I never read the Leo Tolstoy story. However I still enjoyed this story. I definitely can see this being developed into a tv show like Gossip Girl.

A fun interpretation of Anna Karenina for an older teen audience or anyone who enjoys retellings and fans of Gossip Girl and Crazy Rich Asians.

(3.5/5) I've read a lot of Tolstoy adaptations, so when I saw this available as an ARC, I wanted it because to be honest most Tolstoy adaptations are pretty crappy, and I thought this one would be as well.

I was pleasantly surprised at how much fun <i>Anna K.</i> is. This young adult novel follows Anna K., a young, extremely Korean-American teenager, as she and her friends and family try to navigate the world of the high school elite in New York City. Anna seemingly has the perfect life, including the perfect boyfriend until she meets Alexia Vronsky who throws her world into a tail spin.

Lee's writing is not Tolstoyian. It's still a young adult novel, and that shows through. What she does really well is taking the main issues of Tolstoy's novel and bringing them to a modern, young adult audience. Both Steven and Kimmie (the modern version of Kitty) are well written characters who show more depth than you would expect while Dustin (the Levin character) is the one that never really hits the elements of predecessor.

<i>Anna K. </i> was way more enjoyable than I expected it to be. The setting of high society New York private school works really for a modern version, and Lee has a lot of fun with the characters and the age group.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

Definitely torn on this one: had I read Anna Karenina, I’d probably be obsessed with this modern update (AK did just get WAAYYY moved up on my reading list!). The story was so dramatic with crazy coincidences...like it was coming to us right out of the 19th century. 😉 This large cast of characters is also straight out of Victorian literature, and though I’ve never read the original (or any Russian literature for that matter), it definitely reminded me of other literature at the time.

However, I love Gossip Girl, and this is completely reminiscent of that: the Manhattan-elite private school clan living their lives of luxury, aka sex, drugs, and parties. I wish I had a way to comment on the update of this classic story, and I’m kicking myself that I didn’t plow through AK first, but I did enjoy this, and I LOVED Anna, much like I assume I’ll love Anna in the original.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC.

Truth be told, I wasn't a Gossip Girl reader as a teenager, otherwise I'd definitely make more of a comparison here. I did, however, devour every book in The Clique series, which is essentially the middle schooler's version of Gossip Girl, and I still jokingly use the phrase "lip kissed" after my friends tell me about a first date, despite the fact that we're Very Much Adults™.

The strange thing about reading Jenny Lee's Anna K. as a grown-ass woman, though, is I realized just how much my own book interests have changed. Watching rich teens do a bunch of ridiculous shit just isn't as interesting or glamorous or enchanting as it was when I was a pre-teen growing up in a boring southern suburb. And at the same time, I think Jenny Lee did something that many novels I read in this genre as an actual pre-teen and teenager when I was growing up didn't: She gave her characters real depth in the midst of the gaudy absurdity of the wealthy. She validated the belief that teenagers' feelings and inner worlds are real and important.

Lee put together the perfect book for the teens of today—and for me, reading this novel became less about her words and more about some introspection. I think I've aged out of this genre. But it was a helluva ride to get here and quite the book to show me that.

Plus now I feel no urge to read Anna Karenina. I assume Jenny Lee's version is better.

I loved reading this book. At the start of covid 19 quarantine it provided such an enjoyable escape. I usually don’t like YA because it feels corny and patronizing. This was smart and sexy and fun. Very gossip girl. Loved the characters and the dialogue. It made me want to sit down with the original Anna Karenina, which I’ve never wanted to do.

This book was not at all as I expected. There was a great amount of alcohol, drugs, and sex from these rich and famous teens. The consequences of which were far and wide. Despite the terrible decision making skills of the teens in this novel, I did enjoy it, if only to gape at the lifestyles of these teenagers.

A fun (if you can believe it) YA retelling of classic Russian Novel Anna Karenina but this time it’s the high society of New York elite. With gossip girl vibes (it starts and ends at grand central station) and tragic story of love, loss, addiction, and many dead animals, this remix is not one to miss.

