luce (cry bebè's back from hiatus)'s Reviews > Anna K: A Love Story

Spotted: Anna K, a high-society darling with a penchant for horses, Newfoundland dogs, and, of course, scandal.

Kevin Kwan meets Gossip Girl in this juicy retelling of Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina. In Lee’s modern-day adaptation of Tolstoy's classic we follow the drama-filled antics of America’s young and wealthy.

Seventeen-year-old Anna K is the reigning belle of both Manhattan and Greenwich societies. She has it all: an impeccable reputation, a respectable boyfriend, a doting father, an elite education. Until she meets Alexia, aka Count Vronsky, a (supposedly) charismatic playboy unbound by constraints of priority. As sparks ignite and gossip swirls, Anna embarks into a scandalous relationship.
Meanwhile, Anna’s brother Steven grapples with the fallout from his unfaithfulness to his girlfriend, Lolly. Lolly’s sister Kimmie, is adjusting to ‘regular’ teen life after an injury cuts her ice dancing career short. She’s also head-over-heels in love with Alexia, much to Steven’s best friend, Dustin, chagrin. Things get even more tricky after a party makes everyone aware of Anna and Alexia’s sizzling attraction.

Having read Tolstoy’s original, it was fun to see how certain plot points and characters would be reimagined for a 21st American setting. Lee's Levin, Dustin, is made far more palatable than his predecessors (thankfully, no cosplaying serfdom to be had here). Unlike the original,Levin/Dustin is relegated to the role of secondary character, with the novel mostly focusing on Anna and Kimmie.

The novel is basically about rich kids behaving badly. We see them cheating, having or wanting to have sex, and doing drugs. Now and again they pursue obnoxious rich people activities, participating in horse races or entering their dogs in beauty pageants.

Compared to other campy satires—But I’m a Cheerleader, Mean Girls, Libba Bray’s Beauty Queens—the teens in Anna K are devoid of distinct personalities beyond catchphrases and hobbies. They resemble reality show contestants, their shallowness bordering on the absurd. They have extravagant parties, get involved in minor and major scandals, the girls spend most of their time talking or thinking about boys, while most of the male characters have the emotional depth of a paddling pool.

Despite dabbling with drugs, and for all their talking of blowjobs, Lee’s teens speak and behave in a babyish lingo. While at times this type of idiosyncrasy can work, Lee’s characters just sound like Disney channel teens. Their lexicon and frame of references also felt off. For a book set in the latter half of the 2010s, there were so many pop cultural references that were dated (the amount of game of thrones references is truly baffling) and not believable. The outdated references combined with the teens’ improbable dialogues seemed unmistakable signs of the generational gap between the characters and their author.

Oddly enough, Lee’s characters share similar beliefs to their 19th century counterparts when it comes to what is proper. It felt as though by making her characters adhere to puritanical beliefs, Lee was able to keep the same conflict between Anna and Alexia/Vronsky as Tolstoy had. Considering the contemporary setting and that most of the adults around the teens are divorced and or have had several spouses, without being exiled from their rarefied world, it made no sense for Anna & co to treat her relationship with Alexia as scandalous.

The novel flirts with serious topics—substance abuse, revenge porn, suicide ideation—but it does so in a very glib, tongue-in-cheek tone, befitting of Gossip Girl. Even when portraying experiences of first love, heartbreak, and jealousy, Lee does so in a frivolous, sensationalist style. Once again, I find myself comparing Anna K unfavorably to Bray’s Beauty Queens. The latter novel pulls off campy satire in a way that Anna K just doesn't. Also, Bray’s characters, however ridiculous, were fun to read about. But Lee’s ones are mostly different shades of annoying. Most of the secondary characters, Kimmie especially, were excruciatingly grating. The two leads, Anna & Alexia, were surprisingly bland, and I wish Lee had imbued them with some zest. Anna is wishy-washy, and Alexia comes across as a generic fuckboi. Anna’s brother, although idiotic and problematic (especially his use of aave), at leasts provides some levity, and it was nice to see how he always has Anna’s back.

Anna K is a read that doesn't demand your undivided attention. It's a frivolous and pulpy retelling populated by a cast of characters who do not sound or behave like actual human beings. The narrative revels in the drama of the rich, poking fun at how inane and shallow the characters are. The novel is undermined by Lee's surface-level satire, which offers little in terms of commenting on privilege, peer pressure, or sexist double-standards. Sure, Anna K is kind of trashy and very stupid, but if you like Kevin Kwan, Curtis Sittenfeld's Eligible, Gossip Girl, or if you enjoy watching reality shows like Made In Chelsea or The Simple Life, chances are you’ll find it to be an entertaining read.