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crofteereader 's review for:
A Study in Drowning
by Ava Reid
This book truly is Reid’s best to date. While dark academia isn’t usually my vibe, I think this is saved from many of the traps of the genre by instead taking place (mostly) in an old gothic manor, where academia is a shadow on the wall and a shackle on the main characters’ feet. The only thing I genuinely did not like was how contrived Effy’s and Preston’s “academic rivals” dialogue was before they got to know each other. Effy has terrible difficulty making cohesive arguments and instead becomes terribly xenophobic and expects that to stand in place of logic?? Preston starts off very self-important, but that’s totally in character with every male English major I ever encountered in college, so while I didn’t particularly like him at first, it at least made sense to me.
Now, where this story shines: eerily beautiful descriptions of decay and grime and other wholly gothic things; the monstrousness of sexism (particularly in academia) and the way it can gaslight victims into doubting their own experiences and discomforts; interwoven fairy tales and poetry; mental illness but also make it dark fairy tales.
Where I wanted more: magic, of course, since this is a society where there is both commonly accepted and summarily rejected magic; a little bit more about the relationship between the two countries that goes beyond Effy spewing xenophobic stereotypes and Preston reciting poetry in another language.
Now, where this story shines: eerily beautiful descriptions of decay and grime and other wholly gothic things; the monstrousness of sexism (particularly in academia) and the way it can gaslight victims into doubting their own experiences and discomforts; interwoven fairy tales and poetry; mental illness but also make it dark fairy tales.
Where I wanted more: magic, of course, since this is a society where there is both commonly accepted and summarily rejected magic; a little bit more about the relationship between the two countries that goes beyond Effy spewing xenophobic stereotypes and Preston reciting poetry in another language.