Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

A Study in Drowning by Ava Reid

21 reviews

reddeddy's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense slow-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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Stalking, Sexism, Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Death of parent, Toxic relationship, Violence, Sexual content, Body shaming, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, Sexual assault, Xenophobia, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, Classism, Confinement, Child abuse, and Mental illness

Moderate: Chronic illness, Death, Physical abuse, Rape, Terminal illness, War, Animal death, Torture, Suicidal thoughts, Drug use, Pedophilia, Alcohol, Blood, Colonisation, Dysphoria, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Religious bigotry, Body horror, Bullying, Car accident, and Deportation

maresuju's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective 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? No

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism and Xenophobia

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Mental illness, and Death of parent

Minor: Confinement, Animal death, and Abandonment

quechl's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious 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

4.0

I want to start by saying I really enjoyed this book. the writing is absolutely stunning. im fairly certain the most common thing i annotated while reading is something about the prose. Effy as our pov character is interesting and really does make you root for her. the setting was atmospheric and moody, the struggles raw and emotional; reid as an author is most definitely talented and intentional with her craft.
that being said i definitely have a few nitpicks. preston could have been more fleshed out; i wanted more of him, his thoughts and perspective and we just dont see that. i really liked him as a character, but we dont ever really get to see what hes thinking, which i found to be a real shame. the same can be said about the worldbuilding; i LOVE that stuff, and what we do get is really interesting!!! the different saints, local traditions, cultural differences, all of it really tickles me, and its a real shame that the audience (and by that i mean me) wasnt given much chance to read more about it. i want to know about this world, and i felt like it could have been used to further prestons background as well! we had snippets of him telling us sayings, but that was it!! hes supposed to be a passionate lit major!! let him dump info on us!!! i get why it was done, considering the pacing of the book, but its a real shame nonetheless.
and finally, my most major gripe is that the 'twist' was just... predictable. i thought it was going to be a red herring, but no, that was the actual twist, which i found frustrating, especially because effy thinks about the obvious answer like partially once, and then never again. it felt like these clever characters kept missing the clearest answer, and that annoyed me, because the rest of this book really is great. its moody and enticing and tense, and the blurring lines between real and fake is really engaging.

 

honestly i almost wish she left the reality of the fairy king remain a mystery. part of whats enjoyable is that you dont know how much of the story is truely happening. i understand why reid did, but personally i felt like keeping that mystery and dichotomy between the cynic preston and spiritual effy more potent because we the readers dont know the 'objective truth' as preston puts it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny and Mental illness

Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, and Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Pedophilia, Death of parent, and Animal death

star_charter152's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Sexual content, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Sexual violence, Abandonment, Death, Grief, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual harassment, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Racism and Child death

Minor: Animal death

loveat1stwrite's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism and Misogyny

Moderate: Blood, Emotional abuse, Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Death of parent, Grief, Medical trauma, Panic attacks/disorders, and Sexual assault

Minor: Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, and Terminal illness

lornography's review against another edition

mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death

tadah's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Sexual harassment, Xenophobia, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Alcohol, Alcoholism, Abandonment, Sexual assault, Violence, and Sexual content

Minor: Death of parent, Animal death, Death, Blood, and War

missgnomers's review against another edition

dark emotional lighthearted mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

I really enjoyed this! Some reviews say the themes are heavy handed and that the setting feels awkwardly placed in time. While I believe it to be a thematic choice, it didn’t feel cohesive. 

I  think the themes are well handled in this lite thriller

I just adored the romance in this book. Also, I liked that the writer had only Effy and Anghadad see the Fairy King. Allies like Preston can hear and know, but they can’t experience it for themselves. The mystery itself was an easy guess but felt earned.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual harassment

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual assault, Domestic abuse, Sexual violence, Grief, and Mental illness

Minor: Animal death

ladypalutena's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

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

2.5

I really wanted to like this book.

There are three main issues I have:

1. The pacing. The first chapter starts off with Effy saying she's going to enter a contest, then the second chapter starts with her winning the contest. The second chapter ends with there being a few weeks until she leaves for the Bottom Hundred, and the third chapter opens with her on the train. It's so disjointed, it's hard to keep track of time in any way. 

2. Effy. I know not every protagonist can be a strong independent woman, but there are no redeeming qualities for Effy for 90% of the book.

It's not until she faces down the fairy king that she grows any sort of spine, and even then, it's all to save Preston, it's not for herself.

3. The "love story." It's forced. Like, beyond forced.

The scene where Effy suddenly tries to mount him in the study? Where did that come from? Up until then she's spent most of the book either actively hating him or begrudgingly working with him.

There is no chemistry between the two whatsoever, and

the sex scene is WAY too forced. It's not like something out of ACOTAR or other romantasy books, but it is so wildly out of place in this book it's laughable

. 

The most egregious thing, I think, is that

the second to last chapter is just the Widow telling the two of them how everything happened. She appears out of nowhere to save them, and decides to tell them everything when she could have actually saved them long before this. It's lazy, and it's completely telling, not showing. I wanted more hints of something throughout the book, but it's all dumped at the end. The "hints" throughout are not very good.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault and Gaslighting

Minor: Car accident, Death of parent, and Animal death

agnela's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

Some important themes are explored, or rather, involved in this story, such as being a sa victim, mental health, taking advantage of women and stealing their work, gatekeeping women from education. I think readers will appreciate that these heavy topics where either just mentioned in plot or used lightly, while you still can see the impact that it made on the female characters.
The other good thing about this was it's world building. Yes, at times it was confusing, and I still don't know what was the bottom 100, as it was used interchangeably with places, people, higher-ups and the bottoms of the social hierarchy. Still, the author weaved in nature with folk tales, and sprinkled with some gothic old house placement and academia. That being said....
This story was all tell and no show, the last 50 pages were just annoying and unnecessary in my eyes. The characters were flat, more like plot devices than a being on their own, and relationships moved and changed depending on the plot but not the story itself.
I've heard good things about this book but I can't see why exactly, I'm not even sure I'll continue reading more of this author.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gaslighting, Sexual assault, Bullying, Sexism, Panic attacks/disorders, Animal death, Misogyny, Death, Sexual content, Child abuse, Death of parent, Adult/minor relationship, and Cursing

Minor: Rape