Reviews with content warning for Adult/minor relationship - A Study in Drowning

Reviews tagging 'Adult/minor relationship'

A Study in Drowning by Ava Reid

129 reviews

fkshg8465's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious medium-paced

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

1.75

I’ve been steadily chipping away at NPR’s 2023 favorite books list. Starting to wonder why. There seem to be more I dislike than like, including this one. Yeah, heroine is great, but a lot of it is too contrived for me, and most of the characters are really despicable.

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anntharai's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective tense fast-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

Jfc I went in with no expectations and only a vague idea of story as this was a reccomendation from a friend and they were right. I loved it and hated it and it made me super uncomfortable and angry as well as fired up and ready to go. I loved this reading experience.

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justinekorson's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.75

I have mixed feelings about this story. On one hand I thought the world building was very interesting and I enjoyed the setting of this crumbling house by the ocean. On the other hand.... I could not stand Effie and all her contradictions. So let's get into a few of them.

1. Racism??? Effie "othered" Preston SO HARD. (I was listening to the audio book so I'm unsure if the narrator was saying Preston was Argatian or Argentinean. The reason I'm unsure as well is because the language that Preston spoke did not sound like Spanish but I don't know all the dialects of it so I could be wrong.) Regardless, she talked about Preston and his ethnicity USING ALL OF HIS ETHNICITY'S STEREOTYPES against him. In fact, everyone in the novel did so and when other people spoke about Preston like that Effie would get offended AS IF SHE HADN'T ALSO THOUGHT THE SAME THINGS. Preston was the only decent character in this novel and I hated the way Effie talked about him and how she said that she "always wanted him". No you didn't girl. You romanticized him so hard you forgot that you were being unfairly judgmental of a boy you barely know.

2. Effie is such a damsel in distress and is not, in her own words, a "survivor". She went through some truly awful things from men in power but in that final scene where she defeats the Fairy King and then when she attempts to save Preston from drowning... she's not doing any of the actual work. The mirror she holds up does all the work in my opinion and then when she's trying to save Preston it's not even HER that does it. She has help from (I don't know how to spell her name) the wife. She was going to GIVE UP! Tell me how that is survivalist behavior? She was going to let herself and Preston drown if the wife hadn't come along. Which is why I don't think she had much of a character ARC at all. Even at the end when she, with the help of Preston, confronts the Dean of the university, I don't believe her when she decides to argue with him. It all falls so flat for me.

3.WHY WERE THERE NO TRIGGER WARNINGS IN THIS BOOK. It talks HEAVILY about the abuse women suffer at the hands of men AND YET THERE WAS NO TRIGGER WARNINGS PAGE AT THE BEGINNING?!?! Make it make sense. I had no idea the book would talk this much about SA and if I had I could've prepared myself for that kind of mindset. As it stands, I struggled to get into this story and at some points I stopped paying attention.

I thought this book would be a five but unfortunately I was mistaken. I don't think I'm going to read anything else by this author if this story was such a disappointment.

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darlingmoira's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious 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? Yes

2.75

This is not the book for me. The writing style is good, it allowed me to finish the book despite really struggling with the story.
This book is talked about as an enemies to lovers but once again hugely misses the mark! The “enemies” part relies on the main character being openly racist to her counterpart. For the majority of the book she talks and thinks about how her soon to be lover shouldn’t even be allowed to study at her school.
The plot could have been really well done if it removed that aspect of the story completely.
I have to acknowledge that the “feminist” aspects of this story are well done. How the main character handles a SA situation internally and then makes progress with dealing with it is portrayed very realistically. Everything about that part of the story is well done but otherwise book would have just been a 2 and nothing more.

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mooreeg2's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

I had a very difficult time getting through this book; I had to put it down part way and then come back to it. The entire book is a very slow progression and it doesn't really start to pick up until you're at least 2/3 of the way through, which was really difficult for me as a reader.

The main female character went through a lot of ups and downs and alludes to some events that happened before the book starts and how those events are influencing her now. She definitely had some growth throughout the book and I'm very glad by the last couple chapters The author did clear everything up so you got a better picture of what happened prior to the start of the book.

The main male character didn't have a lot of growth but I enjoyed his character. He added a little something different to the story and definitely had a different view on women than the other male characters of their time.

I started reading this with the actual book and then part way through I switched it to the audible. I definitely found it more enjoyable with audible, hearing their voices helps pick up the pace of the book a little bit.

There is nothing to graphic, but there is more than one references of assault by an older man to a younger woman. This whole story takes place in a time. Where women don't have as many rights and are viewed lesser than men.

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