The design and UX isn't done, Rob and Abbie, okkurrrr! đ
jillie's review against another edition
3.5
- beautiful writing (some of the best iâve read all year)
- gloomy, well-crafted atmosphere
- sweet love story
Cons
- too short for all of the world building it had - things felt muddled or should have been more in depthÂ
- the âtwistâ (?) wasnât really a twist & was fairly predictableÂ
I enjoyed Reidâs writing but wish I had known what this book was actually about before reading it.Â
November 2023
Graphic: Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual assault, and Sexism
Moderate: Xenophobia, Child abuse, and Pedophilia
agentlywildrebellion's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Gaslighting, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Violence, Ableism, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, and Xenophobia
Moderate: Child abuse
Minor: Death of parent
fastcat_11's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
Some quotes that are amazing:
- I was a woman when it was convenient to blame me, and a girl when they wanted to use meÂ
- âYou donât have to take up a sword. Survival is bravery, too.â
- âBut didnât all drownings begin with a harmless dribble of water?â
- âEffy hated that she couldnât tell right from wrong, safe from unsafe. Her fear had transfigured the entire world. Looking at anything was like trying to glimpse a reflection in a broken mirror, all of it warped and shattered and strange.â
- Not from the book but from a review that succinctly describes whatâs so powerful about this book:
â[this story is] filled with feminine rage. Rage against how easy it was, and is, to write women out of their own stories, to claim them as your own. Rage against those in a position of power abusing it. Rage against the men who stake claim on a woman and do not like when the woman refuses.â
Angharadâs quiet ending and liberation with being able to tell the truth seemed like a different kind of win though â more along the lines of a quiet dignity and her quote that you donât have to pick up a sword to be brave. Having spent so many years with a monster while keeping her sanity and wittingly trapping him along with her was a bravery as much as Effyâs standing down the Dean.
Personally, I think the second is more realistic given that Effy saw the Fairy King in all of the men in her life during the moments when Effy could peek behind the veneer of polite society and see their true (bad) intentions. However these glimpses could also be a continuation of the fantasy POV that the Fairy King can possess men because âweakness and wanting is like a wound, a gap [the Fairy King] can use to slide inâ â aka when set in a patriarchal system that allows men to do whatever they please, the absolute power can corrupt their morals.
Also shoutout to the author for letting the FMC kill her OWN demons and save her OWN life instead of having the MMC pull a knight in shining armor trope. I was pleasantly surprised that Preston chose to support Effy in her goal to join the literary college, and didnât let his âinner Fairy Kingâ out by being greedy and taking her name off the byline or disagreeing when she leveraged the paper to get the SA assailant fired.
Minor: Pedophilia and Sexual assault
booksthatburn's review against another edition
- 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
5.0
A STUDY IN DROWNING is a story of uncertainty and a shaky sense of reality, figuring out how to name and shame abusers who use their power, position, and (often) gender to obscure and diminish their abuse, and to cultivate uncertainty as to whether they did what they did, and if they did it, if it even was wrong. The fantastical setting allows for a recursive reinforcement of themes of decay, drowning, and rot as the specter of the Fairy King is invoked, threatened, and manifested in turn to build a story where the water is certain, death is inevitable, but drowning is slow. In that gap is room for denial and obfuscation as the water rises.
Effy is obsessed with the works of a particular author, and of his novel, Angharad, in particular. It tells the story of the Fairy King seducing his human bride from the perspective of that girl. Effy has the text largely memorized, and many lines in it are deeply meaningful to her, whispered as talismans against the sexism of her daily life. In a country where she has to go to the architecture college because no women are allowed in the literature college, the idea that one of the most famous writers in her country would have written this book with such a careful and nuanced understanding of a female perspective is deeply meaningful and inspiring to her. The college bars women because of misogynist nonsense about their minds being unable to handle understanding or producing great works of literature. Though she is admitted at the architecture college, Effy is the only female student there. The few girls in her dorm who are studying at the music college where they are admitted in greater numbers.Â
At first, Effy has a xenophobic reaction to learning that a boy from an enemy nation was admitted to study at the literature college at the same time she was denied because of her gender. She ends up meeting him, and it turns into a rivals to lovers scenario where they work together to get around the sexist institution and call abusers to account. Gradually it becomes clear as Effy is able to think and process more specifically that one of the professors abused her. She feels unable to go to anyone for help, or even necessarily to be certain in herself, that it was wrong. The other students assume she used her body to get where she is, that somehow she doesn't deserve to be in the same halls as them.
A STUDY IN DROWNING has cemented Ava Reid on my must-read list for her consistently nuanced handling of themes of abuse and coercion in ways that leverage the strengths of fantasy to help deal with traumatic realities surrounding sexism and abuses of power.Â
Graphic: Sexism and Misogyny
Moderate: Sexual harassment, Xenophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Bullying, Child abuse, Abandonment, Emotional abuse, Medical content, Death of parent, and Death
Minor: Pedophilia, Drug use, Mental illness, Cursing, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal death, Murder, and War
trad_carbaes's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
Graphic: Misogyny, Gaslighting, Blood, Toxic relationship, Sexual violence, Sexism, Car accident, and Pedophilia
guardianofthebookshelf's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Diverse cast of characters? No
4.0
Graphic: Sexual assault and Sexual harassment
Moderate: Pedophilia, Death, and Death of parent