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bookishbaird1's review against another edition
4.0
Gossip Girl meets Anna Karenina - a combo I didn’t know I needed in my life
daphnevandenbergkramer's review against another edition
3.0
Dit boek had van alles een beetje heel veel. Onderwerpen zoals drugs, seks, bedrog, pesten, de dood en natuurlijk ook de liefde waar het boek uiteraard omdraait. De zware onderwerpen werden naar mijn mening soms wat makkelijk afgehandeld, wat het boek op bepaalde momenten een beetje oppervlakkig maakte.
Het verhaal speelde zich in New York af en in combinatie met de personages die stuk voor stuk bijna allemaal rijkeluiskinderen zijn geeft dit boek zoals velen hieronder al beschreven hebben een Gossip Girl achtig gevoel. Ik heb het in ieder geval met plezier gelezen en daarom geef ik het 3,5⭐️
Het verhaal speelde zich in New York af en in combinatie met de personages die stuk voor stuk bijna allemaal rijkeluiskinderen zijn geeft dit boek zoals velen hieronder al beschreven hebben een Gossip Girl achtig gevoel. Ik heb het in ieder geval met plezier gelezen en daarom geef ik het 3,5⭐️
thisstoryaintover's review against another edition
hands down one of my fave books of the year. dramatic yet nuanced, Anna K is the story of a large cast of characters discovering love in its many facets. I love this book to bits and will definitely go back to reread it time and again.
deannereads's review against another edition
dark
emotional
funny
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
amanda9269's review against another edition
4.0
This was such a great romance book. It had a great storyline from all the different characters. Such a sad ending but very good. Vronsky and Anna were so good together and Nick and his girl. I totally shipped Dustin and Kimmie from the very beginning as well. So good and definitely recommend to girls aged 12 and over as well as anyone looking for a good heartfelt romance.
brooke_oconnor's review against another edition
emotional
funny
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
just when u think nothing else can happen BAM. like damn a lot happens. makes me totally want to read the real anna karinena. but also i enjoy this water downed version that’s super digestible. wanting to be “teen hip” gets very cringy keep in mind
siobhancollierauthor's review against another edition
1.0
I did it. I DNFed at page 13.
Look, I love modern retellings of classics - I watched Clueless the other night and remembered it was a 90’s version of Emma by Jane Austen. 10 Thing I Hate About You is a great version of The Tempest. Two books I’ve read this year - Take A Chance On Me by Beth Garrod and My Type On Paper by Chloe Seager- have had a solid go at retelling Mamma Mia! And they both worked it. Done well, a modern retelling is a great way of reintroducing a classic into a setting that is familiar for readers.
But this is almost like a copy/paste of Tolstoy. I read it, I fucking LOVED it. I was excited for something modern that had similar themes, but this is way too close to the source material. Those examples above worked because they stuck close to the themes of the story, the basic outline, and the character attributes that made the originals so well rounded. They didn’t have chapters that could verbatim be lifted from the original and highlight/replace names, locations, modern appliances etc.
And the storytelling is so dry. While that works for classic writers like Dumas, Melville (still haven’t forgiven Melville for 43 surplus chapters of whale information in Moby Dick), Tolstoy, the Brontes etc etc because their settings had to be accessible in a much bigger world, in today’s writing it is a major infodump. Consider the character I just read about, Dustin. He was introduced as a friend of Steven, who was in a fight scene with his girlfriend, and then for the entirety of chapter two it’s how Dustin and Steven know each other. It’s dense and dry and it’s a major tell-don’t-show which is a huge rule break for me.
And I have this much to say and this much negativity from 10 pages. TEN PAGES. Maybe it gets better, but I doubt it. And I’m sad, because I love my high society American high school books (Kate Brian’s Privileged series, American Royals) and this book should have had all my 5 star marks just on premise alone. Ugh, I’m so disappointed!
Look, I love modern retellings of classics - I watched Clueless the other night and remembered it was a 90’s version of Emma by Jane Austen. 10 Thing I Hate About You is a great version of The Tempest. Two books I’ve read this year - Take A Chance On Me by Beth Garrod and My Type On Paper by Chloe Seager- have had a solid go at retelling Mamma Mia! And they both worked it. Done well, a modern retelling is a great way of reintroducing a classic into a setting that is familiar for readers.
But this is almost like a copy/paste of Tolstoy. I read it, I fucking LOVED it. I was excited for something modern that had similar themes, but this is way too close to the source material. Those examples above worked because they stuck close to the themes of the story, the basic outline, and the character attributes that made the originals so well rounded. They didn’t have chapters that could verbatim be lifted from the original and highlight/replace names, locations, modern appliances etc.
And the storytelling is so dry. While that works for classic writers like Dumas, Melville (still haven’t forgiven Melville for 43 surplus chapters of whale information in Moby Dick), Tolstoy, the Brontes etc etc because their settings had to be accessible in a much bigger world, in today’s writing it is a major infodump. Consider the character I just read about, Dustin. He was introduced as a friend of Steven, who was in a fight scene with his girlfriend, and then for the entirety of chapter two it’s how Dustin and Steven know each other. It’s dense and dry and it’s a major tell-don’t-show which is a huge rule break for me.
And I have this much to say and this much negativity from 10 pages. TEN PAGES. Maybe it gets better, but I doubt it. And I’m sad, because I love my high society American high school books (Kate Brian’s Privileged series, American Royals) and this book should have had all my 5 star marks just on premise alone. Ugh, I’m so disappointed!
glabeson's review against another edition
4.0
I really enjoyed this, more than I expected to, not being its target audience. I hadn't really thought about how well a classic like Anna Karenina could translate into a young adult novel until they discussed it on Novel Pairings podcast, but I agree that perhaps no other time in modern life is social stratification so prominent than high school (which probably speaks to too much insularity in adult life). This is amplified even more so by following the social lives of the 1%er teens in New York --it was like Gossip Girl meets Anna Karenina. I loved the clever ways Lee modernized some of the original plot points and also find it disappointing that the criticisms of social norms of the 1870s are still timely today.