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A review by brennieree33
A Study in Drowning by Ava Reid
2.0
"What wisdom do you want from a death-marked girl? I can say only this: In the end I learned the water was in me. It was a ghost that could not be exorcised. But a guest, even uninvited, must be attended to. You make up a bed for them. You pour from your best bottle of wine. If you can learn to love that which despises you, that which terrifies you, you can dance on the shore and play in the waves again, like you did when you were young. Before the ocean is friend or foe, it simply is. And so are you."
My biggest problem with this book is that it has so much potential, but it reads as a first draft. The author clearly has so much they want to say, but they tried to cram it all into one book and that just doesn't work. Effy is not a character beyond her trauma and her love for Angharad, and it reads as men writing women. I love the writing, there's a lot of great lines; the world is really interesting. But the other things are just too big of an issue to let the good things shine.
376 pages
- Master Corbenic saying that the only reason Effy hasn't failed out of school yet is disgusting.
-"Let me have my life." Okayyyy guess the mom isn't winning parent of the year. Glad Preston acknowledges how effed up it is that she just expects her daughter to live with the fact that she tried to abandon her.
- "As if stories were not spoils of war." I think that this theme would be so interesting to explore; wish it came up again. Same with "That's the legacy of imperialism- the North reaps while the South sows."
- "That was the cruelest irony: the more you did to save yourself, the less you became a person worth saving." I think this is interesting.
-"Tell me more about who I am because I don't know anymore." It is sad that I related so much to that.
-"But stories were devious things, things with agendas. They could cheat and steal and lie to your face. They could crumble away under your feet." Again, very interesting take. Like I see it but I don't.
-"He's not yours to apologize for." I feel like good men feel the need to apologize for bad men to make up for the bad.
-"You have no idea - I've read your book a hundred times, maybe more. It was a friend when I didn't have any. It was the only thing that said I was sane when the whole world was telling me I was mad. It saved me in more ways than I can count. Because I knew no matter how afraid I felt, I wasn't truly alone." I think everyone has at least one book they can say this about.
-"she had forgotten her ribbon, or perhaps it had gotten lost somewhere over the course of the night." I like that little visual cue for Effy's growth
-"A part of me still loves him, I think. The IDEA of him." That's how terrible people get you.
My biggest problem with this book is that it has so much potential, but it reads as a first draft. The author clearly has so much they want to say, but they tried to cram it all into one book and that just doesn't work. Effy is not a character beyond her trauma and her love for Angharad, and it reads as men writing women. I love the writing, there's a lot of great lines; the world is really interesting. But the other things are just too big of an issue to let the good things shine.
376 pages
- Master Corbenic saying that the only reason Effy hasn't failed out of school yet is disgusting.
-"Let me have my life." Okayyyy guess the mom isn't winning parent of the year. Glad Preston acknowledges how effed up it is that she just expects her daughter to live with the fact that she tried to abandon her.
- "As if stories were not spoils of war." I think that this theme would be so interesting to explore; wish it came up again. Same with "That's the legacy of imperialism- the North reaps while the South sows."
- "That was the cruelest irony: the more you did to save yourself, the less you became a person worth saving." I think this is interesting.
-"Tell me more about who I am because I don't know anymore." It is sad that I related so much to that.
-"But stories were devious things, things with agendas. They could cheat and steal and lie to your face. They could crumble away under your feet." Again, very interesting take. Like I see it but I don't.
-"He's not yours to apologize for." I feel like good men feel the need to apologize for bad men to make up for the bad.
-"You have no idea - I've read your book a hundred times, maybe more. It was a friend when I didn't have any. It was the only thing that said I was sane when the whole world was telling me I was mad. It saved me in more ways than I can count. Because I knew no matter how afraid I felt, I wasn't truly alone." I think everyone has at least one book they can say this about.
-"she had forgotten her ribbon, or perhaps it had gotten lost somewhere over the course of the night." I like that little visual cue for Effy's growth
-"A part of me still loves him, I think. The IDEA of him." That's how terrible people get you.