Originally written February 23, 2012

This was a book I was assigned to read in high school, but when I was assigned it I didn’t read it. I read like 10 pages, got really bored, and read sparknotes for the rest. But I dunno, it was one of the only books I didn’t read that was assigned to me, so for some reason I felt kinda bad and picked this up and read it through.

Turns out after the first chapter it gets a lot more interesting. I wasn’t really bored at all reading it this time. Actually, I kinda liked it. The book is about narrator Nick Carraway, and it revolves around the West Egg and East Egg of the city. Nick lives across from the infamous Jay Gatsby, who owns a big mansion and throws house parties all the time. Nick decides to go to one, and is fascinated when he meets the man. From there on, Nick tries to help Gatsby reclaim the love that he lost a few years ago.

I also remember reading This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the author of this book. While Gatsby is definitely his most famous work, I feel like I liked both books about equally. They felt very different from one another for some reason, but overall I was impressed that I actually winded up liking The Great Gatsby. I know this is considered a literary classic, but I don’t think it’s anything amazing. It was just a good story, in my opinion.

While the rest of this review was written back in 2012, I want to add an addendum here as I’m revisiting the review in 2020. In the time since reading Gatsby, I’ve actually looked back on it with nothing but pure fondness. I’m still keeping my original score for the book, but I feel like I still sounded slightly negative about it in this review, and those really aren’t my feelings towards it now. I’m very glad that I revisited The Great Gatsby after high school, because it really is a good book.

3.5/5