Reviews with content warning for Child abuse - A Study in Drowning

Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

A Study in Drowning by Ava Reid

137 reviews

hann_cant_read's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

I really wanted to love it, but some things fell a little flat for me.
To start, I really did love the prose and the vibes. It was beautifully written, and the descriptions were poetic. It felt like the setting itself was another character.
It was pieces of the plot that I had more trouble with. Not even plot holes, just like "oh, that's it?" moments.
Reid really did a great job setting up for a fantastic story. I think the initial plot line of

the widow being the true author

was predictable just from the theme of

men exploiting women

that was established very early on. I genuinely don't think a predictable plot is a bad one though, and I had thought that Reid had created enough going on alongside this plot-line to really create a captivating story.
But then, nothing else really happened. There were some super interesting side plot setups:

Effy having some other worldly beauty to the point that even a random boy at the college was annoyed with her until he saw her face then promptly asked her out. Sirens and selkies were even mentioned throughout the story alongside with Effy being a changeling child, but nothing ever came of it.

The war was mentioned quite a bit, but always in passing, like it didn't actually affect anyone we knew. It seemed like the only purpose was for the Sleeper Museum to have a function, and/or for Effy to make vaguely racist comments to Preston when she was mad, but it felt very underdeveloped.

I did like that for awhile we're really not sure if Effy is crazy like everyone thinks or if the Fairy King is real, because even she isn't sure.
Some questions I do still have that people might be able to answer for me:
1.

Why didn't the widow talk to them at all? Why/How did she escape the hall without making a sound if she wasn't a ghost?

The random sex scene felt out of place. It felt less intimate and more like the precursor to a 3rd act breakup

Why was the estate guy so cagey? He was helping Preston one minute, but suspicious of them the next.

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s_wandering's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

awfully boring and terribly uninspiring

Pros:

the writing style from Reid has always been great
the general plot was interesting
the first 50 pages were intriguing
the main characters Effy and Preston (outside of their romantic plot)
the connection of
Euphemia's trauma to drowning / the event that happened in the south
really was done exceptionally well

Cons:

at the beginning its said "this is a love story" and with that in mind it felt in the haste to get these characters to fall in love it was forgotten that us as readers were just now meeting them for the first time. Their love story felt rushed, held no real weight and we could've done without it all-together
the plot became unclear, untidy, drawn out and though
the drowning was interesting- it became clear after some time it would only ever really be explored as a metaphor
I don't mind unreliable narrators but Effy was unreliable to an unforgivable point, I think this would've benefited being told by Preston's POV or at-least dual POV
so many things were introduced to set the scenery (war, timeline, characters) but never expanded on to actually provide proper world building and after 300+ pages I feel like I spent time in a world I could not identify in a line up
for a book about academia, the characters aren't that smart

to sum up the reading experience from my book club "a bit bored but intrigued"

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willofaleksander's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.5

(note: i tend to focus on things i dislike but all gripes were truly minimal. this book did feel very special and it was so beautiful to read.) i have some gripes about the marketing in the US as a dark academia YA tho. it is fully a gothic fantasy and more suitable imo to new adult genre (ignoring the conflation of these markets)
the atmosphere building is so strong and vibes are so on point, for lack of better word lol. who can resist fairy tales and introspection on the ambivalent nature of the ocean...i think im trying to say that the mythology of the world was very effectively established and really built the kind of atmosphere i personally enjoy. lots of intrigue. the snippets of the primary texts and academic works engaging with those before each chapter were *chef's kiss*
with that said, certain details really did not end up mattering or feel necessary. the war is established in the background but ends up not having a bearing on anything, other than for effy to see preston as the other. the war could have easily not existed and effy could still retain the antagonism she initially has. the sleeper museum (so cool) does not end up being relevant either. i can understand it emphasizing the prevailing legacy of emrys
and the weight of interrogating and destroying that
but it ultimately did not need to be as much of a detail as it was. i can also see how it adds to the mythology of the world though but the politics of the north and south felt muddied at times too. the north seems to have all the financial capital but the south has such a strong cultural hold that feels at odds with its conquered past? unless im interpreting this incorrectly.
i do think the character work overall could be stronger. they all felt one degree off from being fully dimensional.
unfortunately, i think angharad suffers the most from this but her omission makes obvious narrative sense. i still feel that the climax struggled to be exciting since she became a sort of figure that showed up to fix everything. but. i also feel like rather than a character, she most of all, is moreso here to represent the main theme of the story - which is fine. there's a balance im thinking of where she herself is so physically absent from the book but the mystery is uncovering her truth and just reflecting on if that did justice to her overall from a narrative aspect. i think it did?
i personally prefer showing over telling and i feel like the ending was a little heavy handed/spoon-feeding the message but i also think that is fine.
romance-they are very cute but preston being an exception to every man sucking in her life and never feeling like a threat to effy isn't enough to establish something to me. too convenient? this is defs a small point though because they really were so cute to read. i loved their banter and preston is really so sweet to her. i also can defs accept that he's just hilariously and loudly non threatning in an almost weenie way where i want to pinch his cheeks and call him a nerd.
i do adore effy and the portrayal of her experiences
as a victim of csa
was really good and complex. her fear and panic in her day to day felt real and oppressive. i really felt for her and enjoyed her arc and development over her changing feelings towards angharad as the mystery unfolded. truly the bravest girlie out there for having to question her comfort media. the comfort and true solace she found in the end was so heartening.

