Self-Made Boys: A Great Gatsby Remix

Written by Anna-Marie McLemore

Narrated by Avi Roque and Kyla Garcia

"Avi Roque's careful pacing and emotional connection enhance the audiobook's lyrical prose, enchanting listeners throughout this slow-burn romance."-AudioFile Magazine on Self-Made Boys

Stonewall Honor recipient and two-time National Book Award Longlist selectee Anna-Marie McLemore weaves an intoxicating tale of glamor and heartache in Self-Made Boys: A Great Gatsby Remix, part of the Remixed Classics series.

New York City, 1922. Nicolás Caraveo, a 17-year-old transgender boy from Wisconsin, has no interest in the city’s glamor. Going to New York is all about establishing himself as a young professional, which could set up his future—and his life as a man—and benefit his family.

Nick rents a small house in West Egg from his 18-year-old cousin, Daisy Fabrega, who lives in fashionable East Egg near her wealthy fiancé, Tom—and Nick is shocked to find that his cousin now goes by Daisy Fay, has erased all signs of her Latina heritage, and now passes seamlessly as white.

Nick’s neighbor in West Egg is a mysterious young man named Jay Gatsby, whose castle-like mansion is the stage for parties so extravagant that they both dazzle and terrify Nick. At one of these parties, Nick learns that the spectacle is all for the benefit of impressing a girl from Jay’s past—Daisy. And he learns something else: Jay is also transgender.

As Nick is pulled deeper into the glittery culture of decadence, he spends more time with Jay, aiming to help his new friend reconnect with his lost love. But Nick's feelings grow more complicated when he finds himself falling hard for Jay's openness, idealism, and unfounded faith in the American Dream.

Praise for Self-Made Boys:

"Anna-Marie McLemore cracks the Gatsby story wide open, breathing fresh life into these familiar characters with wisdom, honesty, and real tenderness. An all-time favorite—I was completely transported." —Becky Albertalli, New York Times-bestselling author of Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda

A Macmillan Audio production from Feiwel & Friends.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Macmillan Audio
• Release date: Sep 6, 2022
• ISBN: 9781250866172

Anna-Marie McLemore

Anna-Marie McLemore (they/them) was born in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains and taught by their family to hear la llorona in the Santa Ana winds. Anna-Marie is the author of The Weight of Feathers, a finalist for the 2016 William C. Morris Debut Award; 2017 Stonewall Honor Book When the Moon Was Ours, which was longlisted for the National Book Award in Young People’s Literature and winner of the James Tiptree Jr. Award; Wild Beauty, a Kirkus Best Book of 2017; and Blanca & Roja, a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice. Dark and Deepest Red, a reimagining of “The Red Shoes” based on true medieval events, will be released in January 2020

Reviews for Self-Made Boys

[navi_ad · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Great Gatsby is an iconic piece of American literature, often taught in highschool English classes across the nation. With that in mind I can see the appeal and importance of a remix such as this one to the assumed target audience of lost teenagers looking for representation and guidance in the novels they read. To me, however, this was all a little too on the nose. Subtext was lost in favour of explicitness and it often felt didactic. Maybe I'm just too old.

[loreilen · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book is amazing, especially if you're into queer history, everyone go read it ❤️

[Everett · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I chose to listen to this book largely because I’ve always maintained the belief that nick was in love with gatsby, but this didn’t really fulfill what I was looking for. It skips over so many of the main themes and messages of the classic, and the attitude and outcome is far too hopeful, romanticized, and modern to really hold much meaningful connection to it. The symbolism was at times heavy handed and the characters’s moral grayness - what I think makes them so intriguing in the first place - is scrubbed clean, making them all a little dull. Neither is the romance between the boys much of a main focus. That being said it’s not a bad book. Overall well written, beautiful descriptions. I just feel like it could have held more interest as an original work.