Local Heavens by K.M. Fajardo

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.

A futuristic scifi, techno hacker speculative fiction, and queer retelling of the Great Gatsby is a concept I never would’ve considered and one that made me do a double take, but in Jay Gatsby’s own words per K.M. Fajardo’s author’s note, “why not”? Fajardo’s debut novel Local Heavens is a brilliantly crafted book that not only is wildly creative but is also a faithfully adapted love letter to F. Scott Fitzgerald’s original story. Modernized for the 21st century with a crazy genre-shift, this interpretation smartly capitalizes on all the best aspects of a retelling without being hindered by the typical drawbacks through careful artistic choices. Featuring beautifully poignant writing, excellent characterizations, and original storylines that work seamlessly with the original framework of events, Local Heavens is an amazing and unique read for both fans of the original book and new ones alike.

“Though in this disquiet summer, a summer that pushed us forward into hedonistic apathy, Gatsby was the singular exception, flying over the dust and toils of our world on fire. Beyond that famous, corrupted name, he clung to a vestige of that old cosmic hope I’d readily believed did not exist anymore, his indestructible sincerity blossoming like an act of defiance in the face of all our immeasurable dread… If humanity ought to know its own smallness, then his ignorance of it was arresting- a gorgeous, comet-tail burn I witnessed so intimately, I was sure it should have killed me.”
-Nick Carroway

Given the recurring thought in other reviews, I’m certainly not the only one that was caught off-guard by the concept for a queer and scifi retelling of the Great Gatsby involving cyber hackers, AI bots, augmented enhancements, and virtual reality dreams but here we are. It’s the kind of premise that seems like a fever dream on paper, but Fajardo not only makes it work but does so spectacularly and confidently. A short book by current standards, Fitzgerald’s original work is iconic, beloved, and a deceptively tricky story to retell due to its the specific events in the story that are integral to its narrative as well as retaining its thematic concepts and commentary on American high society. More than doubling the original book’s length, Fajardo’s take on Fitzgerald’s material is not a mere genre-swap of the story placed in a futuristic society, but adds a considerable number of new storylines, revamped character relationships, and expanding on the aftermath of the summer where Nick Carroway meets Jay Gatsby. The ending in particular showcases the effectiveness and detail of Fajardo’s new material.

While reading the story, the most notable aspect that stood out to me was Fajardo’s consistently great artistic choices related to what Local Heavens pulls from the Great Gatsby as-is and what is revamped for the retelling. Retelling is a marketing term and genre that has become increasingly loose in recent years, some retellings barely utilizing their source material in favor of telling an original story. I won’t go into too much detail to avoid notable spoilers, but Local Heavens by and large faithfully adapts the Great Gatsby in whole, keeping all the original story’s notable events, characters, and plot twists on paper. All of Fitzgerald’s iconic and dramatic developments are clearly recognizable, but they’re heavily updated in Fajardo’s new ideas. Take for example Jordan Baker who was a golfing star in the original book. Here, she’s been updated to an intense adrenaline-filled bullet golf athlete involving flying shots and obstacle course speed runs. Daisy Buchanon is not only a famed socialite, but also a retired actress known for emotional-filled performances in virtual reality-like dreams referred to as Happy-Sleeps. Tom Buchanon is not merely just rich and wealthy from the Buchanon name, is one that now associated with a business empire owning a troubled cutting edge techno-medical industry business looking to be acquired by the Gatsby Corp. Even the briefly mentioned and minor character Owl Eyes is given a complete and ingenious revamp in full enhancement glory.

Fajardo’s scifi take on the material isn’t merely just an aesthetic redressing, but also has significant original content that really becomes its own beast and story. Rather than a simple move to New York as a bonds salesman, Nick Carroway is hired as a 3^rd party consultant to infiltrate and investigate a business seeking a large acquisition, using his military background and skills as a cyber hacker diver both as a cover story and for covert infiltration. The valley of ashes and literal refuse dump has been repurposed to a metaphorical tech dump as sprawling complex dominated by computer processing centers rife with noise and heat pollution in an area originally marked for low-income housing development. A fusion of a psychedelic drug experience mixed with the showmanship of the film industry, Happy-Sleep virtual experiences are a development that runs throughout the story as a topic of acquisition as well as a key topic involving the future trajectory of both the medical and entrainment field. The Happy-Sleep element in particular is notable as it’s not only a fascinating concept, but its implications also give the book a strong speculative fiction angle in the back half of the story; an effective metaphor for those living in their dreams and fantasies vs reality, of what could have been  which works perfectly with the Great Gatsby’s source material. In a way, trying to recap or describe these concepts without context in a review makes them sound confusing or random, but it makes perfect sense within the story and is shockingly relevant to current discussions in society and culture. What may have begun as repurposing Fitzgerald’s events grows into its own original story additions that are compelling enough to carry the book; you could axe the Gatsby retelling and it would still be a worthwhile reading experience.

