354 reviews for:

A Theory of Dreaming

Ava Reid

3.96 AVERAGE

the_cover_contessa's profile picture

the_cover_contessa's review

4.25
dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective 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: Complicated

Thank you to HarperCollins and Edelweiss for supplying me with a copy of this title to read and give my honest review. The opinions expressed here are my own.
A return to the world of Ava Reid's dark academia was something I was really excited for. The first book in this series was really lush and immersive and I couldn't wait to see where Reid would take the second part of this story. I was not disappointed at all. I will say, you cannot read this second book without having read the first. The first book truly builds the world for this second book. Reid takes that world and makes it even more complex and enriched with this story.
We pick up with Effy and Preston after they have returned from Hiraeth. Effy and Preston are facing scrutiny since they have challenged the beloved national fairytale. Everything they do is put under a microscope. And Effy has been admitted as the first woman to the literature college which puts her even more in the spotlight.
I loved the dual POV of this book. It allowed us to really get an in depth look at Preston and be in his head. I enjoyed experiencing things through his eyes. The book also focuses more on him and his dreams. We also see his love for Effy and how she has embedded herself in his life to the point that he would be totally devastated to lose her.
Reid continues to blur the line between reality and fantasy with this book, as well. The line between being awake and being asleep and how those two worlds collide.
Reid also tackles many big issues including but not limited to politics, misogyny, xenophobia, mental health, and substance abuse. While this is a fantasy, Reid truly anchors much of the book in reality. May of the issues she tackles can be related to the things we are seeing in our world today.
Reids writing is lyrical and addictive. The story is poetic in how it is presented. Pretty spot on since the books have their stories built around poets.
Reid gives a stunning follow up to A Study In Drowning with this book. I read this in less than 24 hours. It concludes well but you can also see there is room for more if she chooses to do so. I see she has written a novella and I cannot wait to read that one, as well.

sagestenhaug's review

3.5
challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes

I absolutely adored a Study in Drowning and was very excited to start a Theory in Dreaming. We start with Effy and Preston as they face the reality of returning to school after publishing a polarizing paper. While I still absolutely love these characters and their relationship as well as the world and all the politics, unfortunately I was just not as enamored with this story. It was still intriguing and introduced new characters that I loved and expanded on the magic we were introduced to in a Study in Drowning. The shift in focus to Preston was one I did enjoy for the most part, however the plot was just a little more lackluster to me. 

I think part of the magic that I loved about the first one was Effy’s passion for finding out the truth. I just didn’t find Preston’s experience with his dreams as compelling. Now I loved where the story ended up towards the end, however it felt like a very slow road to get there. I also wish we saw more interactions with Effy and Preston solving for the truth together like the first book, but this story focused a lot on them navigating their personal issues separately. 

I did love the deeper delving into their lives outside of the isolation of the first book. Effy navigating being the only girl in the literature college after joining midsemester and Preston navigating his identity as a war wages across lines and his nationality is being thrown at him like a slur. It truly added to the complexity of their characters and brought us to a new side we didn’t get to experience in the first book. I do love the side characters and seeing their friendships at a deeper level.

Overall, while I did enjoy aspects of this book and did love the characters, I was not as compelled by the plot and found myself wandering from the story. I love Ava Reid and am still so excited for anything she writes. 

Thanks NetGalley and HarperCollins for an earc. All opinions are my own
scoleman2k's profile picture

scoleman2k's review

3.5

 3.5 Rating

Thank you NetGalley and HarperCollins for this ARC!

A Theory of Dreaming is another case of Ava Reid being a master at writing atmospheric books. Just like A Study in Drowning, the world is rich with a dark academia atmosphere, though for me this one fell a little short. It took until about half way through the book for me to feel like anything was really happening, and even when stuff did start happening, it felt like it was rushed and not fully fleshed out. That being said, I still enjoyed this book, and will be reading more of Ava Reids books, I just felt that this one fell short of its predecessor. 

fayettejill's review

3.0
dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

A Theory of Dreaming is a hard one for me to review. There were a lot of things that I enjoyed, but the things I didn't definitely affected my feelings toward the novel. I love Reid as an author and a person and this definitely won't put me off from picking up their future work. 

