The Book:
Anna K by Jenny Lee
Published March 3rd 2020 by Flatiron Books
Date read: April 26, 2021
The Characters:
Too many to list. See the beginning of the book!
Buy it on Bookshop.org | Amazon
The Plot (from Goodreads):
Meet Anna K. At seventeen, she is at the top of Manhattan and Greenwich society (even if she prefers the company of her horses and Newfoundland dogs); she has the perfect (if perfectly boring) boyfriend, Alexander W.; and she has always made her Korean-American father proud (even if he can be a little controlling). Meanwhile, Anna’s brother, Steven, and his girlfriend, Lolly, are trying to weather a sexting scandal; Lolly’s little sister, Kimmie, is struggling to recalibrate to normal life after an injury derails her ice dancing career; and Steven’s best friend, Dustin, is madly (and one-sidedly) in love with Kimmie.
As her friends struggle with the pitfalls of ordinary teenage life, Anna always seems to be able to sail gracefully above it all. That is…until the night she meets Alexia “Count” Vronsky at Grand Central. A notorious playboy who has bounced around boarding schools and who lives for his own pleasure, Alexia is everything Anna is not. But he has never been in love until he meets Anna, and maybe she hasn’t, either. As Alexia and Anna are pulled irresistibly together, she has to decide how much of her life she is willing to let go for the chance to be with him. And when a shocking revelation threatens to shatter their relationship, she is forced to question if she has ever known herself at all.
The Ending:
Anna broke up with Alexander to be with Alexia, but then Alexia died in a strange ass train accident after a fight with a homeless man and saving his dog. Wtf? This seemed totally out of left field and ruined my enjoyment of this book. I think it was totally unnecessary, forced, and clunky.
Dustin’s brother OD’d and died, but he ended up with Kimmy. Kimmy had met Nicholas when she was at a wellness clinic in Arizona.
Stephen and Lolly worked things out.
The Review:
I loved the premise of this one, but in execution it turned out a little too young for me. It’s meant to be YA, which I always read with a grain of salt, but there are the YA books that work for adults as well and then there are YA books that should just be read by young adults. I know I’m not the target audience, so I’ll keep my criticisms to a minimum, but where are these children’s parents??
I was enjoying the plot up until a certain twist at a train station. If you’ve read this book, click the spoiler link above to see what scene I’m talking about. It felt forced, clunky, and unnecessary, and kind of ruined the book for me. Full disclosure, I haven’t read Anna Karenina (which this book is meant to be a retelling of). Was this scene something from that book? I’m going to assume yes, because that’s the only way including it makes sense!
I’m interested to see where the author takes Anna’s story, and will definitely be reading the next book despite my reservations with this one.
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