From a more analytical standpoint, in my opinion Local Heavens is one of the most effective retellings I’ve read due to its awareness of the source material’s popularity and what its readers will benefit the most from when going into its new story. While it’s definitely possible to read this book having never read the Great Gatsby, this book is likely more rewarding for those that have. Fajardo consistently makes very smart choices with the way her story is presented, benefiting from the retelling medium without being restricted by its typical limitations. I find a common pitfall of retellings is that the retold story tries to hide the original book’s plot twists and ending despite most people already knowing the general summary of source material. Throughout the story, there’s a notable foreshadowing of the story’s disastrous trajectory; Fajardo knows people expect a drama-filled tragedy and doesn’t insult the reader’s intelligence trying to portray it as anything but. Compared to the original, Fajardo’s Nick Carroway starts out already pessimistic and suspicious of the corporate world, American nationalism, and disparity of wealth and power. That simple choice alone works perfectly with the retelling format, Fajardo masterfully managing the reader’s expectations who are already leery about the rich corporations and their power. While Local Heavens retains all the Great Gatby’s original plot twists, the most effective ones here are not Fitzgerald’s themselves, but rather how they’re given new context, purpose, and meaning within Local Heavens’s world. And rather than simply recapping the original story, there’s a considerable amount of new content placed in-between to the point that the book has enough content to reflect on in the book’s ending which more than triple the original story’s concluding arc. Certain characters are also given more of a redemption in this version, using hindsight knowledge of a hundred years of people reading, falling in love, and being heartbroken by the story like a survey on where holes in the original book could be filled in with new purpose. While certainly still a dramatic tragedy as necessary for a Great Gatsby retelling, Local Heavens’s ending is more balanced, poignant, and comfortingly just a little more optimistic. And trust me, after spending time with this book’s lovable and charming version of Gatsby, you’re going to want every ounce of happily ever after and hope you can get.

Besides its scifi shift, the other most notable element of Local Heavens is its Filipino-American representation and queer modernization. While playing a supporting act to the numerous scifi and speculative fiction elements, the inclusion of Filipino culture feels not only personal to Fajardo but surprisingly also works very well with the Great Gatsby’s themes. It goes without saying that Tom Buchanon in the original story is an American nationalist and white supremacist which provides great potential paired off with Nick’s mixed Filipino-American heritage and split cultural upbringing. The story also comments on the contentious discussion of foreign business and assets entering the American economy and industries. Interestingly, the book features snippets of Tagalog which are left untranslated, a bold yet inspired choice that makes sense. Those that can understand Tagalog can interpret the lines as Nick would as part of an inside commentary, internalized feeling that are best left unsaid. Those that cannot (myself included) experience them as Gatsby would, a rough idea that can be gathered from context clues but still a bit left in the dark and guessing outside of Nick’s head. Food and community culture are also featured, a particular scene that Gatsby experiences in wonder and joy with new augmented senses serving dual meanings when taken at face value as well as a metaphor for Nick sharing his world.

I will openly admit, though I was fascinated and excited by the idea of a queer Great Gatsby retelling, I wasn’t sure how that would actually work. While there’s certainly a lot of potential given the intense analysis of Nick’s character’s infatuation with Gatsby and Fitzgerald’s phrasing that have been studied for decades, but the Great Gatsby’s story heavily hinges on its original heterosexual coupling of Gatsby and Daisy and depending on how faithful this retelling would be, would need to incorporate Nick’s long-running relationship with Jordan Baker. Miraculously, Fajardo figures out a way to reinvent the characters with queer representation (some scholars arguing they already were queer) while still retaining all the source material. By adding more context and expanding on previously ambiguous subtle details, Local Heavens very successfully modernizes the characters and story in ways that feel like they were always meant to be. The tweaks and internalized feelings of Nick and Jordan in particular are some of the most impressive, the conflicted and strong bond the two share as their relationship changes through the story, one of the more subtle and lowkey updates a lot of other reviews fail to highlight.

Just as impressive is the way Fajardo portrays and explains the unorthodox work and social connection between Nick and Gatsby, working with and around Gatsby’s iconic love affair for Daisy in a way that is genius. While I already mentioned Nick’s portrayal is more skeptical and pessimistic than the original, Gatsby’s portrayal interestingly goes in the opposite direction. While still charming, Fajardo’s portrayal highlights the elements everyone knows and expects, that Gatsby is wearing a public mask for status. Outside of the public bravada and when alone with Nick, he’s presented as more nervous, anxious, and excitable while still coming off as handsome and refined. I dare Fajardo’s version of Gatsby is even more lovable than Fitzgerald’s and his platonic and romantic chemistry all-around is perfectly pitched, especially nailing Gatsby’s isolation, optimism, and charismatic easiness in a way that directly appeals to modern tastes. The queer romance is full of subtle glances and pining, the slow burn being effective, especially with an original Local Heavens plot twist at the end of the story that is not only emotional but one that perfectly encapsulates Gatsby’s complex love and fondness for Nick.

Innovating and creative, incredibly ambitious, cleverly modernized and plotted, Fajardo’s Local Heavens is nothing short of a master class of retelling a famed piece of classic literature. The retelling is simultaneously incredibly faithful to the original story while also adding a substantial amount of new or reworked content while respecting the source material. To top it all off, Fajardo’s writing is immersive with the futuristic technological landscape while also being lyrically beautiful and poetic, much in line with Fitzgerald’s literary prose updated for 21st century readers. It’s clear that Fajardo loves and understands the material inside and out, and that level of care and ambition is evident constantly in the finished story. Fans of the Great Gatsby will almost certainly love Local Heavens but the story is compelling enough on its own to also appeal to new readers looking for a dramatic character-focused elegant dystopian scifi story, particularly its ending which is ambiguously left for interpretation; those preferring a straightforward and clear-cut ending may be left confused however. A queer, futuristic scifi, Filipino-American reinterpretation of the Great Gatsby is a utterly wild concept that goes against so many of the current publishing industry trends, but I’m thankful that The Inky Phoenix/Bindery Books and Aaardvark Book Club chose to pick up this book as it’s an excellent novel that needs more recognition and one that I thoroughly loved reading.