My favorite part of this book was Preston and all of his chapters. I really enjoyed getting to explore his character more and getting to explore more of the mysterious bells from the first book. I thought his relationship with Effy was just as great as it was in the first book, and I enjoyed getting to see his dynamic with Lotto. I also found the extensive literary world that Reid created to be fascinating and really well done. Reid also shines once again when it comes to prose. They are a master at their craft in creating a lush and vivid world that I feel instantly transported to.

My biggest issue with A Theory of Dreaming was Effy's character. It felt that she did a 180 from where we left her at the end of A Study in Drowning. And don't get me wrong, I understand Effy was dealing with a lot of mental health issues. I don't want to discount those feelings within her. However, it felt like she was pushed aside in this novel and almost made a side character. I wanted to explore more of her time with the literature college and for her to dive deeper into the mysterious woman author (that won't be named for spoiler reasons). 

Despite my feelings for this book, I still recommend giving it a try for yourself! There are clearly a lot of people who loved it.

Thank you to Netgalley and HarperCollins Children's Books for an eARC in exchange for an honest review!
challenging dark emotional medium-paced

Reid is back with prose as lyrical as ever and a frosty new atmospheric dark academia for the follow-up of A Study in Drowning. 

Following the events of A Study in Drowning, this second installment features the perspectives of both Preston and Effy as the navigate the new lives they’ve set up with their discoveries from book #1. Effy learns what it really looks like to be the first female student admitted to the literature college while Preston explores what it means to have heard the bells and struggles to wrangle in his flighty professor. Steeped in magic and lore Preston and Effy make new discoveries and uncover old lies. 

While I really enjoyed reading this, it hurts to acknowledge that this book had no reason to be written. The first book was wrapped in a very satisfying way for me so the addition of a second installment felt like a very dragged out conclusion. 

I liked the addition of their friends Rhia and Lotto as they added levity to a very bleak theme. However, I felt as if Effy and Preston were taking part in completely separate novels that just ran parallel to each other. They were barely together and when they were they hardly talked. The effect making it so that it felt like the whole book was one long sad miscommunication trope. 

What I believe saved the book were the dream-like magical elements in Preston’s story and the study of depression and substance dependency in Effy’s story. The dream magic drew me in and held me tight, and while I do wish we learned more about how it worked the mystery of it added to the erie feeling surrounding the book. Of course when reading Reid’s prose in a mystical dreamy setting I can feel the magic bleeding off the page and I can’t get enough. 

Overall though I think this book lacked the cohesiveness and intent Drowning had. The conclusion illustrates the lack of direction of the story in how abrupt and “perfect” it was. I’m not convinced we needed a follow-up to the first book, but I’m happy having spent time in the world Reid dreamt up again. 

Thank you NetGalley and HarperCollins Children's for the opportunity to read this book early in exchange for an honest review! All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring 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

“𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒊𝒔 𝒐𝒏𝒍𝒚 𝒔𝒐 𝒎𝒖𝒄𝒉 𝒂𝒏𝒚 𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒅 𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝒆𝒏𝒅𝒖𝒓𝒆 𝒃𝒆𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒆  𝒊𝒕 𝒎𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒓𝒆𝒋𝒆𝒄𝒕 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒍𝒊𝒕𝒚. 𝑩𝒆𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝒊𝒕 𝒎𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒓𝒆𝒋𝒆𝒄𝒕 𝒘𝒊𝒔𝒅𝒐𝒎 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒐𝒏. 𝑰 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒂𝒍𝒘𝒂𝒚𝒔 𝒇𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒅 𝒎𝒚 𝒇𝒓𝒂𝒈𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝒅𝒐𝒎 𝒊𝒏 𝒇𝒂𝒏𝒕𝒂𝒔𝒚. 𝑰𝒕 𝒉𝒂𝒔 𝒔𝒆𝒓𝒗𝒆𝒅 𝒎𝒆 𝒃𝒆𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒏 𝒂𝒏𝒚 𝒔𝒉𝒊𝒆𝒍𝒅 𝒐𝒓 𝒔𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒅, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒄𝒆𝒓𝒕𝒂𝒊𝒏𝒍𝒚 𝒃𝒆𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒏 𝒂𝒏𝒚 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒍𝒂𝒘𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒎𝒆𝒏. 𝑰 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒍𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒅 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒅𝒊𝒆𝒅 𝒃𝒚 𝒒𝒖𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒊𝒏𝒌. 𝑨𝒏𝒅 𝒉𝒐𝒘 𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝑰 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒃𝒆𝒈𝒓𝒖𝒅𝒈𝒆 𝒎𝒚𝒔𝒆𝒍𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔? 𝑬𝒗𝒆𝒏 𝒎𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒄𝒐𝒓𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒕𝒔 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒃𝒚 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒏𝒂𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒂𝒍𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒔 𝒕𝒐 𝒅𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒎.“

