🍾 a C L A S S I C .
But make it queer, tragic, and effervescent all at once. Local Heavens was an arresting, stylistic pleasure that

c o n s u m e d me. 🍸

🥂K.M. Fajardo's splendid narrative conjured the elegance and sparkling drama of the '20s, but with the cyberpunk neon-flair of a world shaped by excess. Eco-hazards and hearts alike burned with jittery lightscapes and smog-filled swathes of futuristic turmoil.🤖

🎆I’m still a bit unhinged and swirling from the lights, the drama, the unbodied netdiving, and the catastrophe of being able to vr fantasy dreamlife like a drug.

💫i devoured the radiance, the multicultural characters who'd hurt so exquisitely, and the bright fervour that transmuted Fitzgerald's energy and became something

m o r e.

🌃The doom was coming
but I could not look away from the shine.🌌

☄️I'd reread the last 25% (Chapter 30 on) a couple times because the t e n s i o n through the first 3/4 of this story made me feral for it, and I deserved extra doses of loose-limbed satisfaction just as much as Nick and Jay.

And
Y E S

each time the tension bled out
The hurting took me out just as intensely.🥀

But I was as unrelenting despite knowing the damage,
and Local Heavens made sure I f e l t ALL OF IT like a tornado in the chest
every. single. time.💔

I L O V E D that Nick and Daisy were of Filipino descent, and that I needed to google translate a few times throughout the narrative. Jordan's Nigerian roots also added a layer of multicultural texture to Fajardo's characterization of the "American dream." They'd set fires, settled scores, and mastered cyberspace, but those living and dying in the margins of the glitz and their melodrama, cycled through the worst of the death and destruction to then become the fuel for Nick and Jay's attempts to enact societal change.⛈️

I LOVED GATSBY!!! I love him still
And I can't stop crying about that😭

How am I still so haunted and heartbroken
but also hopeful?

I can't wait to read this again.


Local Heavens was debonair and silky and left me wrecked, and strung out, and wanting more. I cannot wait for everything that comes next for K.M. Fajardo, because this retelling of Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby was unforgettable, and excruciating, and outstanding beyond measure!

✨INSTANT FAVOURITE✨

[Samantha (ladybug.books) · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars

Ending this year on a high note!

How dare a Great Gatsby retelling, retell the events of The Great Gatsby and hurt me like this 😭.

This (and bear with me for this seemingly random comp) is for everyone who loves the messy tangle of relationships in If We Were Villains.

[Zoë · Rating 3 out of 5]

going to tell my kids this is the OH great gatsby

[❁lilith❁ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to Netgalley & Bindery Books for access to this eARC!
All opinions are my own.
_______________________

I have read The Great Gatsby, but it was years ago now. I really enjoyed this sci-fi kind of dystopian take on the story, even if I'm sure to have missed some of the little details that bigger fans of the original book would pick up on.
The themes I thought were spot on, delving into how the rich constantly get richer at the expense of everyone else having to live in dire poverty and barely scraping by. Very topical for the current climate in our lives, showing how blinded people can get by money and material objects while suffering is right around the corner being ignored by the people in control of the world.
The characters were complex and fit their roles well, as I can remember the original ones doing.
I found the outer space extra-terrestrial aspect a little weird, especially as it's present at the beginning and the end and basically nowhere to be found during the majority of the middle of the story. It felt a bit out of place and I literally did forget it was even a plot point to begin with.
I do recommend this to a lot of people, those who love the original book and those with no real connection to it at all.

[Lance · Rating 4 out of 5]

E-ARC provided by Bindery Books in exchange for an honest review. Thank you so much!

4.5 stars. With all of the palpable yearning, glamor, and terror of Fitzgerald's classic flowing through the veins of its newly-minted cyberpunk skin, Local Heavens is a fascinating innovation of a debut that left me excited for what's to come from K.M. Fajardo.

[Nel · Rating 2 out of 5]

back in my day fanfiction was free *shakes fists at the sky*

i honestly picked this up cuz i wanted gatsby and nicky to bang and they did so thanks for that??
anyhoo, if ur library has it and u really like the idea of gatsby and nick smooching, then grab it. otherwise, dont bother. just read the original or hit ao3 shelves for the gay bits.

[Laura]

DNF @ 50%

At first all the references to the original classic didn’t bother me and then after a while it got really old. No pun intended.

Romance. What romance? It’s so threadbare between Nick and Gatsby it might as well not even be in here.

