"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 one you think you can jump, even though you know those that try never make it."

GENRE: Cyber-punk Sci-Fi Retelling (The Great Gatsby) RATING: 4.5/5 FORMAT: eBook Arc

Review: A Retelling of The Great Gatsby as a Cyerber punk story? I knew this one was going to be a good one and I'm glad I wasn't disappointed!

I read The Great Gatsby in high school os its been many years now since I've read it and analysed it (meaning I didnt remember all the finer details but knew the overall story enough) and I think Local Heavens is a lovely retelling of it. My favourite parts are that there is an introduction of them vs us and instead of New Money vs Old Money (its still there and a bit more to the background), there's more of a focus on being othered, a POC and marginalised communities.

The concept of corruption, people who are self serving and billionaires who think of themselves only is blended really well with the idea that "third world corporations" and people who want to destroy America are coming back to hurt them. We see this through Tom and how he sticks to so many of his learnings of being morally superior as an Old Money, non-modded American.

And yet, everyone that stands and tolerates Tom's talk is no better. Nick, our narrator, is meant to be someone watching from the outside and someone who slowly fits in and uses his privileges to his advantage. In fact, it is said by Tom that he forgets Nick is "one of them" from third-world nations. I think Nick is our ideal character that essentially becomes a wallflower. He absorbs what happens and tries to minimise the damage by not really being proactive or doing much about it.

I genuinely enjoyed the character development in Nick and how we got to see him change and embrace that he is different. He can't really blend in and do good that way. The ending of the story isn't meant to solve all of the issues that arises throughout but to show a realistic understanding of how using your privileges the wrong way can still be harmful. Nick had one foot in both worlds and you truly see how he changes as a character in the book with everything that happens.

There are so many other themes done beautifully in the story, like chasing your legacy, building a relationship and finding who you are amongst it all, understanding your privileges and doing better and I think K.M. Fajardo did a beautiful job connecting them all while standing true to The Great Gatsby as a retelling.

I think the only thing that would have made the book better for me is if we got a deeper dive into the Sci-Fi element of the book as I really wanted to know more about the mods and the way it all worked (being a diver...etc.). I appreciated that the author wrote about her struggles of getting a balance between her own author voice vs the original works voice in the book. I do think we can see this struggle a little bit throughout the story but K.M. Fajardo's voice is unique, lyrically beautiful and mysterious in just the right moments throughout Local Heavens and it was lovely to be able to read that.

Thank you to the author, publisher and netgalley for the Arc copy in the exchange for my honest opinion.

"...part of me is more me here, I guess. I'm not done with that yet."

GENRE: Anthology RATING: 4.75/5 FORMAT: physical ARc

Overall Impression: What a beautiful Anthology that explores so many themes, including identity, where we belong and how we find ourselves in a world in which we do not fit in!

Review: Amal El-Mohtar has a distinguished writing style that stands out and is unique, bringing with it so much beautiful, lyrical prose and that unique fantasy narrative style that we saw in The River has Roots.

Seasons of Glass & Iron has different short stories and poems, of which we dive into identity, who we are and how do we become our true selves. We also delve into the topic of finding our own home and what parts of ourselves we can be in there

My favourite short stories from this anthology were The Truth about Owls and A Hollow Play. I felt this explored the whole topic of where is home and why do we pick that place to be home as opposed to the place(s) we grow up in? It brings up the concept of how we want to belong somewhere where we can be the truest version of ourselves and the parts that we feel is true to us. Sometimes, we can't do this in where we were meant to be and so we go somewhere else, another place we feel a calling to and find our community there.

We also dive into the concept of language and what language is truest to us out of all the ones we speak: is it our native language? The language we use most during our lives? Any of the other languages in between? Language plays a huge role in identity and shaping who we are and finding our own home. I think this anthology (specifically The Truth about Owls) does a beautiful dive into three languages with our main character and how she uses them interchangeably.

As always, I can't wait to read more of Amal El-Mohtar's work! Thank you to the author and publisher for the Arc copy in the exchange for my honest opinion.