This rating was updated after a second read (a read, I should add, that was much more insightful than the first). 
 I'm an English teacher, and I say this not because it gives my review any extra legitimacy (it shouldn't) but because I reread this in order to teach it to my 12th grade class. 
 And I loved it. I absolutely loved it. The characters. The settings. The colors. The... Everything. 
 The Characters -- If Jay Gatsby is not the most complex, hopeful, sad character I've ever read, then he is up near the top. Nick is mostly there to deliver the story, and the rest of the characters, while written well, seem to mostly serve to juxtapose Gatsby himself. I love him. I pity him. I want to be him. And I also really, really don't. 
 The Settings -- Oh, man. The Valley of Ashes, described for the first time in the second chapter, is so beautifully delivered to the reader that it feels as though it's a character itself, an idea that is given extra credence by the Eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg. Gatsby's parties also seem to have a life of their own. 
 I could go on, and on (and I kind of have to, because I need to write a model literary analysis essay for my students), but frankly, you should read it and decide for yourself.