Published: 26th June 2018
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Pages: 372
Format: Paperback
Genre: Young Adult
★ ★ ★ ★ – 4 Stars
After a shout-out from one of the Internet’s superstar vloggers, Natasha “Tash” Zelenka suddenly finds herself and her obscure, amateur web series, Unhappy Families, thrust in the limelight: She’s gone viral. Her show is a modern adaption of Anna Karenina–written by Tash’s literary love Count Lev Nikolayevich “Leo” Tolstoy. Tash is a fan of the 40,000 new subscribers, their gushing tweets, and flashy Tumblr gifs. Not so much the pressure to deliver the best web series ever. And when Unhappy Families is nominated for a Golden Tuba award, Tash’s cyber-flirtation with a fellow award nominee suddenly has the potential to become something IRL–if she can figure out how to tell said crush that she’s romantic asexual. Tash wants to enjoy her newfound fame, but will she lose her friends in her rise to the top? What would Tolstoy do?
I bought this book because of the high praise of asexuality rep and I’m glad I did because it is a great book. Alice Oseman has set a high standard with Loveless but what I liked about this was that is showed not all LGBTQIA books have to be the same. Some are about coming out, some are about realising your identity, some are about living your life and your gender and sexuality has nothing to do with any of it but is still represented. Tash Hearts Tolstoy is a little bit of all three.
There’s diversity without it being a focal point, Tash’s family is split between Buddhism and Eastern Orthodox Chrisian, as well as a celebration of different cultures. I love how things are a non-issue so the things that are an issue become the focus. The divide in the family between food preference and faith is easily managed and has become a routine practice in the family. The celebration of family is a huge factor which highlights how close knit and important family is to Tash and I loved seeing it discussed and expressed so beautifully, both through absence, distance and change.
The story explores friendship and family dynamics really well and the complexities of friendships as you grow up. Knowing someone their whole life doesn’t mean you know everything about them and people’s own assumptions can cause tensions and Ormsbee shows this throughout.
Ormsbee gives us a strong family bond but also shows that they’re not perfect and you never know what’s going on inside people’s heads. The imperfect sisterly relationship shows that there’s no rule that sisters have to get along and I loved how Tash acknowledges that being close in age doesn’t mean that sisters will be best friends.
To her credit, Ormsbee blends all of these complicated feelings and topics together well. A lot of themes are touched on throughout but they sit comfortably side by side and mix together well that it never feels like too much is happening.
I loved the exploration of YouTube and making a web series. I have watched some fantastic web series over the years and despite having never read Anna Karenina I would love to see how Tash’s web series was done. I liked Tash’s complexity as a character, her love of Tolstoy, her ambitions as a film maker, but also her side vlog about reading and tea shows how invested in the online and book community she is.
The built up to the awards was done so well and we see Tash fall deep down the rabbit hole of internet fame and juggling fans and subscribers and being a team player. I also loved the ending because Tash’s growth and reflections are important and Ormsbee could have ended it so many ways but I loved the route she took.
I bought this for the asexuality rep but I think I ended up loving it for everything else. The story flows easily and you keep turning the page, the story pulling you along. Even when I picked it up with the intent of only reading a few pages I found myself drawn back in to this story of Tash and her web series and these characters and couldn’t put it down until I had finished it.
You can purchase Tash Hearts Tolstoy via the following
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