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hello_kara's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

0.25

This is the longest review I have ever written, mostly driven by rage as I hated this book and the more I think about it the more I dislike it.

“Midnight was a fairytale thing. She didn’t know if Preston had been thinking about that when he promised it. But Effy was remembering all of the curses that turned princesses back to peasant girls as soon as the bells struck twelve. Why was it always girls whose forms could not be trusted? Everything could be taken away from them in an instant.”

“I suppose that’s partly why I don’t have much faith in the notion of permanence. Anything can be taken from you, at any moment. Even the past isn’t guaranteed. You can lose that too, slowly, like water eating away at stone.”

I liked those quotes, that’s about it.

World building was a bit confusing, and it was difficult for me to pin down a time-setting. Advertised as “Part historical fantasy, part rivals-to-lovers romance, part Gothic mystery.” It’s set in a fantasy UK inspired world, maybe from the 60s? 🤷🏼‍♀️ There’s trains, cars, universities, tanks and guns, CT scanners, phones, but also folk magic and changelings. Their country in the South is at war with the one in the North, for unknown reasons. Universities admit women, but they really only go to get husbands and aren’t allowed entry into the one discipline reversed above all others that Effy actually wants to study: Literature. Her scores were so good she should have gotten in, but because of misogyny she wasn’t admitted. She goes and studies Architecture instead (apparently the second most prestigious discipline.) As it so happens she is the ONLY woman in that college.

Effy has a woman roommate, who attends the music college and has a girlfriend, which is never addressed again after the first chapter. But also there’s major purity culture. Effy is always being hit on by the men at college, who are simultaneously aroused and disgusted by her, calling her whore. Why? Oh the Dean of her college has sexually assaulted her, so obviously she must’ve slept her way in to the college.

It’s not all bad though! (🙄)She sees a poster for a competition to design a remodel of her (late) favorite author’s home. The author in question is now instated as a Sleeper, one of seven revered national storytellers believed to have magic that protects their country. There’s a museum with the corpses of the Sleepers on display, which is the countries biggest tourist attraction, (and yet belief in Sleeper magic is 50/50? Is it real or not?! If it’s just an old wives tale then why do the bodies not rot, why would they induct a new dead guy onto the roster?)

But I digress, Effy goes to the university library to do some research on the author (even though she knows his works ‘better than anyone’) and finds that all the books have been checked out by a Literature student. She’s pissed, and very jealous. He has a “Northern” name, and she wonders why he gets to study her Southern hero author and not her. Thus begins the “rivalry.” She also thinks to herself that none of the other architecture students would be worthy of winning, because she’s the only one who truly loves that author’s works, despite him being a national treasure.

