This book heavily reminds me of The Clique series by Lisi Harrison, books I used to be obsessed with as a young reader because their spoiled and dramatic main characters were so unlike anyone I knew in real life, and I loved the glitz and over-the-top-ness of it all. "Anna K" has the same vibes; the blurbs calling it the contemporary "Gossip Girl" retelling of "Anna Karenina" are spot-on.

There were points I thought I might hate this book because of certain characters and actions, but the character growth really comes through in this one. It's not like everyone is a saint at the end, but I was pleasantly surprised with how things wrapped up. For example, I came to love Kimmie's character, and thought she was a really accurate and heartfelt portrayal of a 14-year old girl trying to be her own strong self and learn how to be a feminist.

I would also mildly argue that "Anna K" might be more likable if you have read or seen the real "Anna Karenina". Although this retelling is a bit on the nose at times, there are certain plot points that I think just might seen totally bizarre if you don't know what they're echoing. I saw a few people complaining about the ending, but having already seen the movie I personally was waiting for that to happen, so having that knowledge is just going to change your reading experience!

All of March I've been in a horrible reading mood and only read one other book, and "Anna K" got me out of that slump. The story is just the total opposite of my headspace right now during self-distancing, so maybe part of why I enjoyed this was the escapism factor. Either way, I thought it was a really fun read! ( )

I haven't read Anna Karenina but the narrator to this was really dry and the characters were just not that likable, everyone was a rich mean person. ( )

Anna K: A Love Story has been this daunting book on my bookshelf for quite some time. My friends hyped it up SO much that I was nervous to start it. Do you ever have those books that you're scared that they were over hyped and now will be a let down? Anna K. was that for me. I was so nervous but I finally decided to jump in.

Jenny Lee crafting an intertext for Anna Karenina was what really drew me to this book. I haven't read the original (but I truly need to), but I thought it'd be a cool read. I think if I read the base text I'd appreciate this story SO much more, so I definitely recommend that to any reader coming in.

Taking away the intertext, this book was.... interesting. I personally did not like the writing style. It's definitely written in an older, slower paced style that felt reminiscent of books from the 1800s. It was beautiful but struggled to keep my attention. But, that's also just me! I'm the kind of reader that needs a fast paced book with very fun writing styles to keep me engaged. Jenny Lee's writing style is very beautiful though, so don't take that as a hit against the book.

The story itself was incredibly engaging, which is what kept me going. There's lots of high society drama among the American-Korean crowd. All of the main characters in this book are teenagers (it's a YA book, obviously), but they go through as much drama as a Real Housewife - cheating, drugs, alcohol, and like... where was I when this happened in high school? (Staying inside and reading books, so obviously I missed out). It seems so out of touch for what I knew from high school but from my understanding this definitely was there.

I'm not going to get too much into the plot since I read it during a very exhausting week. Essentially, Anna K., our lead, is one of the top ladies of society and she has the world's perfect boyfriend. She then meets Vronsky who sets her heart on FIRE. She goes after him and starts to ruin her reputation. Meanwhile, her friends and family are also having their lives fall apart in various ways. Cue (and queue) the drama.

I might not have connected well with the story, but I did enjoy reading it. Is it my favourite? No. Should I come back to this after reading the source material? Yes. I think I will appreciate it more then.

For now, lovely read! Truly interesting and I think it's audience will ADORE it.

Three out of five stars. ( )

I've read a few fairy tale retellings but this was my first millenial retelling of a classic fiction and having not read the classic, I went into this oblivious to any similarities that the story may have to the OG.

Anna K is a modern retelling of Anna Karenina and from what I've read up on it, this is a really good one at it.

The book had extremely short chapters but there were a lot of them divided into three parts. Each part starts with a catchy quote and it's from multiple POV's.

It took me quite some chapters to get into it because it's the first time I'm reading a book with multiple point of views in the same chapters. Also, authors are nailing the annoying parts of teenagers in a lot of books I've read recently and the same goes for a few characters in this one.

What I liked is the balance that the author managed to create between the classic story and the current lifestyle of teens. She managed to get across the varying personalities of the kids and also showed us how we can learn from the mistakes and grow.

The biggest take away for me from this book is it's never too late to learn to choose yourself first. And being unfamiliar with the original storyline, I don't know if the ending matched the OG but I am not a fan of certain things in the ending.

After all this, somehow, the book also managed to leave away a few important lessons along its pages and I ended up connecting with a few characters emotionally. It made me cry.

I rate the book 3.5/5

What I liked about it:

- short chapters
- easy and fast
- very frank and relatable
- doesn't beat around the bush or try to be righteous
- some extremely good lessons to be learned from it


What I did not fancy:

- took me really long to get into it
- there is a chance of the book being shelved
- the ending seemed unnecessary and it changed the entire course of the story but I haven't read the book it's inspired from so I can't be the judge of that for others ( )

DNF at page 208 of the ARC. I got halfway through this but I was b o r e d and that was two months ago and I've come to accept that I'm never going to finish this. ( )