Reviews with content warning for Sexual harassment - A Study in Drowning

I instantly fell in love with this book, and it reached in and touched something within me I did expect. Much of the story is found in the emotion hidden between the lines and between the words, which only adds to effect of the emotions and themes.

It made me cry. Like ugly cry at the end, mostly as a release of emotions.

I especially loved

the ambiguity of whether or not the not the magic is real and the metaphor it poses as, with clear commentary on the experience of, sadly, many, women especially.

I will highly recommend this book both for the immersive writing, exciting story and the wonderful characters.

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bookiesncreme's review against another edition

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slow-paced

2.5

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thehannahclaire's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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vaguelyredhead's review against another edition

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dark mysterious 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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thatcrazyknitter's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.25

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emmmysue's review

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mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

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bibliomania_express's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.5

A Study in Drowning by Ava Reid intertwines magic and folklore with a quest to discover the true identity of an author. This is a book with an interesting premise that tackles hard topics like sexual assault, misogyny, and the erasure of women, but suffers from awkward worldbuilding, a bit too much on-page sexual harrassment, and a lacklustre romance.

I've been avoiding reviews of this book and the little I haven't been able to avoid has been vehemently negative. I'm more on the ambivalent side. I think the book is doing some interesting things with its drowning motif and exploring mental health and the repression of women. It's depicting the casual sexual harrassment women are faced with that society expects them not to react to.

But. The literal only good male character is the main love interest. Who, while a fine character, seems to be the love interest only because he's the only person not sexually harrassing Effy and because this is a "romantasy" when it didn't need to be. The sexism is so pervasive that the triumphant ending seems a bit too good to be true.

My real gripe beyond the ever-present misogyny that made this hard to read is that the magic system and worldbuilding is all over the place. I had a hard time understanding what was accepted existing magic and what was just "local supersition", especially when the supersitions were maybe (?) having an effect on a literal real war. But also there was nothing about the book that felt like it was taking place in a country currently at war, even when the main setting was a university town on the border with the enemy country.

I think I've ended with a 2.5 stars mainly because it was fast-paced and interesting enough to keep me engaging and blasting through it, but the list of gripes is too long to warrant a 3.

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laurenleigh's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious 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

4.5

I tried listening to this audiobook months ago and very quickly realized I wasn’t in the mood. I’m so glad I waited for the right time, because I absolutely loved this on my second attempt! The gothic crumbling manor house vibes were so good, set up with a perfect dark academia plot. I don’t know if loved the romance build up (it was slow burn but maybe could have been even slower?), though I loved the couple in the end. It felt very similar to Divine Rivals, but with more spooky fantasy elements.

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