Reviews tagging 'Murder'

A Study in Drowning by Ava Reid

14 reviews

witcheep's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

2.5

I can see why so many people have enjoyed this book, but to me, it is a miss.

This is very dark story due to the worldbuilding! The world the characters live in is very misogynistic, and the main characters find it hard to fight against, which made the reading experience very uncomfortable – as it should. However, the plot didn't offer enough either mystery or romance, so besides uncomfortable, the book was also boring. The hints towards the mystery made the ending too predictable.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Sexual violence, Blood, Medical content, Murder, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Confinement, Sexual content, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Classism

shamaramill's review

dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective relaxing sad slow-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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny and Sexism

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Rape, Sexual assault, Blood, Medical content, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Xenophobia, Death of parent, Abandonment, Alcohol, and War

hal00alex's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective 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

Fantasy take on a very interesting time period with dark academia vibes. The characters did very well with the enemies to lovers as it didn’t seem rushed and the dialogue was actually funny. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal death, Death, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Blood, Vomit, Dementia, Death of parent, and Murder

Minor: Drug use

sfeldmann's review against another edition

The plot really goes everywhere in this book. I tried to read it after DNFing it last year to give it another shot. I just can’t get into it. The atmosphere is great but all the themes and messages of the book are heavy handed and leave little room for the action of the characters and the plot to show the readers of just tell them. The romance isn’t bad either but it is a little bit insta-lovey. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Murder

Minor: Alcoholism

probablytoolate'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? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

desiderium_incarnate's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

I think this story will stay with me for a bit.

For most of the book I was unsure how reliable Effy was as a narrator but I think think that might reflect more on me than it does on the book. It really is beautifully written, I just have one issue: Everyone mentions how smart and brave Effy is and of course, yes, she is, but whyyyy did you not go talk to the secretive and reclusive widow of your favorite author when you had the chance? Like you literally did everything including destruction and theft of property and nearly dying in a drowned basement instead of trying to communicate with people that are there and have not explicitly told you to fuck off yet. I was just waiting for them to get to that for nearly half the book so that was incredibly frustrating. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, Medical content, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Classism

emmieanna's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

I loved the aesthetic of this book and I really felt as though I were in the world there with them. It is folklore fantasy crossed with light academia and the romance elements were really tasteful, complementing the style and tone of the book. I would love to explore this world further with any future spin-offs or novellas. I do feel as though the Fairy King could have featured more as an antagonist.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Death, Racial slurs, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Death of parent, Murder, and Sexual harassment

bxnny's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious sad slow-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Violence, Stalking, Murder, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Cursing, Emotional abuse, Blood, Kidnapping, and Injury/Injury detail

the description of the book doesn’t say this but this book has HEAVY themes of sexual harassment, sexual assault & misogyny, also moderate racism. proceed with caution

chelbawamba's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective medium-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

2.75

This is my second attempt with this author and sadly I don’t think I can be convinced to try again. Ava Reid relies heavily on simile and metaphor, to a point of excessiveness, does a lot of telling instead of showing, and everything happens to this main character “suddenly” or “for some reason.” Even when the reason was obvious to me as a reader, it happened “for some reason.”

Overall, the concept of the story was interesting, but the way it was executed was extremely predictable. I knew early on what most of the reveals at the end were going to be. In my opinion, there is a fine line between good foreshadowing and offering too much too early on. 

A personal pet peeve of mine is when characters speak about each other as if they’ve known each other for a long time when it’s only been a few days, for example: saying things like “he’s always been kind to me,” or “I had never seen him this flustered” when the character only knew the other person for maybe a collective three hours. This happened frequently in the first half of the book.

I didn’t not enjoy it, but I also didn’t enjoy it. Would not necessarily recommend it, but it had its moments and kept me engaged through the end.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Kidnapping, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, and Classism

wrensreadingroom's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body shaming, Bullying, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism