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jessversteeg's review against another edition
dark
emotional
hopeful
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? It's complicated
4.0
“Haunting and tender” one author said of this book on the back jacket cover. I agree.
It’s a weird, gothic book that crosses over university life and fairy folklore (or is it folklore?). It could easily be made into a thriller movie released at Halloween. It’s creepy and tender, but also quite sad.
A huge theme in the book is both the treatment of women and the ways women are perceived. There are a few pretty awful quotes about how women are either seductresses or submissive, how they’re unable to produce any real intellectual work etc. It also becomes clear early on in the book that the main character was taken advantage of by her academic advisor, and she basically has severe anxiety/ptsd over it. Her anxiety about her life experiences makes her wonder if she’s crazy or not, many people tell her she’s crazy and making stuff up. The story juxtaposes folk monsters with real life sketchy men. It’s about fighting back against abusers.
I doubt I’ll read it again, but I’m sure I’ll think about it a lot in the future. I kinda think it should be high school required reading so teens can learn about power dynamics and consent, believing women, etc.
Here’s a quote from the end that gutted me:
“I know I beat him in the end, but for so many years all I could do was run and hide. I just sat there and let the water pour in around me. I didn’t know that I could fight back. I didn’t know how to do anything but wait to drown.”
It’s a weird, gothic book that crosses over university life and fairy folklore (or is it folklore?). It could easily be made into a thriller movie released at Halloween. It’s creepy and tender, but also quite sad.
A huge theme in the book is both the treatment of women and the ways women are perceived. There are a few pretty awful quotes about how women are either seductresses or submissive, how they’re unable to produce any real intellectual work etc. It also becomes clear early on in the book that the main character was taken advantage of by her academic advisor, and she basically has severe anxiety/ptsd over it. Her anxiety about her life experiences makes her wonder if she’s crazy or not, many people tell her she’s crazy and making stuff up. The story juxtaposes folk monsters with real life sketchy men. It’s about fighting back against abusers.
I doubt I’ll read it again, but I’m sure I’ll think about it a lot in the future. I kinda think it should be high school required reading so teens can learn about power dynamics and consent, believing women, etc.
Here’s a quote from the end that gutted me:
“I know I beat him in the end, but for so many years all I could do was run and hide. I just sat there and let the water pour in around me. I didn’t know that I could fight back. I didn’t know how to do anything but wait to drown.”
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny, Sexism, and Gaslighting
Moderate: Child abuse, Sexual content, Death of parent, and Sexual harassment
Minor: Child death, Sexual content, and War
anna_xiety's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
I loved this book so much- I was hesitant to start it because I had high hopes for it, but it definitely lived up to them. I think the start was a little slow but the pacing builds up and I love how Reid handles the issues in the book. and how the characters stories connect with each other ( put as a spoiler just in case)!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness, Misogyny, and Sexism
Moderate: Sexual content, Violence, Xenophobia, and Sexual harassment
Minor: Alcoholism, Car accident, and War
fairyreader75's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
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? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Racism, Sexual assault, Xenophobia, and Sexual harassment
Minor: War
fairyko's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
sad
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? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny and Sexism
Moderate: Sexual assault and Death of parent
Minor: War
rileydobereading's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship and Sexual content
Moderate: Drug use, Sexism, Sexual assault, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Drug abuse, Forced institutionalization, Car accident, Alcohol, and War
the_rabble's review against another edition
dark
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
Fantasyland pre-80s Berlin's xenophobia smashed together with FantasyOxford's academic gender segregation BUT NONE OF THAT'S IMPORTANT- TIME TO GO TO A DAMP, ISOLATED, LEAKY BEACH HOUSE.
Sexual assault and misogyny allergory that really, really loves aggressive and inconsistent water imagery. Buckle up for feeling sticky and coping with trauma via dissociation.
Single POV, 3rd person past tense, main characters are teen book nerds (college freshmen.) 1 semi-spicy scene.
Very strong world building. Would support this setting being used again. Likeable main characters. Plot, themes, and story structure are a bit of a mess. Action drags and we get a lot of heavy handed imagery and navel gazing.
In a piece that excels at world building, the villian [bad guy lore] isn't really explained as an entity. Which is fine, but things are overexplained through the whole book, except for the driving force of the book.
If this is on your TBR list bc the cover looks dope or it's been on lists, I suspect you'll get as much out of this book if you read the first two and last two chapters as reading the whole thing.