The sci-fi element was a surprise. I was expecting literal robots not humans who had modified themselves with robotic technology.

So yeah, I was very disappointed with this one.

[CJ Alberts · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read for work, we love you gay nick caraway

[Jenna · Rating 5 out of 5]

click here for my playlist 🥂🦾💸

so here's my non-spoiler netgalley review:

As Gatsby says, I think I need to invent some languages to give a proper review for this book because holy COW. I’m don’t often enjoy Sci-Fi because it usually feels a little clunky and a bit cheesy, so I was very nervous to pick this up. I thought it would be a slog or a bore or some combination of the two, but in truth, this was as easy to slide into as satin sheets. It’s obvious from the very first chapter that Kris Fajardo knows exactly what she’s doing. Her ability to balance both the classic text and her unique world-building is absolutely astounding to me. It reads so smoothly that I can tell just how much work went into making the reading experience effortless. It’s clearly a passion project. And by god, it worked.

I first read Gatsby in high school, but slightly outside of the curriculum. We read it for bonus points over break, so I never actually “studied” it the way I did East of Eden or Crime & Punishment. But I’m quite familiar with the story. I love the Luhrmann adaptation, I really love the 2024 ART musical (An American Myth), but when I first read the original book, I was deeply bored. I remember being so annoyed with it that it’s kind of strange that I latched onto the adaptations so easily. But maybe that’s because I was searching for something that fully explored Gatsby’s potential.

This is such a stunning exploration of capitalism, queerness, and humanity. It’s poetic and well-written prose, but more than that it leans into the stylistic choices of the cyberpunk future in order to really expound on wealth disparity, racial tension, and homophobia. It does not baby the reader, rather it expects us to make the leap into the hyper-technic future that isn’t so far away from the lives we live now. And throughout all the espionage and corporate ladder climbing, there is the inherent drama and heartbreak of queer people who don’t recognize how toxic they can be. The characterizations of this story feel fresh and new despite being variations on hundred-year-old characters that have been bled dry of their original whimsy. The relationships defy the heterosexual norms of the original text, bleeding into the subtext that has been waiting to be fully realized for nearly a century. And through it all, we still have Gatsby himself, a man who is also a myth who has grown into something more complex than I ever thought possible.

This is Fitzgerald’s classic at its very best, and even though it’s gut-wrenching and full of tension, it stands strong in the belief that the new American dream is to eat the rich and burn down their empires.

Stunning.

-

and here's my actual diaristic breakdown review with spoilers:

okay enough of that what the fUCK!!!!!!!!

i cannot be professional about this actually, i need to go lie down

books like this are so rare because not only is it a slow burn but the slow burn is actually the detonation cord on a stick of dynamite and at the end of it all, THERE ARE NO SURVIVORS, HUNDREDS DEAD MILLIONS INJURED MY LEG! MY LEG! [explosion noise] [people screaming] [woman crying in the street] [it’s me i’m the woman]

I am a Normal Adult who can be Trusted with Queer Classic Retellings, I whisper to myself, lying through my teeth.

no but seriously.

going into this i was terrified and, to be honest, unconvinced. i requested it on netgalley because it’s a gorgeous cover with a slick concept and i cannot resist gatsby retellings and adaptations even though i am left disappointed every single time.

see the thing is, i think the great gatsby, much like gatsby himself, has evolved into this mythological being. something bigger than itself, bigger than just the story or just the characters, it’s a sort of Idea. i reach for this story because it’s a commentary on class, on the american dream, on *fantasy*. and yet every single time, i am struck by the thought that i don’t actually like these characters or this plot much at all. they’re horrible people. nobody wins in the end. it’s a quiet tragedy, actually.

so when i picked up kris’s iteration, i was quietly hopeful, if only because she explicitly markets it as a BI4BI love square. i came for that promise, but i stuck around for the mindblowing explosion of everything else.

which is to say, this might be the very first gatsby story that got through my defenses and shook me to my core.

i was lucky enough to see gatsby an american myth at the art in boston in summer of 24, and while that was a breath-taking (queer…ish) recreation of this crazy story (florence welch music, rachael chavkin direction, sonya tayeh choreo - and a crazy twist towards the end that reinvents the gatsby character in such a unique way), it still left me wanting more. i read the chosen and the beautiful back in 2021, and i remember thinking it was inventive and unique, but ultimately it fell a little short and now i barely remember it. my first experience with gatsby was christmas break in 2010 when my english teacher compelled us to pick up this classic with the promise of extra credit. i don’t remember much of that experience other than some flashes of reading in our old minivan and feeling deeply deeply annoyed that i had to read such a boring book over vacation.

