Anna K: A Love Story by Jenny Lee
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

things I liked about this:
-tells the story of Anna Karenina with a modern YA twist. It was fun to see how events in a 19th century Russian story could be reframed in modern America.
-like a good K-drama, the uber wealthy are uber stylish and Lee does a great job creating the ridiculous deliciousness of having so much money.
things I didn't like
-the first part does a great job of reimagining many elements of the novel, but then seems rushed, almost summing up events instead of showing them
-themes and emotional complexity of the original novel are absent. Tolstoy does such a great job of observing how one event can change perception or mood, or how someone's ideas and feelings are contagious. There is a constant push and pull between conscience and desires, between trying to do what's correct in society and between trying to understand their own feelings and morals, between ecstasy and regret. None of Lee's characters seem to be that complicated or self-relflective.
-speaking of which, I know I hold YA books up to some kind of self-mandated standard, but I was shocked that there weren't more repercussions from the rampant use of drugs and basically orgy-like sex in the characters.



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