Reviews with content warning for Child abuse - A Study in Drowning

You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.

Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

A Study in Drowning by Ava Reid

111 reviews

hazychapters's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-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

4.0

Third book by Ava Reid that I've read and it's another very pleasant reading. A small change of universe, with a dark academia world inspired by Welsh folklore.

The characters are very endearing, although I had a little difficulty at first differentiating Effy's voice from Marlinchen’s (Juniper and Thorn). Ultimately, Effy becomes a fully-fledged character, very interesting to analyse and follow. Preston is a very good love interest who touched me a lot. A little faded but that didn't bother me since for me, Effy is the main character, not him. Their romance was perhaps a little rushed but it was self-evident given Effy's narrative arc and her evolution.

Reid's prose is still as melodious as in his other books. The descriptions are imposing but they immerse us with the characters in their emotions and feelings.

However, I had a little more difficulty with the worldbuilding, which was a little vague at the start (I needed a map!!), and the pace of the story. This one is indeed quite slow, which didn't help my reading slump, and we progress very slowly until the half or even the two thirds of the book. The ending is much more accelerated but therefore causes an imbalance.

In conclusion, a very beautiful book with a powerful message: the invisibility of women in academic circles and of the victim of a toxic relationship and abuse. Ava Reid always manages to write beautiful stories that deal with dark and serious subjects.

Content Warnings

catolac's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-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

3.0

The pacing was felt quite off with this one. It was too fast in some areas, yet too slow in others. I think the components were compelling but wish parts of the story were fleshed out more.

Content Warnings

bailey_walk's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

4.25

Content Warnings

agentlywildrebellion's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-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

3.0

Content Warnings

bi_n_large's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional hopeful 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? It's complicated

5.0

Content Warnings

dianaschmidty's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring 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? It's complicated

4.25

Warning: this review doesn’t feature any spoilers, but it’s also really hard to talk about this book without spoilers, so I didn’t go into much detail.

This poor girl. As someone who deeply related to multiple of Effy’s experiences, Ava Reid perfectly encapsulated both how to be a survivor and how it feels to survive. As a female history major, I think that Ava Reid also perfectly encapsulated how it feels to academically survive in a world where it’s assumed that “scholarly” articles are more valid coming from a man. Watching Effy survive and learn to thrive by the end of the book was really special.
This was one of the most complex YA books I’ve ever read and I really enjoyed that. I hope that more English teachers add this to their reading lists. The world building was very complex and I would love to read more books set in this world! I also can’t wait to read more from Ava Reid!

Also, I absolutely adored Preston. The world needs more Prestons.

Thank you to NetGalley, HarperTeen, and Ava Reid for providing me access to this book.

Content Warnings

gwenythepooh's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional reflective 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

4.75

I loved this book so much, the atmosphere, the how real the characters felt, the pain of realizing your hero is fallible. It got me so good.

I was a little disappointed that I guessed the true author of Angharad so early on in the book but overall I didn’t mind as much as I might have as I was just glad at the ending.

Content Warnings