- This post contains a gifted item -
This was one of the books I was so excited to read as soon as I spotted it on Goodreads last year and it was not what I was expecting. Before I get into my review, I will say there are a tonne of trigger warnings for this book and please look them up before you read it. I don't want to share them here because I know I would end up missing them and there are a lot.
Blurb
Every happy teenage girl is the same, while every unhappy teenage girl is miserable in her own special way.
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 an 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.
Dazzlingly opulent and emotionally riveting, Anna K.: A Love Story is a brilliant reimagining of Leo Tolstoy's timeless love story, Anna Karenina―but above all, it is a novel about the dizzying, glorious, heart-stopping experience of first love and first heartbreak.
My Review
This book was not what I was expecting in the slightest. I heard Gossip Girl similarities and was instantly interested. This book is split into three parts and the first one was definitely more about getting to know the characters which I liked. This is a retelling of Anna Karenina, I had never read it so I didn't know the direction that this book was going to go. And if you like me you have no idea, you are in for one wild ride.
I completely understand the Gossip Girl vibes with this one but think way more dramatic, so much more drug use (there is a tonne of it and honestly I wasn't a huge fan of it), sex and more diversity. It gave me a little Crazy Rich Asians vibe as well because money is no object to most of the characters. This book is YA so I went into it not expecting it to be as wild as it was and this definitely is for a more mature audience.
There are a lot of side plots within the book, I was expecting it to be just about Anna K mainly due to the title but there is so much going on and all of the plots intertwine in a way that is easy to follow. There are so many characters in this book and I do think it was easy to follow thanks to the first part of the book. There is also a small description of each character in the front of my arc copy so hopefully, that will be in the finished versions as well as it was really helpful.
To keep this spoiler-free, all I will say is that it left me feeling quite stressed towards the end! I was gripped almost the entire time while reading and there is so much happening in this book that isn't in the blurb which I loved! These teens are doing some insane stuff and I kept forgetting how young they are throughout the book.
Anna K has been picked up by HBO Max in development as a TV series which I am so excited about as I can imagine this book being fantastic as an adaptation.
Anna K is out on the 5th of March 2020. You can get your copy - HERE.
<3
Comments
Post a Comment