i told my best friend as we walked out of the art in 24 that i think my biggest issue with gatsby is that so much of the story has untapped potential. so many people have rewritten it or reoriented it, but at the end of the day, nobody has actually explored its depths. i’ve never experienced gatsby as a fully realized story. (like full respect to fitzgerald, i know why it’s a classic and obviously his IS The Story…but.) so much of what i see in that potential just doesn’t lend itself to the 1920s. so much of it doesn’t lend itself to a heterosexual world. so much of it is about the exploration of classism and capitalism from a lower/middle class /marginalized perspective.

and yeah i’ve been yapping for like six paragraphs about this but i need you to understand just how intensely i have been searching for THIS BOOK. it has called out to me in my dreams since i was like fifteen. i have been waiting for THIS STORY for nearly two decades. because i knew it was possible, and i knew someone could do it, but i did not realize it would be THIS GOOD when i held it in my hands.

and this is coming from someone who does not enjoy sci-fi or cyberpunk as a genre. from someone who could give a shit about the original Nick Carraway.

my jaw is ON THE FLOOR PEOPLE!!! WHERE IS KRIS FAJARDO’S CRITICAL ACCLAIM!!! WHERE ARE HER AWARDS!!!!!!

i’m cool i’m cool

ANYWAY.

there’s so many layers to why i love this book - obviously the love square…WHEW - but i think at the heart of all of it is the implicit proof that kris kNOWS HER SHIT. at the beginning i was actually a bit annoyed because it’s SO much like the original. like obviously it’s different, if only because of the setting, but i felt like i was back in that minivan reading the og, even though it’s been fifteen years. but the further we get into the narrative, the more obvious it is that the author is hyperaware of where the original story goes, how best to deviate from it, and how to incorporate both her unique world-building and her unique characterization. sure, a lot of these characters are the same as they ever are, but the more the plot diverges, the more you get to see her version of these characters really come to life. but you can’t do that without having a strong relationship to and knowledge of the original text. it’s one of those books that reads so smoothly that if you don’t stop to pay attention, you might believe it was easy to write. it reads effortlessly, both as a retelling and as an original world.

and like i said! i hate sci-fi! (sorry!) i think it would be have been so easy for this to come across as cheesy, but the more we learned about the world and the characters, the more i started to understand just how necessary this world-building is to this specific story. fitzgerald’s world was all about new money and old money, but our world (our future and our present) is about corpos and billionaires, new money and old. granted, it took me a while to sink in to it and understand just how everything worked, but i think it really fleshed out fitzgerald’s ideas in such a crazy way. i’m super hyped to reread it someday so i can really dig into all of it.

but what i really want to sink my teeth into is the characters and relationships that were teased out of this work. i said that i was nervous, and i spent most of this book on the edge of my seat wondering if i was being teased and toyed with, but by the second half i was screaming crying throwing up, beside myself with awe.

can and will talk about the love square, but i’m gonna start with the crazy characterization of the individuals. we get some new faces in here to flesh out the world and move the plot forward (bunsen, owl eyes, etc) but the original core five are so insane in this book that it makes me want to eat my arm. tom is a basic one, who’s probably the most like his original counterpart, but dipping into his racism and homophobia really makes him MORE deranged and i’m still not over that whole scene at the plaza. daisy too is someone who feels mostly unchanged, and yet i can’t help but feel like she gets pushed to her limits. in many ways, she’s at the heart of the tragedy in this story - she causes the deaths, she is stuck between three lovers, she is the catalyst that brings nick here in the first place - and she really does become a villain more and more with every page, whether she realizes it or not. i loved seeing her explored. and then JORDAN. this is the most interesting jordan i’ve ever seen. and she’s a black athlete!!! a BI BLACK ATHLETE!!!! she deserved better, as always, but i think the joy of this particular set of characters is that everybody is the problem and almost everybody is a victim. i liked seeing her relationship with each of them evolve so uniquely - to see her jealousy of gatsby, her hatred of tom, her complicated feelings towards daisy, her fling-turned-friendship with nick. she felt so multifaceted and i also loved that we kept her secrecy too.

in fact i really liked how kris balanced out all the lies and secrecy and revealed only what we really needed at the proper moment. a lot still lies hidden under the surface, which is such a great ode to the myth of gatsby, and i think that really plays into the finally pages too. but i’m getting ahead of myself.

