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A review by snikhtha
A Study in Drowning by Ava Reid
dark
reflective
slow-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
2.5
I don't know if it's because this is the first time listening to an audiobook, but boy oh boy, was this just... not my thing.
The atmosphere and setting felt eery and I kind of liked the weird time period. The little starts to the chapter with in-world text excerpts was fun. The mythology also seems pretty fun. Misogyny, the central theme of the novel, had some good portrayals - the parts on power dynamics and age gaps were very interesting and timely.
Unfortunately, the theme was just so overt that it made the central mystery of the novel sooo boring. The theme is misogyny, the central mystery is an author who might not have written his own work... hmmmm, I wonder who it could be! I don't have a problem guessing plot twists, but when you have to slog through an entire book just for the characters to uncover what you've known all along... that's just boring.
The extent of the misogyny was also just kind of annoying to read? A lot of it just felt like very easy "girl power" type messaging and a lot of it was also very blatant, straight up "Women can't read! Women aren't allowed to study literature!" Okay, this is set in some kind of historic time, but if a book published in 2023 is going to make misogyny and women's empowerment it's central theme to the point that it can't go 2 pages without reminding you, I think it should have something more substantial to say to it's readers about the state of women in present time. There's a lot of women reading this book, there's no need to affirm to them that yes, women can read and write. It seems like a cheap way to signal which of the male characters are good and which ones are bad - the bad one's prey on young women and think they can't write because they're women. The good one's don't do that. There's like 1 substantial female character besides Effy though so we don't need to worry about that!
It seems like an issue with trying to do too much - if it had focussed on just one or two aspects, like on Effy's experience at the college and the central mystery, it might've worked better for me. The same could be said for a lot of the book - I don't care for the war. I don't understand why it's there or why it matters and it had way too much screentime. There were like three different plots going on and none of them were all that intriguing. I don't care for the romance or the main characters either.
So I guess this entire rating is because those last few lines managed to grab me by the neck.
The atmosphere and setting felt eery and I kind of liked the weird time period. The little starts to the chapter with in-world text excerpts was fun. The mythology also seems pretty fun. Misogyny, the central theme of the novel, had some good portrayals - the parts on power dynamics and age gaps were very interesting and timely.
Unfortunately, the theme was just so overt that it made the central mystery of the novel sooo boring. The theme is misogyny, the central mystery is an author who might not have written his own work... hmmmm, I wonder who it could be! I don't have a problem guessing plot twists, but when you have to slog through an entire book just for the characters to uncover what you've known all along... that's just boring.
The extent of the misogyny was also just kind of annoying to read? A lot of it just felt like very easy "girl power" type messaging and a lot of it was also very blatant, straight up "Women can't read! Women aren't allowed to study literature!" Okay, this is set in some kind of historic time, but if a book published in 2023 is going to make misogyny and women's empowerment it's central theme to the point that it can't go 2 pages without reminding you, I think it should have something more substantial to say to it's readers about the state of women in present time. There's a lot of women reading this book, there's no need to affirm to them that yes, women can read and write. It seems like a cheap way to signal which of the male characters are good and which ones are bad - the bad one's prey on young women and think they can't write because they're women. The good one's don't do that. There's like 1 substantial female character besides Effy though so we don't need to worry about that!
It seems like an issue with trying to do too much - if it had focussed on just one or two aspects, like on Effy's experience at the college and the central mystery, it might've worked better for me. The same could be said for a lot of the book - I don't care for the war. I don't understand why it's there or why it matters and it had way too much screentime. There were like three different plots going on and none of them were all that intriguing. I don't care for the romance or the main characters either.
So I guess this entire rating is because those last few lines managed to grab me by the neck.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny
Moderate: Emotional abuse
Minor: Xenophobia and War