Reviews with content warning for Sexual content - A Study in Drowning

Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

A Study in Drowning by Ava Reid

54 reviews

sydapel's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.5

Another author I would do anything for. This book is a gothic, feminist, dark academia, rivals to lovers fantasy DREAM. Ava Reid blends the eerie and foreboding atmosphere of Hiraeth Manor with a story about how women are treated as both too seductive and too silly to be taken seriously in any - but particularly academic - settings. Effy as the main character brings you so fully into your own head that you like her, begin to question your own sense of reality and sense, and slowly we begin to understand how the monsters in our heads, though not entirely real, come from genuine places of trauma, abuse and mistreatment. I read this mostly in one sitting, and now desperately want Mike Flanagan to adapt for TV.

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deetabz's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No

3.75

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kendal_reads's review against another edition

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adventurous dark medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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aksmith92's review against another edition

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dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-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? Yes

3.0

Setting the stage: we have Effy, the only woman in the Architecture School at her college, and she is only there because women aren't allowed in Literature School. So, instead of researching, reviewing, and reading her favorite poet, Effy is doing half-hearted design work. One day, she finds a flier at the School noting that her favorite poet's son is asking for Architecture students to submit a proposal on how to redo their falling-apart-at-the-seams home in the Southern part of the country. She knows she has to apply and go. As you can imagine, she gets the winning proposal and heads down south - what I would imagine is a much more "peasant" part of the country as the north, where the College sits and where Effy is from.

When Effy arrives, she realizes she will not be completing coursework alone - Preston Helrouy (sorry if that spelling is wrong - I returned my book) is also there but on behalf of the Literature College. He is apparently investigating the great works of Effy's favorite poet - what Effy wanted to do forever. There was obviously built tension, including the fact that Preston is apparently from another country (well, his father is) that Effy's country hates. Therefore, we have this odd clash between two people from different countries.

Here is what I liked: I enjoyed the atmospheric nature of the writing; the prose was lovely. It was readable and interesting. This brings me to the next thing I liked, which was the major plot point of Effy and Preston working together in this cold, dark, and rainy place. They teamed up to find the truth, and that was an interesting and fun ride. For about 80-90% of the book, even though it was young adult which I struggle to read sometimes, it felt a little bit more mature.

I must say, in general, I shy away from the very soft, docile female main character in fantasy-like novels such as this because I like a strong-willed and determined main character. Effy was NOT that. She had mental health problems and traumatic experiences and was generally anxious 90% of the time. Honestly, this felt very realistic. I believe that people didn't feel Effy as much in this book because it felt too real for the reader. She was so similar to someone we know (or ourselves), and I think sometimes that sentiment is hard to read. But I appreciated Effy. Sure, her childish behavior (and then her acknowledging it) was a bit annoying, to say the least, but she felt real to me.

Honestly, I didn't mind the romance at all. I've noted some reviews that said there was zero build-up and that Preston and Effy's relationship was boring. I disagree! While I think that Preston could likely have been a bit more layered or developed more, I thought there were cute moments between the two and thought the romance aspect was decently done.

Here is what didn't cut it for me and is why I am rating it 3 stars: I rated a whole star down because, in the end, Effy said: "She would simply DIE without Preston." Cue young adult dramatics and nonsense. It's a huge pet peeve for me. A book can read young adult but not contain corny stuff like that. Additionally, this is not rivals-to-lovers. There is a romantic component between two people with fundamentally different ways of thinking after growing up as "other." Effy is trying to make it in one of the misogynistic worlds, and Preston has genes from a place at war with their current location. There are belief systems and values tugged on here between the two, which make them different but not rivals. They aren't competing for the same thing, really, and if anything, they find a partnership sooner in the novel than I anticipated.

But here comes my biggest qualm: we don't really get the intricate world-building needed. Apparently, there is a war going on between Effy and Preston's countries. Never knew why or how. It seemed to be used as a tension plot point SOLELY for the romantic plot point. Additionally, we obviously have a world with some magical elements to it, but that wasn't explored nearly enough, especially for a standalone book. This book seemed to be about women's empowerment and a woman (barely, more like a girl) getting through really challenging times in a world that was not too dissimilar from our own. I would have been ok with the book like this, but adding in some other random elements, like war and magic, without really explaining it just a bit, made the whole thing seem disorganized.

Regardless, it was a decent read!

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chezler24's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

"I was a woman when it was convenient to blame me, and a girl when they wanted to use me."

Via melding dark academia with eerie fantasy elements, Ava Reid has created a fairly successful mystery surrounding one of the fictional country's premier authors. Reid critiqued the country's social structure of placing women at the bottom both in daily life and more pointedly in academia. Many women, myself included, can relate to Effy Sayre in her struggle to be taken seriously by people for things that were outside of her control. I loved the atmosphere and world Reid created and wanted to learn more about Llyr and Argant. Preston and Effy served as nice foils for each other and bridged their respective realms of logic and fantasy.

While I did enjoy this read, there were some things that felt a bit rushed or I wished had been more integral to the overall plot threads. Effy wins the contest without any real struggle (yes I realize that the reason was explained later but I wish we could have seen some insight into drafting/sketching or something), her fight with the Fairy King felt like a blip, the war conflict between Argant and Llyr seemed unimportant, and the Sleeper Museum and the magic these figures possessed seemed glossed over.

The ending was nice. We see growth from Effy as well as justice for individuals wronged by those in positions of power over them.

The OwlCrate exclusive content was great! I almost wished I had a book focused solely on Angharad - the "real" one and not the book character within the book.

Probably a 3.5/5 for me. I'd place this for readers just getting into the Young Adult section with touching on more intense themes. (~16+)

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hatichai's review against another edition

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adventurous inspiring mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

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lizzye33's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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kristen_sav's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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moonytoast's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

this book has single-handedly altered my brain chemistry cause WHAT THE FUCKKKK this was so good!!!!! the story and world reid created have dug their way into my mind like worms into the soft earth, i feel like this book has possessed me fr 10000000000/10

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ashley_mrose530's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious 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

4.5

Okay I loved this book and it's main characters! They were so good together and I loved that Preston held space for Effy and he was aware of how she had been treated in the past and he kept that in mind when he was around her so she never felt pressured or triggered. He also gave her time to tell him what she went through without demanding she trust him right away. Ugh they were just two amazing main characters and I loved watching them fall in love.
The magic system was so interesting in this story too. You couldn't tell if Effy was an unreliable main character or not. I liked not knowing for sure whether or not the fairy king was real and I questioned that the whole time. And then

when it turned out she was right I celebrated for her. She wasn't crazy and seeing things!

Really the only reason I couldn't give this book five stars is because it was too predictable. It didn't hinder my enjoyment of the book, but the mystery was made out to be this huge thing and I could tell that the reader was supposed Robbie guessing along with the characters, but I knew immediately. The main mystery and premise of this book is who actually wrote Angharad - was it the attributed author Emrys Myrddin or someone else - and I'm sorry to say that I knew immediately that the answer was

going to be his widow and I even guessed that she might be Angharad herself, if Effy was correct about the fairy king being real.

It was only slightly disappointing to find out that it was that predictable. I think the author made it a little too obvious when she made it clear, multiple times, that

women could not be in the literature college and were not considered to have a good enough temperament for creating stories.

There were just too many references to it that the mystery then became obvious, at least to me. Everything else about this book was amazing though and I would definitely recommend it!

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