(why is this so looong ugh)

gatsby the man the myth the legend really was so fascinating here because we finally FINALLY get to see him peel back the layers of his daisy obsession and come to the final conclusion that it was all a fantasy. he gets closure in a way few gatsbys do, even if he still gets shot. i loved watching him anytime he was on the page because even as he craved daisy, he still was watching nick. it’s exquisite queer romance and characterization, especially as we see gatsby start to realize his feelings for nick even as nick is actively Not Thinking about it. i really appreciated the growth of his character - that even though he is Bad and Rich (that gen wealth idea really was inSPIRED btw kris it’s too realistic to not be scary but it’s damn good writing) he Saw Nick and it Changed Him.

TO LOVE IS TO BE CHANGED!!!!!!!

so without further ado, i can’t not talk about nick carraway. insane man in the original story, always interesting in adaptations and retellings, but this version of him was so deeply compelling to me that i could not contain my shock. he had DEPTH. he has FEELING. he has MANY MANY LOVERS. and more than that, he’s SMART. i loved that he was working behind the scenes, loved that he himself was Changed by the end of it, and loved how his race and sexuality really added dimension to his character and his choices.

and his NAME!!!! we finally found someone who was innovative enough to give him an ALIAS!!!!! i think it’s brilliant how gatsby and nick chase each other’s names throughout the text. and by the end i had completely forgotten that we still didn’t have his real name. but damn if it didn’t punch me in the gut with that final scene.

actually, i liked that even though these characters are almost dependent on their relationships, they are so strong individually that even on their own they make me want to keep reading.

but like yeah, i loved seeing everybody make out with a bunch of people. loved the moment at the plaza when nick & jay and daisy & jordan were holding hands. tHAT my friends is what it’s all about!!!! and when gatsby immediately springs on tom when he attacks nick…….mhm mhm…..

now i should touch on the wilsons. it’s interesting because some versions of this story put the wilsons much closer to the center of the action. an american myth really makes myrtle more dimensional, giving her that inSANE vocal number, whereas this book really just mentions her and shows her in one or two scenes. she doesn’t even get her own exclusive death / targeted murder, it’s more happenstance. and frankly….as someone who never cared for the wilson storyline, i really liked that we could reduce them to plot devices. not bc they aren’t important - they do drive the plot pretty majorly and they are a main point of tension in the valley - they ARENT THAT INTERESTING! never have been! everything we needed from the wilsons for commentary on class was reassigned to the child nick and jordan find. it is fascinating that myrtle died halfway between her face and daisy’s tho…and i loved the commentary of mods and how they impact rich/poor people. something something we’re all wearing masks…

speaking of. the ending. the final sleep session. nick’s name. the implication that one day perhaps a piece of gatsby could be resurrected…left me feeling a bit like the end of iwwv to be frank. and that alone is a five star feeling. but to add to it the fact that all those lost transcripts throughout the story are pieces of the puzzle nick has been laying for two years as he works to disrupt the rich empires? wHEW. hyped to reread. HYPED.

there’s just so much to unpack here!!!!! it’s a FEAST!!!! and it’s so obvious that this is a passion project because it’s unique and heart-felt and earnest and i’m so so happy that there was a publisher out there who could see the vision.

we need more classic retellings like this!!!! it’s so galaxy brain!!! AND IT’S GAY AS HELL!!!!!!

[Elaina McClendon 📚🌸]

I am sooo excited for this! I am incredibly happy for Kris.

[Autum]

I follow this author on YouTube and am so fortunate to also have the ARC! Super excited

[Kayla · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is the most stunning book I have ever read!

First of all, the cover is magnificent, and the cover artist should get a raise for this one! That is what caught my eye first, and I am glad it did!

Then, we have the story itself.

The world building is unique, and unlike anything I have read before in my history of reading. Sci-fi can be a little hard to get into, but the author made it seem easy enough by explaining what needed to be known, when it needed to be known.

I came from the author’s YouTube channel, and I can’t believe I got to read the story early! I will read this author’s grocery list, and will definitely be picking up her next works!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an Advanced Readers Copy.

