A corporate hacker. An elusive billionaire. A society trying to survive the American Nightmare. 

New York City, 2075. Filipino American Nick Carraway has just moved to the heart of the fractured New Americas, where he’s struck by the city’s contradictions—shining corporate towers casting bleak shadows over the slums of a crumbling middle class.

When Nick meets alluring, new-money Jay Gatsby, he falls for Gatsby’s frank charm and confident aura. But in a city where the wealthy flaunt tech-enhanced bodies to cheat death, surfaces aren’t all they seem—and as a corporate-sanctioned cyberspace hacker, Nick knows that no secret can stay buried forever. He’s the reason they don’t. And his latest assignment? Investigate Gatsby himself.

As Nick becomes entangled in the dark affairs of the elite—and the devastating fallout of their actions on the city’s most vulnerable—he must reckon with the limits of compassion and accountability across class and status. What takes precedence: Love or truth? Heart or soul?

A brilliant reimagining of Fitzgerald’s classic tale of glamour, desire, and desperation, Local Heavens examines the guardrails of morality . . . and the price of desire.

It’s been years since I last read The Great Gatsby. I picked this book from Aardvark simply because I loved the hombre-colored hardcover, not realizing it was a futuristic, queer retelling of Fitzgerald’s classic. But once I started reading, I was hooked.

It takes place in New York City, 2075. Filipino American Nick Carraway has just moved to the heart of the fractured New Americas. The wealthy flaunt tech-enhanced bodies to cheat death while everyone else barely survives. When Nick meets Jay Gatsby, he falls for Gatsby’s frank charm and confident aura. But Nick is a corporate-sanctioned cyberspace hacker, and his latest assignment is to investigate Gatsby himself.

Yes, there’s a lot of sci-fi, cyberpunk stuff going on here. The tech-enhanced bodies. The corporate espionage. The fractured Americas. The cyberspace hacking. But the heart of the story and all of our favorite characters are still here. If you know Gatsby, you’ll recognize the bones of this story immediately. The lavish parties. The obsessive love. The class divide. There’s a tragedy simmering just beneath the surface.

What I especially loved is the sexual fluidity of many of the characters. In my opinion, this deepened the relationships and upped the stakes. The connection between Nick and Gatsby feels more complicated, more charged, more dangerous now that there’s an attraction between them. The dynamics shift in ways that wouldn’t have been possible in Fitzgerald’s original. And it all works. It doesn’t feel forced or like the author is trying to modernize for the sake of modernizing. It feels natural. It feels right for this version of the story.

Nick is a compelling narrator in this version. He’s not just an observer anymore. He’s complicit. He’s part of the system that keeps people like Gatsby under surveillance. He’s falling for someone he’s supposed to be investigating. The moral conflict is real, and watching Nick wrestle with it adds depth to the story.

Fajardo does a great job of switching things up just enough to make the story her own. She keeps what works from the original and reimagines the rest. The setting is fresh. The technology adds layers. The social commentary hits hard. This isn’t just Gatsby with a futuristic coat of paint. It’s a full reimagining that has something to say about wealth, power, surveillance, and who gets to survive in a world designed to protect the rich. (Sound familiar?)

Fitzgerald’s original was a critique of wealth and excess, and Fajardo carries that torch forward. In 2075, the gap between the rich and everyone else has only widened. The wealthy use technology to extend their lives while the poor struggle to survive. The city is literally divided between those who have everything and those who have nothing. And Nick is caught in the middle, seeing both sides and realizing just how broken the system really is.

The writing is strong and the pacing is tight. The world-building is vivid without being overwhelming. And the emotional beats land exactly where they need to.

If you’re a fan of retellings, especially ones that take big swings, this is absolutely worth reading. If you love cyberpunk sci-fi, this will scratch that itch. And if you’ve always loved The Great Gatsby but wished it had been queerer and more explicitly political, this is the version you’ve been waiting for.

I really enjoyed this one. It’s a timeless classic reimagined for a world that feels uncomfortably close to our own. And it reminded me why the original story has endured for so long. The themes are still relevant. The tragedy is still powerful. And in Fajardo’s hands, it all feels brand new.

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