I enjoyed this retelling even though I have never read the original story. Anna K. Is a enjoyable story of love and heartbreak, of friendships and family. I enjoyed the modern twist on this, but felt it was a bit too lengthy and found myself skimming parts. Overall I’d give this one 3.5/5 stars.

4.17 out of 5 Stars

So this book was a lot of fun to read (until I was crying at the end but that's fine) and it was definitely an interesting mix up from the last book I read which was a mystery/thriller. The narration had a near-flippant, gossipy kind of tone to it, which I really enjoyed and I think fit perfectly for the story. Anna K was a little on the long end, but from looking at my own copy of Anna Karenina, that book was a long one too so the reimagining fits the original perfectly in that regard. Admittedly, I haven't read Anna Karenina, so I can't make any other comparisons to the inspiration for this book.

Plot:
The story follows a lot of extremely wealthy teenagers in high-society Manhattan. There were times it was insanely fun to see how they spent their money and the kinds of things that they would be able to do, who they knew, etc., etc. For example, it's crazy to think they could have a dinner party with like five new celebrities and then throw an all-out party with tents and themes, but damn was it fun to read. And then there were other times that I thought the display of wealth was a little too over the top. Then again, they're wealthy teenagers with close to zero parental supervision, so I could still believe it.

What I really enjoyed though about the plot was that it took an extreme (kids with crazy amounts of money), and brought those characters closer to the average person by connecting them through common courtesy, friendships, pets, and awkward teenage interactions. Yeah, they had some pompous airs about them, but like, Bea is going to look out for Murph to make sure he's having a good time at her party. Those little details of these kids' awareness about their surroundings really brought a nice touch to the story.

Characters:
There were soooo many freaking characters. It was almost frustrating at times because while it was all third person, we would go from Anna to Stephen to Lolly to Kimmie to Dustin to Bea to Vronsky and honestly it was a little maddening. Just as one character's chapter started to really get me hooked, the next chapter would be someone else's plot entirely.

The characters had pretty interesting dynamics but oh my God, Anna and Vronsky-
Definition.
Of.
InstaLove.
For real, if you don't like InstaLove, you will go insane over this relationship. This is also what ultimately led to me crying of course, but at the beginning, I remember chuckling and thinking, **** is happening, these kids just met. Not all of the relationships are like that though. Stephen and Lolly certainly aren't and Kimmie has a really interesting arc throughout the book, so not every relationship is instantaneous. They actually all had different nuances that they were trying figure out for themselves, both as individuals and as couples, and it made for a good coming-of-age.

Writing:
Right when I started reading, I imagined the narrator sitting back, taking all the attention from the room, and going, "All right, here's the tea." The tone just fit perfectly for the story, being completely lighthearted when things were going great, drawing out the tension when there was drama going on, and taking the hard stuff serious. I really enjoyed it. I could see where some people might think it is an immature narrator, but to me it sounded like a teenager embellishing a story to a group of friends. Maybe a bit over the top, but the story itself is about kids who can drink away $700 dollars in a single shot, so again, it fits.

I'm so excited for the HBO adaptation of this! Where it might fall short as a book, I think a TV show can really bring out the crazy and the nuances even more, without seeming like the story is taking too long. Plus, it's HBO, so I am going to have high expectations and I think they'll do a really good job with it in general.

Thanks for reading!

I want to preface this with I've never read Anna Karenina, so my opinion may be skewed based on that.

I liked this book -- I thought it was an awesome YA book and focused a lot on trials that regular teenagers face, minus the HEAVY coke usage, which I found to be a little much. It was hard to believe that these high schoolers were tripping acid or doing coke every weekend. I really loved Kimmie and how NORMAL she seemed -- her dealing with tragedy and heartbreak through therapy really normalized therapy in my opinion. I also loved Anna. I thought she felt the most real and well-rounded out of all the characters, and I felt like I could really relate to how she felt stuck. I thought the storyline was great, but it did feel way too long, and then WAY too rushed at the end.

Overall, a cute novel that I think would appeal to a lot of young adults!

