Blog Tour + Review: Anna K.: A Love Story

Thank you to Flatiron Books at Macmillan Publishers for inviting me to participate in the Anna K blog tour! I received an advanced reader copy for review. Receiving this galley does not impact my opinion of the book.

"Every happy teenage girl is the same, while every unhappy teenage girl is miserable in her own special way."

 

In this modern-day retelling of Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, protagonist Anna K. grapples with a classic teenage dilemma: conforming to parental expectations or charting her own flawed path. On paper, the biracial seventeen-year-old seems to have a perfect life: a secure relationship with the seemingly-perfect Harvard student, Alexander, a dominant Manhattan social circle, and the approval of her Korean father. Anna is a community darling, and her relationship with her boyfriend is so well-recognized that marriage seems almost imminent.

But an unexpected encounter challenges Anna to reconsider the future laid out before her. When the teenager meets Alexia “Count” Vronsky, she questions, for the first time, whether she is truly enjoying her relationship with Alexander. As Anna ruminates on what she wants from young adulthood, conflict and romance abound in her wealthy clique. Steven, Anna’s older brother, cheats on his girlfriend Lolly; Kimmie, Lolly’s younger sister, wrestles with her identity after an injury disrupts her ice-skating career; and Dustin, Steven’s tutor, schemes for a relationship with one of Anna’s friends. When these tragedies and scandals, as well as Anna’s own infidelity, go public, the protagonist must redefine what love means to her.

Author Jenny Lee’s ability to make social criticism approachable for a teenage audience distinguishes Anna K.: A Love Story from other novels in the young adult space. For many teenagers, high school can be insulating, but also a time of self-discovery. The author navigates complex character circumstances in this context with ease, empowering young readers to engage old intersections and prejudices in modern society.

Anna K.’s exploration of class differences provides an example. The teen characters in Lee’s novel are filthy rich. Their parents’ wealth permits them access to the best schools, clothing brands, social events, and drugs. The opulence is, at times, thrilling to the audience. In Anna’s elite social world, the only concerns that matter are rooted in the superficial: who can deliver the most elaborate Valentine’s gift, throw the best parties, or cause the most dramatic scandal? However, when juxtaposed against the plights of a poorer character, Dustin, the once electrifying luxury becomes sickening in its waste. The luxury cars and Gucci gifts are no longer exciting, but excessive.

While ensconced in this wealth, Anna and her friends wrestle with high school politics that will be familiar to teen readers as they strive to assert identities distinct from their parents'. Kimmie, for example, realizes the shallowness of interactions based around class status after seeking professional treatment for depression. Although Anna recognizes that having an affair is morally wrong, her romance with Vronsky also allows her to accept that she deserves to control her own love and happiness.

The glimpse that Anna K. provides into the upper echelons of society serves as an interesting backdrop to examine gender expectations in both Korean communities and society more broadly. I took a particular interest in Lee’s approach to this subject because of my own background. My mother is a Korean immigrant, and, like the heroine Anna, I am biracial.

Lee’s discussion of sexism in Korean communities is a bit more heavy-handed, but unflinching in its depiction. Anna, though intelligent in her own right and largely considered to be an “obedient” Korean daughter, receives worse treatment from her parents than her older brother Steven. Steven regularly overspends family money and skips classes, but persistent patriarchal and hierarchical norms enable him to remain a respected son and anticipated future leader of the family. Both Anna and Steven have affairs. Yet only the older brother manages to recover his relationship and reputation with community support, while Anna faces pointed parental disapproval and social rejection. The protagonist must confront the fact that “Steven’s father’s pride was fierce, and his Korean heritage was deeply ingrained.”

Where Anna K. stumbles is in attempting to engage teenagers’ lingo. Many of the teen characters speak primarily in hashtags and acronyms, which comes off as awkward and unacquinated, especially for a young adult audience. In a description of Anna’s social circle, for example, Lee writes that “nearly everyone in this bunch had cheated on bfs or gfs before.” When a student manages to endure a full class schedule, one lazy character remarks, “Damn, you can do two classes in a row? Hashtag ballerbitch.” The teenagers exclusively refer to Valentine’s Day as “V-Day.”

Still, Lee undeniably presents a coming-of-age story that will intrigue both fans of Tolstoy's Anna Karenina and readers unfamiliar with the original story. Through challenges and tragedy, the imperfect heroine learns that she has power over her own choices, for better and for worse.

 

- ★★★ -

About the Author: Jenny Lee is a television writer and producer who has worked on BET’s Boomerang, IFC’s Brockmire, Freeform’s Young & Hungry, and the Disney Channel’s number-one-rated kids' show, Shake It Up. Jenny is the author of four humor essay collections and two middle grade novels. Anna K: A Love Story is her debut YA novel. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and 135-pound Newfoundland, Gemma (and yes, it’s a toss-up on who's walking who every day). Instagram: @jennyleewrites