[brewdy_reader · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5⭐️

Unfortunately this was not for me. I’d still recommend to Gatsby lovers as it did a nice job of reinventing that classic tale, even sticking with its linguistic style/tone and some beautiful poetry of prose and haunting passages, as well as that overall bleak inevitability feeling.

I love science fiction but this was far more literary in style — the pacing was very slow, and it felt like nothing was happening plot wise until 80% into the book. [Therefore, also recommended to those who love deep character studies of miserable selfish people who are constantly in search of that which is just always out of reach.]

The scifi elements were mainly in the futuristic world and atmosphere, the fact that people in 2077 have mods to enhance everything from their eye and hair color to their athletic talent and hacking rigs. But that’s about where it ends…

The love story (more of a doomed love square), was a bit unbelievable — what was it that Nick saw in Gatsby or Daisy. Jordan was most relatable and I did finally find my groove in the last 20% but it was too little too late for me.

Things I did love— Filipino rep, immigrant rep, themes of corruption and fickle nature of the wealthy, queer rep.

I do think I’m in minority here as I’ve seen lots of great reviews so maybe what didn’t work for me will work for you.

[A_Ladybug_Loves_Books · Rating 2 out of 5]

**1.5 stars**


Thank you to Netgalley and Bindery books for the ARC.


I want to start this off by saying that I was really excited for this book, and this was an anticipated read for me. It didn’t live up to what I was expecting. However, I do believe there is an audience out here for this. Despite my complaints, I would still recommend this to people that enjoy love squares and prefer their sci-fi elements to be more atmospheric than the main focus.

To start off, I think the synopsis does a disservice to what’s in the book. The synopsis appears to very centered around Nick and Gatsby and around a mysterious dilemma about “dark affairs.” Their coupling later does become integral to the plot, but much of the book is revolved around a love square, a very annoying love square with characters that were, in my opinion, unlikeable and one-dimensional. And I get that was the point. These characters were supposed to be unlikeable, but it was just difficult to understand why anyone was doing what they were doing. By the way, I think the love square should be hinted at in the synopsis. People who enjoy those plots can find this book and add it to their TBR list. Nick’s motivations were just him doing his job at first, Daisy and Gatsby were trying to meet again and used Nick to do so, and Jordan was there. She was in love with Daisy, dated Nick, and did bullet golf. That was all there was for her character—no substantial plots. Oh, and then there was Tom. He was a cheater like in the original and was there to be insufferable. He didn’t do anything other than complain. Also, for a character that is focal point to everything, Gatsby is not introduced until over 70-80 pages in. A big mistake, in my opinion.

The pacing was slow, as in it felt like the first 60 percent of the book was just filler—nothing substantial was happening. And that’s the thing: this book lacks a lot of substance. There was so much telling and exposition and a lot of unexciting monologuing. It felt like the author didn’t trust readers to figure things out. The themes were explained to us repetitively. Many people know capitalism is terrible. Classism sucks and is gross. But why can’t these themes be extrapolated by what happens in the story? Majority of chapters ended at weird places, and then the following chapter would happen and it would feel like what just happened didn’t matter anymore. Nick, as a narrator, felt very in the moment, which is fine I guess. From my perspective, Nick’s narrator voice would’ve better fit in a plot-driven novel over a character-driven one, but this one was a very character-focused book, so there was this feeling of blah…like does anything even matter? Events would occur, and then it would be onto the next thing without much thought about what just happened. Another thing that felt lackluster was the beginning of Gatsby and Nick’s relationship. Much of their introduction and initial getting-to-know-each-other phase was told and not shown. There would be monologues of Nick describing afternoons and outings with Gatsby. It was just a strange choice based on the synopsis and how the book ends. The dialogue was another issue I saw. It didn’t sound like how real people would talk. Sometimes, characters would sound too preachy or philosophical suddenly—these characters would usually be random minor characters. This usually left the impression the author wanted to exposit the themes through said character. The quarrel between Nick, Daisy, Jordan, Gatsby, and Tom in the suite room was so, so melodramatic. There was an outpour of emotion and anger, but it felt unnatural. There was no up and down to the conversation, no pause, nobody attempted to collect themselves. At one point, Tom physically attacks Nick, Gatsby defends him, etcetera. Afterwards, Nick is staring out the window, and then another character who is supposed to be his sorta girlfriend comes up to him, and asks, “What is it?” It was bizarre. Did what happen actually just happen? Was I being gaslit by a book? It might have been intended from the author’s end for Nick to appear like he saw something outside the window, hence the question. I’m not sure. All I know was that it was weird and made me doubt what I just read. I think this book was too long considering the events. Not much happened from the beginning to the middle, there was a rush of occurrences that happened toward the end, and then a character died. There was another, I believe, 40-50 pages after that. The E-book ARC I received was 455 pages, so I’m not sure if that will be the final page count. But yikes was it long, long. I wanted to briefly mention the end, not in detail though. If you read the original Great Gatsby, Daisy’s plot is nearly verbatim, except with a sci-fi twist. As much as I enjoyed the sci-fi worldbuilding, I think Daisy’s plot creates a major plot hole. It’s just unbelievable the events would have the same fallout in a world where characters have comms, there’s likely surveillance everywhere, potential witnesses. It worked in The Great Gatsby, since the story was set in 1920s, but it just doesn’t make sense in a futuristic setting. There are endless ways for her to get caught. I do want to talk about the things I liked. I enjoyed the creativity behind the worldbuilding and setting. I thought Happy Sleeps were an interesting concept, the physicality regarding netdiving was intriguing. There were occasional good descriptions. I thought the memory implant subplot was really cool, and wished it would’ve been more of the focus at times, especially considering the ending. The implementation of Filipino culture was also a positive here. I think this author has a lot of potential, so I hope to check out what they do next.

