Review Detail

Reader reviewed by LJK

It's possible that I'm not the right person to judge this book, because I adore the book that it's based on and I practically have it committed to memory. However, amost any high school graduate who reads Jake, Reinvented (and I realize HS graduates are not the target audience) will have read The Great Gatsby, and the author had to expect that. Even without the inevitable comparison to TGG, though, this is a novel that comes up short.

Jake, Reinvented is F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, set in a suburban high, and Jake Garrett has remade himself into a long snapper on the football team in order to capture the heart of Didi, the quarterback's girlfriend. The story is narrated by Rick, the team's kicker and the awkward's means of (re)introducing Jake and Didi.

If you've read The Great Gatsby, then you know the story, and Fitzgerald wrote it better. If you don't, then I'm not sure what sense you'll make of the relationship between Didi and Todd (the quarterback), or the dynamics of the team. The Great Gatsby ultimately succeeds in large part because the reader believes in Gatsby, and understand his dream. Jake, sadly, is no Gatsby.