A review by sydapel
Anna K by Jenny Lee

emotional reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

 I feel really conflicted about this one. I went in with really high hopes (I've never read Anna Karenina, but I'm a big fan of the movie), and while I think it's a really good retelling, there's a couple things that deeply bother me. The first is the writing style. You can tell the author is trying to portray the style of Tolstoy, but it feels clunky and overdone. Not to mention the "teenager speak" made me cringe. Hard. Upon learning the author has written for a lot of CW/Disney shows, these choices begin to make sense, but the overall writing style directly took me out of the realism of this story. Secondly, and more controversially, I'm not sure how I feel about the romanticization of "dying for love" that comes with the book's conclusion, especially in the context of teenage love and lust. I'm happy about the direction the author took here, but the underlying note it leaves us on is slightly problematic, especially given the YA audience it's intended for.
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