[✧Bella✧ · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am very back and forth on how to rate this book. Or even how to explain my thoughts without spoilers, but I'm gonna give it my best shot, so here we go. Hopefully after writing this review I'll know what to rate it lol.

To start with the basis, this is a cyberpunk retelling of The Great Gatsby, which is one of my favorite classics btw. I found the worldbuilding really intriguing. There wasn't a lot of info dumping right at the beginning, but things were explained throughout the book, and I found it all fascinating. It's set in the 2070s, so really not all that far in the future, and like, there's talk of them sending this capsule into space, which I think they said happened in the 2020s so that's interesting. Body mods are a BIG part of not only the worldbuilding, but the plot. Like, yk how the original story is set during Prohibition, so there's the whole bootlegging thing? Well, here, there's such a thing as bootlegging mods. Oh, and the whole green light thing? That was actually pretty genius.

The characters were all great, too. More or less the same characters from the original, but like, that feels right, somehow? However, when it comes to retellings, there is always the question of just how much to change. And, well, therein lies my main complaint.

See, for about the first 25% of this book, it was practically a beat-for-beat retelling of the original, just slapped onto a cyberpunk setting, like the scenes were basically the same, with just a couple of new things thrown in, and a lot of the lines were word-for-word quotations, as well. And like, I love the original, but if I wanted to read it, I would just read it, and not a retelling, yk? After the 25% mark, it began to deviate from the source material tho. And then after a while, it kinda went back to following it more closely, but the break really made it a lot better, and then when major things happen, it's changed to fit the setting which was nice.

Also, the drama was taken up a notch. I made an update while reading about how I almost needed a relationships chart, because, yeah, there was a lot going on in that department. (Side note: most of the characters here seem to be bi/pan/omni which allows for more of that lol). Personally, I see Nick as gay in the og, but I get why some people see him as bi - very valid interpretation - and it totally works here.

Then there is the matter of the themes, and this is where I really need to be careful not to get into spoilers. So, we all know the theme of The Great Gatsby, right? It's about the American Dream, yes, but I would argue that it's in many ways also about dreams in general. Impossible dreams. Trying to reach the unattainable. Which is shown both through Gatsby's pursuit of Daisy, and Nick's feelings for Gatsby. We see in the original how Gatsby isn't even in love with the real Daisy, but the version of her he's built in his head. Which is addressed here as well. But this book also takes that original theme and poses the question: But what if those dreams aren't even really what we want? Not what we need? What if we sometimes get so hung up on old dreams, we don't even realize when they change? What if an obsession with these things blinds us to what is right in front of us? Were those dreams also unattainable, or could the tragedy be avoided if we only realized in time? And honestly, that was my favorite part of the whole book. The author described this as "thematic response to Fitzgerald's beloved novel" and it certainly is that. There's also the whole social divide, and the dark side of capitalism, and all that, although I would argue that isn't the MAIN theme, it was definitely there.

Honestly, the ending made me almost forget how bored I often was throughout the first quarter of the book. ALMOST, but not quite. Sorry, I just don't know how I feel about how much was literally taken from the original there. I also feel like the writing style was very much mimicking the original, which is, of course, great writing, but like...

