Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

A Study in Drowning by Ava Reid

228 reviews

muchadoaboutliz's review against another edition

dark emotional 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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Drug use, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, and Abandonment

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Gore, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

anna_xiety's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful 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

4.75

I loved this book so much- I was hesitant to start it because I had high hopes for it, but it definitely lived up to them. I think the start was a little slow but the pacing builds up and I love how Reid handles the issues in the book.

  and how the characters stories connect with each other ( put as a spoiler just in case)!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Misogyny, and Sexism

Moderate: Sexual content, Violence, Xenophobia, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Alcoholism, Car accident, and War

dom_brlw's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-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

3.5

A surprising read, with a strange yet very well built world. It had me always expecting the worse, trying to figure what would come next but being gradually more surprised after each chapter. It was a very enjoyable read!

The negative part of the book will have to be the writing though, that  sometimes felt too cliché, or too « Wattpad »-like. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Grief, Death of parent, and Sexual harassment

kary2012's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective 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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Child abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Drug abuse

moonchild_cos's review against another edition

adventurous 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? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Drug use, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual assault, Xenophobia, Sexual harassment, and Classism

Minor: Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Sexual content, Grief, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, and War

steimerr's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.25

A Study In Drowning is unique and intriguing. I feel we so often see YA fantasies written with the same similar tropes, ideas and themes time and time again and with this book I didn’t feel that way. Ava Reid’s writing is beautifully executed in my opinion. She incorporates lots of wonderfully mature vocabulary and all of her figurative language was intricately related back to the dark, wet and drowning mood of the book. 
The included themes of misogyny and institutional sexism in this book were not too overbearing, yet still prominent, relatable and provoking. I enjoyed the incorporation of another story (Angharad) within this story, it added a distinctive and engaging aspect to the novel.
The pacing in this book is a mess. The beginning was mainly mundane world building then the rest of the book, until about maybe the 70% mark, was super slow paced and uneventful. Then the end of the book felt rushed and smashed together. It was so fast paced and jam packed with numerous last minute half ass explanations that ultimately only made the story more confusing rather than clearing up any confusion. 
The world building in this book was strong when it came to the actual setting and descriptions. But when it came to the politics and folklore, certain things could have been explained further. Some of which seemed pointless to the story without further context. Such as the war between Llyr and Argant (neighboring countries) that was mentioned then never referenced again. I felt like there was a lot of telling of what or how things were without any actual detail or explanations as to how or why. 
It was also nearly impossible to connect with either character in this book. Our FMC Effy is not a likable character. She is judgmental, stubborn and pessimistic and always unsure of herself. She is also rude to Preston from the start, especially regarding his ethnicity. Whereas Preston (MMC), is a total gentleman. From what I could gather, he is extremely cautious, respectful, and thoughtful towards Effy. I would have liked to have had Preston’s pov included, since he was actually a likable character and had lots of potential for more. 
Furthermore, this book is labeled as a Fantasy Romance but I found the romance in this to be quite disappointing. It’s barely there until the very end of the book. The lead up to the turning point in the relationship of the two main characters’ is very bland. It would have been nice to see a little more obvious flirting or more in-site and clues on their thoughts and feelings towards one another. Since it’s a single pov from the FMC perspective, it is difficult to get any grasp of what our MMC is feeling or thinking in certain situations, which (being difficult already without his pov) made it even harder to analyze his character. Therefore, the romance ended up feeling kind of insta-lovey and thrown in there. 

Overall, the writing and general ideas in this book were great but there were so many parts of this book that left me feeling like they needed a tad bit more explanation. Reid had so many great ideas incorporated in the story, yet they weren’t elaborate enough. I would have preferred less ideas with more explanation rather than such an abundance of ideas that lack enough context. This book could have almost been split into two much more in depth books within a series if Reid would have spent more time explaining the plethora of things lacking context.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Sexism and Death of parent

Minor: Mental illness

saurahsaurus's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Sexism, and Abandonment

Moderate: Death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Death of parent, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Infidelity, Alcohol, and Colonisation

embersbooknook's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad 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

4.25

This book was really good.  
Not what I expected, in a lot of respects - but thoroughly enjoyable.  
While I was able to predict some of what would occur

Angharad being the author, Ianto being the fairy king, Myrddin being not awesome, etc.

, that didn’t make it any less of a good read.  

Effy was initially slightly dislikable in a really relatable way - nervous, anxious, unable to trust herself, processing substantial trauma.  Thus seeking a tad flaky at first.  However after about 50 pages her character growth really started.  
I really enjoyed seeing her character grow throughout this book.  

Preston was a really good match for her - overly sensible perhaps, which I enjoyed seeing soften a bit throughout.  
It was really nice to see Effy’s degrading options about Argantians slide away as she got to know him.  
A reminder that when humans get to know people who are different from them, they are less prone to dehumanize an entire group of people. A reminder we need in the world as often and as much as possible. 🥺🫶🏽  

This book was a good exploration of how sexism affects a society in every level, personally, professionally, intimate relationships, etc.  I also appreciated how small mentions of colonialism and sexist intellectualism, and militarism/war made it into the book.  Ava set up a fascinating world and I very much hope more of these themes and its history are explored in book 2!  Overall a good read that I’d recommend and will enjoy revisiting.  

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, and War

Minor: Cultural appropriation, Colonisation, and Classism

The themes mentioned as trigger warnings are mostly minor mentions. Ava doesn’t write out the full

sexual assault that happened to Effy, or the full extent of abuse that Angharad suffered from Myrddin, as the Fairy King took him over especially.

As I always say, I am a sensitive reader and was able to handle this book’s themes.

plswaitaminute's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Mental illness, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Medical trauma, and Sexual harassment

renavi_eri's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional mysterious slow-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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Mental illness, Rape, Sexism, and Dementia