This is a modern retelling of Anna Karenina (Tolstoy original) likened to Gossip Girl. While I can see how they got to that comparison, this fell very very flat for me. I’ve said it before, I am a huge dialogue reader and this was severely lacking in that aspect. The writing felt geared towards a younger audience but the content certainly was not. The main focus of this story felt more about drugs, sex, and partying than anything else. I had a hard time connecting with any of the characters. None of them were relateable and we switched perspectives so rapidly it was difficukt to keep things straight. It was a struggle to finish this book and I had zero emotional reaction to anything that happened because I didn’t care about the characters.
As always, I encourage you to read the book yourself and form your own opinions. Unfortunately, I did not enjoy this book at all.

Anna K is a modern day retelling of Anna Karina. It reminded me so much of Gossip Girl. I loved every minute of reading it (once I got past all of the designer name dropping).

Anna Karenina is one of my favorite books of all time so of course I was looking forward to this modern adaptation. Plus I loved Gossip Girl so my expectations were super high before reading this and guess what? It exceeded all my expectations. This is definitely a must read and I'm so glad to have had the opportunity to read it. Tolstoy knew what he was writing about and Jenny Lee is a genius to incorporate his themes to modern times! Great adaptation!

In this modern re-telling of Tolstoy’s “Anna Karenina,” a group of wealthy NYC teens navigates love triangles, family drama, and the pressures of society. Anna appears to have the perfect teenage life, complete with her Greenwich-based dogs and horses, long-time boyfriend, and impeccable reputation. Everything begins to unravel, however, after she meets the magnetic Alexia Vronsky. Meanwhile, Anna’s brother Steven is trying to salvage his relationship with his girlfriend, Lolly, and their friend Dustin is harboring an unrequited crush on Lolly’s sister, Kimmie.⁣
•⁣
This book definitely fits into what the hosts of Bad on Paper Podcast call the “rich, unsupervised teens behaving badly” genre, with plenty of drugs, sex, and scandal. Just like in the original story, there are also moments of tragedy. I’ve seen the movie version and know the basic storyline of “Anna Karenina,” and from my limited knowledge, I think that Jenny Lee did an excellent job updating the story for 2020. I do think that I probably would have enjoyed this one more if I had read Tolstoy’s original work, though. There were several passages throughout the book where it seemed as though Lee was referencing the original book that went over my head.⁣
•⁣
Despite this, I enjoyed the sweeping, epic feel of the story and the large cast of interconnected characters. Several of the characters didn’t totally feel like real people to me, but I definitely don’t run in high society circles like these teens. Overall, I think that fans of more mature YA books will enjoy this clever re-telling. And it sounds like I need to read “Anna Karenina” now!⁣

I absolutely loved this book. I started reading it at the same time that I started reading its source material, Anna Karenina, and I was surprised by how brilliant this adaptation was. The modernization of the famous Russian novel was very clever and well done. It closely resembled the original in plot and it all worked seamlessly with its characters to elevate the classic story to a modern contemporary romance. Manhattan’s high society was a perfect choice to replace the Russian nobility and it worked so well as the setting for a YA novel. It gave me Gossip Girl vibes, but with a more sophisticated air. This book really explores and brings to light the double standards of men and women in relationships in an observational way that I appreciated. All of the characters were strong and complex, and I loved the switching perspectives and intertwining storylines. The adaptation of the original characters into their YA counterparts was handled perfectly and it was so much fun to see how they were updated for our time. Similarly to the original, Anna and Vronsky’s relationship starts out a little insta-lovey, but their chemistry is so fantastic that you just buy it. My favorite thing was watching Anna discover herself and what she wanted and deserved out of life. Her arc was fantastic and her flaws and mistakes only made me love her more. This book was amazing and I think that both lovers of Anna Karenina and people coming in with no prior knowledge of the story would both get swept away by this delicious, dramatic, sophisticated, and beautiful reimagining.

I’m a little disappointed with this book. It didn’t feel like the fresh new YA book it was billed at. I was an original Gossip Girl fan so this felt like that and a dash of Crazy Rich Asians. It didn’t really feel new or nuanced. I also never read Anna karenina so the plot ties there went over my head till I read the authors note at the end. It also felt dragged out and repetitive. Plus some of the things that happened or the lives of these kids seemed so far fetched... or maybe I am just so far removed from this kinda life I didn’t believe it.

