Anna K: A Love Story by Jenny Lee
- lucysbookishbabble
- Sep 11, 2020
- 4 min read
Think Gossip Girl meets Crazy Rich Asians and you get Anna K by Jenny Lee. This modern YA retelling of Anna Karenia is fun, gossipy, enthralling, and dramatic. As all my favorite books are. Anna K tells the story of Anna K, the perfect daughter, and queen of Greenwich. Her perfect boyfriend, the “Greenwich OG”. Anna’s brother Steven and his girlfriend, Lolly, who like to party hard. Lolly’s sister Kimmy, who has just ended her professional ice-skating career. Dustin, Stephen’s childhood friend, and now tutor. And lastly, the illustrious Count Vronsky, who has slept with the greater majority of Manhattan’s one percent.
I will preface with the fact that I have not read Anna Karenia, therefore I can not accurately analyze the accuracy of Anna K’s plot in reference to the original. I am only a freshman in high school, so I have plenty of time to eventually read difficult Russian literature. So I am going to stick to judging this book independently of its inspiration.
I truly enjoyed Anna K. Now I love, love, love books about rich teenagers. Gossip Girl is my favorite television show, and a lot of my favorite books revolve around Manhattan’s one percent. There is something so alluring about their frivolous ridiculousness. I don’t spend over one hundred dollars on shoes, let alone fly out to Coachella on a private aircraft. I know some people HATE the rich teens trope, and if you don’t like it, you’ll hate Anna K.
Lee’s descriptions and writing are magnificent. Truly, I do not have any critiques about her writing. The whole story is in the third person, which I typically find boring or dry, but Lee’s use of it felt very similar to Kristen Bell’s role in Gossip Girl. The use of third-person also makes the transitions between storylines and character perspectives flawless. At times Lee’s pop culture references seemed slightly out of place, but most of them were well done. I especially liked the Coachella and Hamilton references. But the whole 90’s rap party seemed a little too I’m-trying-too-hard-to-relate-to-teenagers.
One thing I did struggle with was the pacing of the novel. At times things got so slow and dry that I was tempted to stop reading, and other times I felt like she rushed important moments. Overall things definitely speed up in the second half of the book. Personally, I think the second half is so much better paced and more interesting because of the character development.
Almost all of the characters had a well-developed character ark. This is impressive considering it is such a large cast of characters. My personal favorites ended up being Stephen and Lolly. In the beginning, we are led to believe that Stephen in a player who cheats on his girlfriend, gets kicked out of school, and parties non-stop, but by the end of the story the readers see a whole new side of him. Stephen has had to live with being in Anna’s shadow. His father has high expectations for Stephen and he often cracks under them, but by the end we see Stephen standing up to his father and protecting Anna. We also see him open up to Lolly and learn how to treat her right. Lastly, and I think most significantly Stephen opens up to Dustin and supports him as a friend. This shows how he has gone from only caring about himself and his needs to caring for a whole array of people in his life.
Similarly to Stephen, Lolly is painted as the superficial annoying girlfriend of Stephen. For the entire first part of Anna K, I was convinced that Lolly was a whiny, overdramatic crybaby, but she really pulls through at the end to show just how much she has changed. She is there for Dustin after his brother dies, she is there for Stephen on Valentine’s Day, she supports Kimmie, and she cares for Anna despite the implications on her popularity. When Lolly dedicated her performance of “It’s Quiet Uptown” to Anna, I was honestly touched. It was the perfect wrap-up to her and Stephen’s story.
The star of Anna K was Anna and Vronsky, and honestly, I found their love story overbearing. I totally thought Anna should ditch Mr. Proper, Alexander, and his whiny half-sis, Eleanor (which was obviously in love with him), but I found Anna and Vronsky’s reliance on each other gross, and a little bit much. I know that Anna’s actions were meant to be out of character, but at times it felt like she was a totally different person. I also found Vronsky to be a total jerk. He disregarded Anna’s wishes on multiple occasions to leave her alone, AND he never truly owned up to his actions regarding Kimmie. I think Lee wanted us to believe he was no longer a playboy, but he never really changed his ways.
Overall I give this book four out of five stars. I enjoyed the setting, characters, and most of the storylines, but Anna and Vronsky made me drop a star. I would recommend Anna K to readers who enjoy Gossip Girl, Crazy Rich Asians, and We Were Liars. I hope you love Anna K: A Love Story by Jenny Lee just as much as I did!! XOXO, Bookish Babble<3
Goodreads Synopsis: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/45043369-anna-k?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=QA9U8PMbzP&rank=1
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