Reviews tagging 'Sexism'

A Study in Drowning by Ava Reid

470 reviews

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective 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: Yes

Took me a little to get into it, but when I was in I WAS IN. I think any woman/ young girl can see themselves in Effy. From Eddy’s struggles with institutionalized sexism & mental illness to
her sexual assault experiences
, Ava wrote this in a way I think a wide range of people can relate to.

When Angharad said every wanting man has a crack the fairy king can slip into👩🏽‍🍳💋 Anyone who experienced SA (whether as a child like Effy or an adult like Angharad) knows the duality of a predator; charming and alluring to draw you in and a monster later. Such a great metaphor and one I think will definitely sit with me for a while. Also THE END WHEN EFFY MAKES THE DEAN FIRE CORBENIC. Phenomenal

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dark mysterious sad medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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I feel so torn about this book because I liked the story and I wanted to like it overall but it just had too many negative points for me. 

The characters were extremely annoying; I know that a lot of Effy's reactions are trauma responses and stem from a lifetime of being told she's crazy, but it didn't make me like her any more. I also found the romance really unbelievable, it didn't feel like Effy and Preston spent enough time together or formed enough of a bond (apart from shared experiences of danger), but they've somehow managed to fall in love?

I was really disappointed with the world building, it felt incomplete and lazy. From the names etc it's clearly based on Wales, but exists in this unnamed world in a made up country that somehow still has the same technology as us?? It's a fantasy setting, but with technology from like 60 years ago (cars, phone booths, a typewriter), that's never explained. There's a conflict with another country called Argant that's never explained properly, there was a drowning ~200 years ago that's also never explained properly. The date system seems to be before drowning and after drowning (BD and AD), but then the country supposedly doesn't care about the south or the bottom 100 so why tf would they restart their entire year system to mark that event? There's also an entire religious system, based around Saints, that's also never explained properly and is only mentioned when it's useful (e.g. Effy is named after a Saint, and prays to a Saint exactly once). 

This book had the possibility to be something really good and special, exploring the issues of misogyny, mental illness, male entitlement, and the sexual harassment of women. But it's all just lost in bad characters and bad world building. Also the plot and the reveal were entirely predictable, so getting the characters to come to the right conclusion was such a drag. For supposedly clever academic intellectuals they were pretty dumb.

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challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

I love my girl Effy whole heartedly 

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense fast-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

I GOBBLED this up. This felt like taking 'The Encyclopedia of Faeries' and 'Gilded' sliding them together in silky sheets and naming their Gothic, honey tongued love child 'A Study in Drowning'. 

This captured me from the very first sentence and I didn't have any say in the matter. Thank goodness for my husband or else I would've starved I was so deep in between these pages.

Spooky, faeries, scholars against misogyny, enchanting, enticing. Thats all im able to say right now.

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dark mysterious medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

excellent rain and fog atmosphere (hoa hoa hoa hoa hoa) but something here just isn’t working for me :(

mini rant since i have a few thoughts/issues with the book description, or just how it’s presented to the public in general: for context i like going in blind and genuinely, reading the description of this book after finishing it has me scratching my head a little (did we read the same book?). the pitch is “part historical fantasy, part rivals-to-lovers romance, part gothic mystery…” but all that is just set-dressing and i’d say the main themes here are actually: abuse/mistreatment, what that does to a person, and taking back agency. i just think it’s a little weird that it’s not mentioned anywhere? like i would not recommend this to someone as a ya fantasy/mystery romance, but rather as an exploration of effy’s psyche with some gothic mystery stuff in the background.

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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