After that first 25% tho, I honestly really enjoyed this.

So, I'm thinking prob like 3.75 stars. And I would be open to seeing what else this author might publish in the future.

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

[Jillian Sutherland · Rating 5 out of 5]

How appropriate that this cyber-punk futuristic retelling of The Great Gatsby come out the year the famous novel turns 100 years old. The characters and world that author have built are hazy, mysterious, rich and sticky - blurring the lines between physical and virtual realities in a way that make the whole novel feel like a dream. The pages are packed with a slow burn tension that takes a long time to explode, but the meander of the first 3/4 of the novel are anything but boring as we learn what a futuristic New York might be like 50 years into the future. True to the messages and meaning of the original, Local Heavens imagines what human ambition and exploitation might look like as we fast forward through time. If you are a fan of the original Gatsby, and want to experience a familiar story in a completely wild, creative and surprising new world, Local Heavens is a must read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bindery for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Jude · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5/5

Futuristic sci-fi retellings of classics is such a fun niche genre, and Local Heavens belongs right up there among the most enjoyable. This retelling of The Great Gatsby takes some base elements of the source material and wonderfully incorporates them into a cyberpunk setting while still managing to feel wholly original. I will say though, the characters spent a whole lot less time in cyberspace than I anticipated, most of the action occurs in the real world, hacking towers, dining in mansions, flying along the skyline, and such- which may be disappointing for those looking for a heist or espionage story set in cyberspace. There's also a war that occurred prior to the story with some narrative significance, but it's barely explained.

On the sci-fi front, there are Lots of robots, and being part-cyborg is less weird in-universe than being wholly human. I liked how the story explored the commodification of bodies in a world that has managed to counteract their decay. The book delves into Happy Sleeps, or the shallow diving into cyberspace, sufficiently enough, but the actual diving into deep cyberspace, more often the realm of professionals, legal and criminal, was not really expounded on beyond the preparation before and after, which was a bit disappointing (Like the scene just kind of goes black... ).

The characters and relationships were all interesting and kept me seated all throughout. The romance, I feel, could be a hit or a miss, there was even a time when I wasn't 100% sure who was endgame with who, and I was like, mentally preparing myself for All eventualities, but I like how the author pulled it off, and the ending felt deserved. A bit open-ended, but the odds are in favor of everyone delusional imo. Sidenote that there was the occasional dialogue in Tagalog without translation, which I enjoyed! mostly because I understood it, but it might be inconvenient for some. While I personally think it'll take more to redeem a billionaire who built an empire on predatory inter-generational debt restructuring (if At All), I like how the romance in the book never forgets that the love interest is, in fact, a Billionaire and all the shit that comes with it. An enjoyable sci-fi reimagination that explores complex character and themes, with moderate levels of sci-fi world-building.

Thank you to Bindery Books and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

[zara · Rating 4 out of 5]

i saw that coming i really did. but i still didn't accept that 😭

[Colby · Rating 5 out of 5]

LOCAL HEAVENS is the queer, cyberpunk gatsby retelling of my dreams—a feverish, sensual, and decadent hover car ride through the american capitalist nightmare. fajardo's debut captures the spirit of fitzgerald's classic perfectly, mirroring the beauty of his language and dreamy severity of his characters, while effortlessly moving the story into a plausible, technology-ruled future that's as harrowing as it is promising, ripping open the chest of late-stage capitalism and performing an autopsy on its rotten, glittering heart.

the 2070s of fajardo's new york city is a world of surreal body modifications, billionaire corpos, disillusioned celebrities, and all the ordinary people whose lives are crushed by capitalism as those at the top thrive off their misery, exposing the blood that keeps america running—asking if you can see it, asking if you care. in LOCAL HEAVENS, nick carraway is a filipino-american corporate hacker, jay gatsby is an elusive billionaire, daisy fay is a filipino-american retired star of technological dream simulations, and jordan baker is a nigerian-american bullet-golf champion. a love square connects the four of them, and fajardo uses the beauty and tragedy of their relationships to explore humanity on both intimate and grand scales—from the delicate dance between strangers to exploring proof of life beyond earth.