Overall, probably kind of dense for readers coming into this with no expectations from the original. Enough reflection of the original yet with its own surprises to interest those familiar with the original. And for both, moments where the old Russian style and internet era style will clash in a really strange way.

Recommended: yes!
For an adaptation from an uncommon source for the genre, for a rich-and-famous-teen story, for a lot of interpersonal intrigue and drama sprinkled with plenty of sex, drugs, and partying.

Thoughts:
I've seen a lot of reviewers saying they are unfamiliar with the original text this is based on, Tolstoy's dense Russian classic Anna Karenina. I have read the original, so I can give some insight into the amount of similarity and would say it's about 60% similar. Part of this is just because the original is SO lengthy that aspects of it had to be removed to prevent this retelling from being nearly a thousand pages as well. The general plot is the same, and the relationships are all still there, so the essence of it remains.

For those who are coming into this as its own standalone story with no preconceived ideas of what will happen this can be a slow read. Be aware that this is a lot more serious and formal in tone than most YA novels, which is due to Lee's success in imitating the reserved Russian mindset and style of the original. While I plowed through this, other friends said it took them weeks to get through because of how slow and dense it felt at times. The overall effect is an unprecedented blend of modern and classic tones.

The primary hurdle to this blend is when they clash in a quite jarring way. For example, the sentence "Perhaps [she] was rueful over her lost opportunity with [him], who wasn't as babe-a-licious as [the other guy] but was vastly superior in intellect and character." (Edited to keep it vague). The term "babealicious" set up against "vastly superior in intellect and character" is extremely weird, posing the character thinking it simultaneously as a serious posh old lady and a millennial pop-culture fanatic. It gets really awkward at times, and the tone is pretty inconsistent. Alternatively (and as above, sometimes simultaneously) aggressively young and weirdly old in their mindset, these teenagers often don't read as teenagers and makes it hard to classify this as a young adult genre.

The characters all live quite lavishly, which is where all the comparisons to Gossip Girl are coming from. I imagine the HBO series will be pretty similar in style. Even with that, they retain their complexity, allowing you to see the redeeming and condemning sides of each person. Dustin (Levin) is the one who will be most relatable for most readers, in terms of lifestyle. That said, each character has similar fears and challenges as anyone reading it might.

The hype is real! And although it's been many years since I've read Anna Karenina, I love this re-imagining as it so deftly deals with many different themes not explored back then, Since Anna K is half-Korean, there is the race angle. And then there's the disparity between the wealthy, privileged teens and those who don't flaunt their Gucci bags and Manolo Blahnik shoes. And let's not get started on the often-absentee parents who throw their credit cards at kids like it's raining! Or the drugs that are free-flowing at parties and the social media sexting scandals. Don't get me wrong; I loved this book simply because of all the issues it addresses so well! It's poignant and heartbreakingly lovely even with the characters who made typically-teen mistakes and were flawed as is so much a part of the human condition. And on a final note, I am ever so happy that I grew up in an era before the Social Media Train came blitzing out of the station with the conductors convincing teens that oversharing and twenty selfies a day is "normal" and expected. I'll just go back to my reading now...thank you Jenny Lee! Bravo!

So this book was surprisingly awesome. I did not realize we needed a modern and young adult take on Anna Karenina, but we did!

The book tells the hugely entertaining story of Anna K., her boyfriend, her brother and his girlfriend, the girlfriend's sister, and other assorted rich teens, plus Anna's love affair with the romantic enigma that is "Count" Vronsky. I read Anna Karenina in college and loved it, but I actually love this update way more. The book is fresh and fun, and teenagers will not feel as they being spoken down to in any way. Plus, the escapism of America's socialite royalty is a great take on the royals of the Russians.

With so many modern twists including social media, this book brings the timeless love story to a new generation, complete with dances and train symbolism.

I could not recommend this book more.

Thanks to the publisher, author and www.NetGalley.com for my ARC.