And suddenly she wins! A first year student who’s failing half her classes and hates architecture! Her roommate calls her out on this and says don’t you think that’s kind of weird? Nope! She’s like 18/19 years old, with no support from family (her mom like actually hates her and basically tells her to never call again), and decides what could possibly go wrong?! She gets approval to take time off of school to go to the end of the world to work on designs for this house (but wait, I thought you had to submit your design plan for the competition??) Once she gets to the house ~SURPRISE~ she meets the Lit student who borrowed all those books! Preston. So she hates him right away and is downright mean to him. The homeowner/son of dead author starts talking to her about the plans and construction etc.(SHES NOT A FUCKING GENERAL CONTRACTOR) He’s really weird about her being around Preston, but also makes suggestive remarks towards her.

If the book wanted me to think “men are trash,” it succeeded. It was so misogynistic. Effy is not allowed to study literature on account of women’s feeble and trivial little brains. Annoyingly, just about every man Effy comes into contact with tries to make a move on her because she’s just so ‘otherworldly beautiful,’ but in the same breath call her whore. Preston is the love interest, but he gives major “I’m just brutally honest!” vibes. He gets brownie points from Effy because he didn’t immediately come on to her (ladies, the bar is SUBTERRANEAN.) But at one point even Preston was basically like ‘yeah I totally would’ve ducked you already if I didn’t actually like you’ (wtf?)

There was a definite creepy vibe, with the setting being a decrepit manor that was falling apart and into the sea. And yet… Water had overtaken the foundation, but it’s also up on the cliffs? So that was confusing. And the whole architecture competition, but she didn’t have designs drafted or finished? How did she win? Oh never mind, it doesn’t matter because it was all a plot by the Fairy King to claim her.

I read a lot of fantasy, so I can generally adjust my sense of realism accordingly. But this one just didn’t land for me, the inconsistency in whether or not magic of any kind was real in this world really bothered me. For a while I thought we were going to get to the end and find out she had hallucinated the whole thing!

Effy has been on meds for most of her life, due to nightmares and visions of the Fairy King. She is a changeling, her mother left her for dead by the river, and the Fairy King came to claim her. But her mother came back a took her before she could fully be claimed. In the process she lost her ring finger from fairy magic. So she found comfort in the fairy tale, feeling ‘not like the other girls.’ She knew the story in and out, loved it, saw herself in it. It was her entire personality.

But why is this story the country’s national treasure? This fairy tale about a woman who is stolen away by the Fairy King and forced to marry him, written from a woman’s POV? This story that got the male author credited with writing it into like the National Hall of Fame of a country that won’t allow women to study literature because it is ‘beyond their capacity to comprehend.’

~spoilers~ it was written by a woman. A hidden truth that would never have been uncovered if it were not for Effy. She and Preston write up their findings to present to the college. She gets into the college of Literature for her contribution, and simultaneously gets her former Dean fired.

Effy sees the true author of the story. She asks her to autograph her well worn copy of the book, they smile, triumphant. The end.

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cyoussi's review against another edition

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2.5

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gmberbaum's review against another edition

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dark mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

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deidrebrin's review against another edition

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dark tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

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bookishde's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I was fortunate to start reading this book with no prior knowledge of its plot, so I had no high expectations of a rivals-to-lovers plot or a dark academia setting. I rated this book 3.75* mainly because of how enjoyable the dark, rainy and oppressive atmosphere was, but also because it left me wishing I could pick up a copy of Angharad to read. I enjoyed the prose, and while it is clear that the author loves the overuse of similes, I thought this suited the book. I look forwarding to reading this again, to see what I missed now that I know the mysteries.

I've read mixed reviews of Effy's character, but, for the most part, I thought she was well written and believable. Less so were Preston and Ianto, both of whom would have benefitted from more depth and personality. Likewise, the broader worldbuilding left much to be desired. The emphasis on a literature degree over an architectural one felt contrived and unconvincing, and while Effy was not supposed to be a strong architect student, the vague descriptions of her 'work' on the house made me think that the author doesn't know much about architecture either. Lastly, the allusion to a war seemed tacked on, serving little purpose beyond highlighting Effy's xenophobia toward Preston, which went unresolved.

Ultimately, this is a book that would have benefitted from additional pages.

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amandaaahyde's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Another book devoured in a day. I couldn't put it down and it has lingered in my dreams.

"I was a woman when it was convenient to blame me, and a girl when they wanted to use me."

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nozycozy's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful mysterious sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

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