[review] Great

Title: Great
Author: Sarah Benincasa
Series: Standalone
HarperTeen
263 pages

In Sara Benincasa's contemporary retelling of The Great Gatsby, a teenage girl becomes entangled in the drama of a Hamptons social circle, only to be implicated in a tragedy that shakes the summer community.

Everyone loves a good scandal.

Naomi Rye usually dreads spending the summer with her socialite mother in East Hampton. This year is no different. She sticks out like a sore thumb among the teenagers who have been summering (a verb only the very rich use) together for years. But Naomi finds herself captivated by her mysterious next-door neighbor, Jacinta. Jacinta has her own reason for drawing close to Naomi-to meet the beautiful and untouchable Delilah Fairweather. But Jacinta's carefully constructed world is hiding something huge, a secret that could undo everything. And Naomi must decide how far she is willing to be pulled into this web of lies and deception before she is unable to escape.

Based on a beloved classic and steeped in Sara Benincasa's darkly comic voice, Great has all the drama, glitz, and romance with a terrific modern (and scandalous) twist to enthrall readers.

To tell the absolute truth and nothing but the truth, I couldn't wait to get my hands on this book. I've read the Great Gatsby and liked it a lot, even though it wasn't my favourite book of all time. But when I heard that this was a Gatsby but with LESBIANS, it became my number one obsession. Yes, I'm that desperate to get my hands on ya lit that includes queer characters that are not only hinted at.

To start off, this had some great things and bad things at the same time. Naomi was a protagonist who complained a lot and that I couldn't either like or dislike - her romance and plotline just seemed something stupid to fill up the book. Although this happened, by the end of the book I could understand her feelings perfectly and was completely in tune with her character. Sometimes this book felt a little way too much gossip girl for me (in a bad way), especially the beggining, which bothered me a bit. The setting and the way of living among the rich does not appeal to me in any way, so I thought this started off very snobbish and a bit irritating.

The writing is commonplace - nothing completely extraordinary. What I loved, of course, was the whole twist in the tale - and Jacinta's character, who is just as fascinating as Jay Gatsby's. She is good, kind, innocent and hopeful - you can't help but to root for her. She's the most wonderful character of this book, undoubtly, and still very tragic. As it also happened to me in the Great Gatsby, I could not truly sympathyse with Daisy's character, and in this case, Delilah. Her scenes with Jacinta are absolutely wonderful - but as soon as she steps off that light, she's back into being annoying and a little bit bitchy.

I did love the whole plot and the way it was woven - specially the ending. I thought that it was wonderful, and even though I was starting to dread it because I knew it ended badly, the surprise at the end was a nice and hopeful addition. Even though at the beggining I felt like I was too hopeful for this book, it did not however disappoint me. I was crying my way through the end, and very much enjoyed reading it.

Rating: 4/5 stars

Quote: “It's like there's this knowledge hanging in the air that one person has more power than the other, and we're supposed to pretend everything is nice and normal and equal, but in reality, luck or chance has showered benefits on one person that the other person couldn't dream of.”