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

I loved the world-building in this book, the lore is quite unique and left me thinking about it even after I finished the book. It earned the book an extra .5 stars for me.

Effy and Preston are interesting and developed characters, and the romance was well paced with lots of chemistry. This book has lots of detailed descriptions and prose, which can be hit or miss with a lot of people, but I loved it. It was so atmospheric and immersive.

Unfortunately the last quarter of the book let me down a bit. The pacing felt too fast then too slow, and the mysteries were wrapped up a bit clumsily in my opinion.

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beigecupid_'s review against another edition

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dark medium-paced

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

1.5

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brockoli's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional hopeful mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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snikhtha's review against another edition

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dark reflective slow-paced

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

2.5

I don't know if it's because this is the first time listening to an audiobook, but boy oh boy, was this just... not my thing.

The atmosphere and setting felt eery and I kind of liked the weird time period. The little starts to the chapter with in-world text excerpts was fun. The mythology also seems pretty fun. Misogyny, the central theme of the novel, had some good portrayals - the parts on power dynamics and age gaps were very interesting and timely.

Unfortunately, the theme was just so overt that it made the central mystery of the novel sooo boring. The theme is misogyny, the central mystery is an author who might not have written his own work... hmmmm, I wonder who it could be! I don't have a problem guessing plot twists, but when you have to slog through an entire book just for the characters to uncover what you've known all along... that's just boring.

The extent of the misogyny was also just kind of annoying to read? A lot of it just felt like very easy "girl power" type messaging and a lot of it was also very blatant, straight up "Women can't read! Women aren't allowed to study literature!" Okay, this is set in some kind of historic time, but if a book published in 2023 is going to make misogyny and women's empowerment it's central theme to the point that it can't go 2 pages without reminding you, I think it should have something more substantial to say to it's readers about the state of women in present time. There's a lot of women reading this book, there's no need to affirm to them that yes, women can read and write. It seems like a cheap way to signal which of the male characters are good and which ones are bad - the bad one's prey on young women and think they can't write because they're women. The good one's don't do that. There's like 1 substantial female character besides Effy though so we don't need to worry about that!

It seems like an issue with trying to do too much - if it had focussed on just one or two aspects, like on Effy's experience at the college and the central mystery, it might've worked better for me. The same could be said for a lot of the book - I don't care for the war. I don't understand why it's there or why it matters and it had way too much screentime. There were like three different plots going on and none of them were all that intriguing. I don't care for the romance or the main characters either.

So I guess this entire rating is because those last few lines managed to grab me by the neck.

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simona_libreriaverticale's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

Questo libro è una gigantesca metafora, camuffata da fantasy.

Parla di abusi, di donne che hanno subito stupr1 e violenze, figlie di misogini, sposate con misogini, relegate e cancellate, e parla di tutte quelle donne, come Zelda Fitzgerald, le cui opere furono rubate dai mariti e pubblicate a loro nome.
Non cita mai queste cose esplicitamente, ma lo fa capire, e giustifica gli uomini descrivendoli come creature magiche crudeli, come il crudele re delle fate e la magia che si insinua negli uomini rendendoli cattivi.

Un enorme metafora dalle vibes gotiche e misteriose, a metà tra Crimson Peak e L'enciclopedia delle fate di Emily Wilde

L'inizio è lento e sembra lagnoso, ma poi ogni tessera va al suo posto e iniziamo a capire perché la protagonista trema ogni volta che un uomo le parla, perché non dorme, perché deve prendere le sue pastiglie

E la vediamo ribellarsi, poco alla volta, capire che può farlo

Non è una lettura semplice ma per me ne vale assolutamente la pena

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katiewrites's review against another edition

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dark mysterious slow-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? Yes

4.0

I had a good time reading it. I loved the characters and their relationships. The only problem I had was that it was a little slow and the author had a habit of telling rather than showing, or showing and then also telling. I think the prose was a little fluffier than it needed to be, but I kept reading and guessing the mystery.

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scarlett_librarian's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense 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? It's complicated

3.5

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arialuna's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense 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? Yes

4.0

I found myself enjoying this look into the power of folklore, and how even if some aspects of the story are unbelievable, there is always that underlying current of truth.

Effy, as a character, isn't usually my usual heroine — she's a lot more withdrawn and resigned to begin with. But as the story progresses, it becomes more apparent it is in response to a heavy amount of trauma she's gone through. Only thing I would've liked to see was her fighting back against her mother, because damn that woman deserved to be stood up to and told off.

Despite figuring out the plot twist early due to context clues, I had fun seeing what else could be thrown at me. I was pleasantly surprised to see that I hadn't figured out everything, and I still have more to explore!

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