Local Heavens

Local Heavens by K.M. Fajardo (book cover is in image) is an amazing dystopian, cyberpunk reimagining of The Great Gatsby. Covering themes of corporate greed and corruption, class and wealth divisions, and their impacts to society as a whole, Fajardo captures the true essence of the Great Gatsby for a new generation.Thank you @theinkyphoenix, @bindery_books, and @negalley for the opportunity to read this ARC. All opinions are my own.Pub Date: Oct 14 2025Rating: 5 Stars

Local Heavens is a powerful queer cyberpunk retelling of The Great Gatsby. It takes Fitzgerald’s tragedy of obsession and wealth and drops it right into the fractured New Americas of 2075, proving that desire and ambition are timeless themes.What elevates this retelling is how confidently it stands on its own. I hadn't read the original classic before picking this up. I've only seen the film adaptation, and back then, the film confused me and I struggled to understand the point. But Local Heavens made the emotional and moral heart of the story clear and compelling. It also pushed me to listen to The Great Gatsby audiobook afterward, and I appreciate more how this novel gave so much more depth not only to the original story's narrative but to the characters too.The world-building is incredible and descriptive. Local Heavens paints an opulent dystopia that shows exactly what happens when hyper-capitalism runs unchecked. The rich have tech-enhanced bodies to cheat death, while everyone else turns to black-market survival. It’s such a cinematic, modern take on Fitzgerald’s critique of privilege and carelessness.The characters are beautifully reimagined—complicated, flawed, and human. I especially loved the representation here: Nick Carraway is Filipino, with references to Manila and snippets of Filipino phrases included throughout the writing. The setup between Nick and Jay Gatsby adds so much tension, making their slow-burn queer romance felt earned (and devastating).Additionally, the plot doesn't just stop at the tragedy. It continues into the aftermath, expanding the narrative in fascinating ways. Those new storylines make for a far more complete and satisfying conclusion.Overall, Local Heavens is a stellar debut that works both as a cyberpunk thriller and a love letter to a classic. The mix of themes, great writing, and important representation means this book is absolutely highly recommended.Thank you to NetGalley, Bonnier Books UK, and Zaffre Books for the eARC.

A book to be savoured like a rich decadent dessert. This Gatsby retelling left me in total awe from start to finish. Fajardo takes the original tale and expands it into a futuristic world that holds both great promise and devastation. So rarely do I find myself highlighting passages and quotes but this is a book so well written I couldn’t fight the need to keep track of my favourite lines. I loved every second, every word, every page. A reading experience I will treasure forever.

Stunning writing! This is the first time I’ve found Nick and Gatsby to be intriguing characters.

At the great risk of a horde of pitchfork-wielding Fitzgerald fans coming for me, I’m just gonna say it: Fajardo out-Fitzgeralded Fitzgerald. Local Heavens is a futuristic, cyberpunk re-telling of the now hundred-year-old The Great Gatsby — where people have elaborate body modifications (“mod”), Daisy Buchanan is a “Happy Sleep” (a sort of partial virtual/partial hallucination situation) star, and Jordan Baker plays not golf, but *bullet golf*, with the aid of her extensive body mods, Nick Carraway is a half-Philippino net diver - Black Mirror/Matrix style. And Gatsby is, well, Gatsby, but with everything you ever wanted for and from him in the OG version. In this unlikely-seeming re-telling, Fajardo somehow manages to expand on the original themes of Fitzgerald’s work, from exploring wealth disparity, to the ever more complex relationships between the characters as their relationships are woven into deeper webs.An absolute stand-out in an already remarkable novel is Fajardo’s prose. Her turn of phrase is at once sharp and delicate. There are no wasted words, yet each chapter had me reading passages over and over again - just to savor the feeling of the words in my head. In a time of what feels like increasingly cut-and-paste fiction, reading something written with such obvious love, time, and care was an absolute gift. Local Heavens is a book that, upon finishing, you will flip right back to the beginning so you can start all over again.