Anna K by Jenny Lee
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Pub date: 3/3/2020
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Anna K is a teenage girl with seeming everything. She is the super wealthy and respected it-girl of Greenwich by way of NYC. She is the golden child of her family and the envy of high school girls everywhere. Through Anna we meet a cast of characters, including her brother Steven and his girlfriend Lolly, her boyfriend Alexander, “The Count” Alexia, and many more wealthy Upper Eastsiders. All of their stories intertwine in this modern-day, teenage version of Anna Karenina. As you would expect, drama ensues.
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As soon as I saw that @graceatwood was reading this, I knew I had to move it up my TBR list. This book is A LOT, in many good ways but also in many “damn I really am almost 30, huh?” ways. Equal parts Gossip Girl (although, WAY more drug use than I remember from that series) and Crazy Rich Asians, this one was an easy, borderline ridiculous read. If you’re looking for the fun escapism of rich kids behaving badly, then this is the pick for you. At almost 450 pages, I thought it could have been a tad shorter, but it does pack a lot of plot within its pages. I really enjoyed reading this one; however, you need to suspend your belief a bit. There were many, many cringe moments that I just could not relate to. Teenagers honestly scare me and I am SO grateful I didn’t come of age in this current social media world! Thank you NetGalley and Flatiron for my advanced reader’s copy! Anna K will be published on March 3rd, 2020.

I loved this Euphoria meets Gossip Girl retelling at Anna Karenina. If I weren't a middle school librarian, I'd purchase it for sure, but the content and themes are a bit mature for the age group I work with. This was a fun romp through ridiculous upper-class New York and all the drama that goes with it, all along making for some powerful female figures and teens who could have gone down destructive paths making good choices. I might just read it again!

I loved this book. It has been a while since I read the original Anna Karenina, but I do believe I enjoyed this one better. Though I was skeptical at first about the story being told as a YA novel, it was amazingly well done. The novel is set in New York amongst the elite and well to do high society of private school. The characters are beautifully done, and the love story of Vronsky and Anna K is just as poignant. I remember not liking Anna as much in the original, but found her a much more sympathetic and likable character in the retelling.

I love that authors are retelling some classic stories in contemporary voices. As a high school teacher, I would love for my students to read these epic tales, but sometimes reading it in the prose of the 1700s and 1800s can prove too much for high school sophomores. Novels like this bring the classics to a new generation, and I applaud the author on a spectacularly well done retelling.

I really, really liked this book. I’ve only ever read the first half of the OG Anna Karenina, but everyone knows how it ends so I was excited to see what Lee would do with it and I was not disappointed! I think the writing was stronger in the beginning, where it read like a 19th century Russian novel!, but by the time the style shifts to a more “general” YA voice, you’re too invested in the characters to even really notice.

This is definitely a character-heavy book and I loved every single one of them (except Eleanor obvi because she’s annoying), but the plot is also really strong and just so much fun. Some of it seems rather unrealistic, but I have no idea what really goes on in the upper echelons of New York’s elite teenagers. There are also SO. MANY. pop culture references, but tbh that doesn’t bother me.

The feelings and actions of one of the characters towards the end sort of contradicted themselves but who am I to judge a teenager in love?

Thanks to Flatiron Books for for giving me a free arc through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book was pretty good for what it was meant to do which is a new-age "Gossip Girl" but I felt like the story took too long to progress. I felt like it could've been more fast-paced and because of this, I lost interest very quickly. I didn't ever feel the absolute need to pick up my phone and just get back into the story. I think if I was in high school I would've loved this book.