Was the Great Gatsby Really Great?

The summer I was a freshman, my sister was going to be a junior.  Her AP Lang summer assignment consisted of a book named The Great Gatsby.  In her opinion, it was one of the best books I would read in high school.  Ever since then, I have waited for my chance to read the book.  My first thought after reading was wow.  This was not the good kind of wow, where I was blown away by the words written.  Where the words jumped off the page and really stuck with you.  I probably read every page twice trying to see what the author meant.  Honestly, I barely understood the book.  As a typical high schooler, I did what every student would when they don’t understand a book – I looked it up on Sparknotes.  After reading that, I had a better idea of what was happening and I decided the book was ok. 

Some AP Lang students had their own opinions on the book.  One student said, “The book was terrible,” while another student said, “not a bad book.”  The first few chapters were rough to get through, but aren’t those chapters supposed to be the most interesting.  As a student said, “I loved it, but it took a while to get interesting and the way he introduced everyone made me confused.”  After every paragraph you need to think about what it meant, which made the book very hard to finish.  Another student said, “I loved it, but it was a slow read.  It had its drama.”  While The Great Gatsby had drama, it was not even close to the amount in a normal book.  All the drama was thrown in at the end which made the book slow.  Overall, the book was important to learn about, but in my opinion, there are more interesting books that I have read in high school.