LOCAL HEAVENS retains the spirit of fitzgerald's novel while imagining it anew in clever, revelatory ways that will redefine what it means to take a timeless classic and transmute its heart for the future it gazed into. the essence of the great gatsby is more relevant than ever in fajardo's hands: her world is the one we're already living in, but with our fears and dreams dialed as high as possible. it's a prophetic scream from a hacked security system, set to a jazz number. fajardo has written a gorgeous, sleek, and unforgettable debut right on time for the great gatsby's centennial anniversary, and i can't recommend it highly enough. LOCAL HEAVENS is going to haunt me for a very long time, and ensured that i'll follow fajardo anywhere in the world.

LOCAL HEAVENS hits shelves on october 14! it's available for preorder now, and if you needed a literal green light to convince you, here it is! go forth, old sport.

[gracie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love The Great Gatsby and I have a running challenge to read as many retellings of it I can find so it was no question I would be reading this one. I'm sad to say I wasn't as impressed as I was hoping to be.

While I did love the cyberpunk/futuristic world it's set in, I found myself wishing the author would have taken a bit more creative power in changing certain aspects of the original novel rather than lifting so many lines of dialogue verbatim. Other than that, Fajardo has crafted a beautiful story with prose that emulates Fitzgerald's and a Nick that's become a personal favorite.

Thank you Netgalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

[micah ➳ canonicallychaotic · Rating 5 out of 5]

i need to punch a wall, i loved this so much

and if i write my first real review in 3 years, what then??

here it is:

“i had practiced, rather unconsciously, this chameleon behavior my whole life; that was, taking comfort in being 'one of' whoever’s company i was currently in. sometimes it meant you’d go completely unnoticed; other times it was the closest you could get to acceptance or temporary camaraderie.”

when i was in high school i changed my twitter display name to "micah carraway"

not because i shipped myself with nick carraway in any way, no. but because there was something /about/ him that resonated with me. he was an observer, so passive in the story--watching the others around him, complicit in their actions. to me, the great gatsby has always been nick's story, even if that's only because he's telling it and so unreliable in doing so. i don't trust any version of the great gatsby where nick is not the main character (not sorry to the great gatsby musical i wiped from my mind).

but with local heavens, for the first time in my 14 or so years of loving the great gatsby, i'm faced with a nick carraway that most resembles me.

filipino-american. bisexual (he was bi and in love with gatsby the whole time; in this essay i will--). (also we're the same age now, which damn do we beat on or whatever.)

local heavens reimagines and retells the great gatsby in a not-so-distant cyberpunk future, where the chase for the american dream lives on and the effects of capitalism remain as dangerous as ever. it expands the story in ways i only could have ever dreamed about, with sci-fi elements from beyond my wildest imagination. and it all worked in a way that left me hollow and breathless as the book ended.

even though i know this story. even though i know its characters and its beats. even though i said "for me to love this book, i need /this/ to be how it ends." i was still heartbroken and left longing to change the past.

maybe this is what gatsby meant when /of course/ you can repeat the past. 1922 or 2075. we tell the story again--of nick and gatsby and daisy and jordan--and it all plays out the same way. the world changes. the world stays the same.

[Natalie Shields · Rating 5 out of 5]

Local Heavens is one of those rare books that stops you in your tracks, again and again, with devastating lines and gut-punching twists.

The prose is lush, immersive, and electric, pulling you straight into the story, walking beside Nick Carraway and feeling everything he feels—joy, anger, fear. Each character is given new depth, both lovingly and critically.

You might be skeptical about a cyberpunk retelling of The Great Gatsby. But trust me—it WORKS. I was blown away by how this version remains faithful to the original’s commentary on class, wealth, and morality, while making the story entirely its own.

Simply put: this is essential reading. It belongs in classrooms, book clubs, bookstores, and beyond. We need books like this.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an Advanced Reader Copy in exchange for my honest review.

[H · Rating 2 out of 5]

The world building here was really cool, but this novel reminded me a lot of last year’s “The Ministry of Time” in that it was fundamentally a sci-fi novel for people who don’t read sci-fi (or, perhaps, a contemporary novel in a sci-fi skin). Therefore, the coolness of the world building has to be approached with a certain degree of willingness to be confused. I don’t think I ever understood any of the tech proposed. The social commentary was all very well done. Unfortunately, the last third or so dragged like crazy for me. This is the second retelling of sorts that I’ve read recently that had the exact same issue: when there’s an attempt to diverge from the canon that doesn’t work, and then seems to go on and on and on, it’s pretty exhausting for the reader, who KNOWS where the plot is supposed to go, and has to truck on anyway. Casualty of the form, I suppose.