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

Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

A Study in Drowning by Ava Reid

556 reviews

reachingforstardust's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

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

4.5

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xerosbeat's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective 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

4.5

I really appreciated all the water metaphors when tackling trauma and mental illness in the book. I once told my brother than getting on antidepressants was like coming up for air after being submerged and Ava Reid totally captured that and then some.Misogyny, sexism in academia, survivor guilt, sexual assault, plagiarism, so much was tackled in this book. Thoroughly enjoyed it.

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probablytoolate's review against another edition

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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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120read's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective 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

3.75

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kaylamullarkey's review against another edition

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3.0

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subtlymelancholy's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.5

I'll be honest, I'm going easy on this book because of my own expectations of genre conventions and demographics, and considering this is a debut novel (Plus, this book was a gift recommended personally by a friend, hi A if you're reading this!!!).

For a gothic romance, I found it very safe. I'm sure it's a taste thing, but I don't need to be shocked if the characters are plausibly shocked. I don't think it's a crime that the (admittedly heavy-handed) foreshadowing makes it easy to predict where this book goes. The story and ESPECIALLY the setting made it hard to put this book down, and for that alone it gets an extra half star.

However, I really wasn't impressed with the worldbuilding. It seems to be going for for ambiguous low fantasy, almost steampunk in it's setting that never quite felt cohesive. The romance for me was a little lackluster, it almost felt tacked-on and I would have much preferred a more intimate friendship. I knew right from the beginning and that really cheapened a lot of the really touching and emotional scenes between

Effy and Preston

for me. Though with how young the characters are and how consistently high emotions are throughout the novel, I'm not too upset with how quickly things progressed both in their relationship and as characters than I am that the romantic relationship is there at all.

The political implications of the countries being at war also never really felt consequential to the world other than further othering Preston, but the shared-yet-distinct feelings of being othered (Effy for her gender and Preston for his nationality) is never explored in a meaningful way I think because it seems like Ava Reid was much more interested in having

Angharad and Effy

relating over their life experience than Effy and Preston. To me it felt like fantasy xenophobia was written for the sake of having fantasy xenophobia in a fantasy novel. Much like the romance, It felt a bit cheap.

I know it sounds like I didn't like the novel but I had a lot of fun reading it. What works REALLY works, and I am always a sucker for an environment that's as alive and as destructive as any human-ish antagonist. The marrying of the sacred and the profane, and trying to juggle them and understand what's "real" and what's not is also something that I adore and fantasy hagiography in particular will always get me.

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annatl4's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

I love the detail of Ava Reid’s books. The two characters were wonderful and the plot was perfectly paced. I enjoyed the feministic theme of the book and how Effy defied the societies norms. I appreciated preston’s kind heart and the way he fought for Effy to be seen as a woman in the literary world. The story was spooky and dark at some points but was well balanced with the romantic atmosphere and seriousness of literature. I also appreciated the depiction of mental health as well, it made Effy seem so real and allowed the reader to be empathetic. In addition to Effy’s struggle with mental health, Reid did a great job at tying both Effy and Preston’s childhood trauma into the story to create depth to their character. I loved this novel almost as much as I loved Reid’s Juniper and Thorne.

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thoughtsontomes'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? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Ava Reid does it again.

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kcarstensen's review against another edition

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fast-paced

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

2.0

Parts of the plot were interesting, and there was a degree of mystery that propelled you forward to keep reading. However, the writing style is very heavy-handed and over dramatic. Every theme and detail was explained to death, which left very little room for nuance or depth. I also wanted to like the main character more, but her behavior was often inconsistent. The sad backstory was almost too stereotypical and it played on every imaginable trope. There was too much and too little happening all at once.

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toastyghosty13's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad 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? Yes

4.0

This book was very dark, much darker than I expected. I really enjoyed the themes of old, dark, salty, small town that had a mysterious presence in an old manner on top of a cliff. The main character Effie has a difficult life being the only woman in the architectural college. She desperately wants to be a literature student, but women are not admitted to the literature college. She has a love for a mysterious author who has recently passed and whose family is holding a competition to redesign his manor. She excitedly submits an entry for the competition and is chosen.

Effie embarks on a journey to the manor and learns things about the town and the late author’s family who have been left behind. The characters Effie meets have dark past themselves; each character is their own mystery.

The concept of the fairy king was dark and had a nice air of mystery that kept me engaged between the shittiness that Effie experienced from less metaphorical characters . This book gave me a true appreciation for the author Ava Reid and I am excited to read her other works. She explores themes of darkness like this well. I found this book somehow simultaneously awful and comfy cozy; it made me want to curl up on the couch cup of tea. It is reminiscent of old Grimm fairytales.

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