#105 Anna K

Anna K by Jenny Lee 

I am going to preface this review by saying that i havent read Anna Karenina. I thought this book would be a light contemporary read. I did not realise what i was about to get in to!

Anna K follows our titular character as she navigates through the New York elite. Everyone is rich, private school educated with more money than sense. The story consists of 17 year old Anna who is in a long term relationship with Alexander. Both families have planned out their futures and they are destined to marry. When Anna becomes tempted by a new, exciting man she must resist the temptation of following her heart. Theres around 6 main characters and it delves into each of their love lives and how they navigate through the issues that they face.

Almost immediately i struggled to keep up with who is who but luckily theres a handy dandy guide at the beginning of the book that gives you a 'whos who', i referred back to this constantly in the first 100 pages so was so glad the author included it.

This book should come with so many trigger warnings, theres frequent drug use, drug overdose, cheating and a few fatalities along the way. It was a lot darker than i presumed and its made me second guess whether i should read Anna Karenina as i bet her life is much more bleak than Anna K's!

My only main gripe with the story was how modern the author tried to make it, the leaked sex tape was too much IMO. On the plus side the book felt like there was something constantly happening which made for an easier, page turning read.

A few stand out characters for me were Lolly and Kimmie, especially towards the end. They both had really good character growth. The majority of the rest of the characters felt a little bland. I would have liked more from Beatrice as she seems interesting. The most annoying character award definitely goes to Eleanor but i see how she was necessary to the plot.

Ive heard that the characters are very true to the originals personalities and that Jenny Lee has managed to inject them into modern characters. I do want to pick up the original just to see how the two compare. What i really enjoyed was how the author injected diversity into the book, Anna and Stephen are bi-racial being half Korean which was interesting to read and theres also a black character called Dustin who is Kimmies love interest, he is adopted into a Jewish family. These subtle changes gave this book the much needed kick into 2020 that was needed.

Now for some spoiler chat: the ending... after everything that happened, all of the heartache that Anna went through the author killed Vronsky off at the end. Im not sure if this is what happens in the original and the author was trying to stay true to it but my god did it feel like she went through everything for nothing. She didnt really seem overly heartbroken by it which i found confusing.

The book is fun and dramatic. Basically like Gossip Girl but in a more drug fuelled, scandalous version. I flew through this book and couldnt stop reading. It flows nicely and like i previously mentioned theres always something happening so the reader is never bored.