This book… This book follows both Effy and Preston with a slight emphasis on Preston and his journey, though we do get a good chunk of Effy’s life and her pov. The themes and messages behind this book and the way they are represented throughout different characters and situations throughout the book is so powerful. I truthfully am in awe in how so many different messages were put across in such a way that was easy to understand and also impactful to the reader. There are political themes that can very well reflect our current times and history. There are themes of grief; So many types of grief. Grieving our selves, our loved ones, the truth we know or thought we knew, grieving what we once had and what we could have had. We see the characters constantly battle themselves in these moral dilemmas (at at times battle others), knowing that both sides has a losing end and someone will pay the price regardless. 

Reading through not just Effy and Preston’s story, but also the stories of all of the other authors and characters that them two studied and diving into their world was rough too. There were things that were just so easy to connect to and also things that pulled at every heartstring the way they impacted others as well. Honestly, at times it felt a bit like a mind fuck to just get all these stories and read painful after painful quote in the best possible way.

This book made me cry and it makes me want to sit down and fully study it once I get my physical copy. This book definitely gets intense and is more fast paced than the previous one. I’m still obsessed with the characters and the growth, the strength, and their resilience. I don’t know, but I just wish I could meet them and give them the biggest hug fr.

"𝑾𝒉𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒇𝒂𝒖𝒍𝒕𝒔 𝑰 𝒎𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆—𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑰 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒑𝒍𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒚—𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝑰 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒌 𝒐𝒇 𝒚𝒐𝒖, 𝒂𝒍𝒘𝒂𝒚𝒔. 𝑴𝒚 𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒅 𝒊𝒔 𝒏𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒆𝒎𝒑𝒕𝒚 𝒐𝒇 𝒚𝒐𝒖. 𝑵𝒐𝒕 𝒊𝒏 𝒘𝒂𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒈; 𝑵𝒐𝒕 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒏 𝒊𝒏 𝒅𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒈”
dark emotional mysterious fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

emilyhallmoon's review

5.0
emotional

Ava Reid captivated me with her lush and lyrical writing in A Study in Drowning, and the unexpected follow-up of A Theory in Dreaming was similarly gorgeous. It's not so wet, but it is icy cold in the Llyrian capital of Caer-Isel, where Preston and Effy are navigating their newfound infamy at the literature college. This is another dark story; Reid does not shy away from putting her characters through mental torment. And the misogynistic a$$holes! Poor Effy barely gets a break, though Preston's roommate Lotto and Lotto's father add to the previous count of one dude (Preston) who doesn't treat her like absolute trash. Our intrepid heroes are young, and often struggling with mental health, so it isn't so surprising that they often feel inadequate for each other. But ultimately, Reid's story is one of hope -- we may lose our childhood fantasies, but we can still persevere for love and truth. 

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Collins for an advanced copy of this book. 
dark emotional mysterious reflective slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I am very happy to have read the sequel. It filled in the plot holes I noticed in the first book but this isn't a happy, action packed book. It covers deep topics and the mental load of Effie and Preston. The dual POV between the two was a nice touch to find out more about the college and the world they live in.  The plot itself is a little jumbled to me and harder for me to decipher than in the first book. This book is very, very character driven whereas book one had somewhat of a moving plot.  The relationship between Effie, Preston and their friends is amazing and to have the reprive of the more outgoing, "fun" friends from the two of them was a wonderful inclusion to the book. And their romance is super cute.  I would absolutely check for triggers in this book because again darker themes than book 1 to me. 

Thank you HarperCollins and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book! 

"I think magic is just the truth that people believe."

This book was one of my most highly anticipated releases of the year and I'm so thankful to Harper Collins and Netgalley for the opportunity to read an advance copy.

Effy and Preston have their work cut out for them when they return from Hiraeth Manor. The scandal of uncovering a beloved tale's true authorship follows them around as they try to resume their classes and put together their thesis for presentation. Preston's dreams get more and more real as he collaborates with master Gosse, while Effy struggles with her thoughts and dreams while awake.

This is truly a masterful way to keep a story going through a sequel. 'A Theory of Dreaming' brings us back to the beautiful world that Ava Reid created and I can't say enough good things. I really hope everyone else who reads this book enjoys it as I have.