[Ending] Vibewise, Reiddoes a good job on the ending. The pacing is well done and you feel like this chapter of the story is done and the characters are ready to move on. Things resolve. I expect that's part of why this book gets good marks.
Sexual assault and misogyny allergory that really, really loves aggressive and inconsistent water imagery. Buckle up for feeling sticky and coping with trauma via dissociation.
Single POV, 3rd person past tense, main characters are teen book nerds (college freshmen.) 1 semi-spicy scene.
Very strong world building. Would support this setting being used again. Likeable main characters. Plot, themes, and story structure are a bit of a mess. Action drags and we get a lot of heavy handed imagery and navel gazing.
In a piece that excels at world building, the villian [bad guy lore]
If this is on your TBR list bc the cover looks dope or it's been on lists, I suspect you'll get as much out of this book if you read the first two and last two chapters as reading the whole thing.
[Ending] Vibewise, Reid
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault, Xenophobia, and Sexual harassment
Minor: War
cordeliant's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Bullying, Death, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, Death of parent, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: War
moonchild_cos's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
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
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Drug use, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual assault, Xenophobia, Sexual harassment, and Classism
Minor: Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Sexual content, Grief, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, and War
kemikemi's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-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
4.0
Regardless of however the book was marketed, to me this book is a mysterious and anxious character study inside a dark academia fantasy setting. The focus on higher education research and the Llyrian literary world, with exerpts from books, poems, and academic articles from within Llyr at the start of each chapter, reminded me of Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett—another book I enjoyed that created additional academic lore to immerse the reader in the culture it was creating and further the themes of the novel. Angharad, as well as Myrddin’s poems, were written so beautifully and I wish they were released on their own so that we could read them in full; Ava Reid did such a good job with the setting of Hiraeth, its location within
the Bottom Hundred, and with the overall character that was the sea.
This book was also a fascinating character study, and no matter how many other people call her bland I will stand by Effy as a character. The beginning was a little hard to get through because her perspective was giving me so much secondhand anxiety; the description of her thoughts and feelings were so visceral and yet she also spoke in vagues, so that you could not clearly grasp what exactly was haunting her so. Once she began to reveal her past, however, it all slowly clicked into place, and from the moment she said it I knew in my heart it was all real. It’s a bit of a tale as old as time, a young woman who is experienced no one believing her for so long that she begins to doubt her own senses and sanity. Don’t get me wrong, I was very invested in the mystery behind Angharad and wanted to see what the truth would unfold to be, the most of all I wanted to know if Effy would ever get to experience realizing and proving that herself as right in her own personal story. I also don’t understand how people don’t see the romance in this story, because I very much did; it was tender and rooted in someone caring for and believing in you. Especially with the blatant juxtaposition of very masculine older men trying to tell Effy who she was and what she needed, her relationship with a same-aged peer and quiet academic felt very precious to me and I enjoyed every minute they were on-page together.
My main critique would have to be the way the events of the book unfolded from the climax to the end; when considering the pace of the rest of the novel, it did feel very fast and like so much information was suddenly dumped on us. I did feel very vindicated, having guessed from the moment Preston said he didn’t think Angharad was written by Emrys Myrddin it was written by his widow, although initially, I was a bit too optimistic like Effie and thought that it was going to be a love story where women weren’t allowed to publish novels and so one man who loved his wife so much published it for her so that he could prove to her that her writing could and would be beloved by the entire land. The reality is so much more bleak, but in a world where sexism is so ingrained, a story about common men being commonly greedy and cruel more realistic than a fantastic love about a man who rose above basic misogyny. However, this complaint does not ruin my enjoyment for the book as a whole, and thus I rate it four stars. I had a great time diving into this world, and I also have to thank Saskia Maarleveld for her fantastic narrating of the audiobook; I especially loved how she did Preston’s voice, and I think her voice lilting across all the Llyrian and Argantian words and accented voices really elevated the experience for me.
the Bottom Hundred, and with the overall character that was the sea.
This book was also a fascinating character study, and no matter how many other people call her bland I will stand by Effy as a character. The beginning was a little hard to get through because her perspective was giving me so much secondhand anxiety; the description of her thoughts and feelings were so visceral and yet she also spoke in vagues, so that you could not clearly grasp what exactly was haunting her so. Once she began to reveal her past, however, it all slowly clicked into place, and from the moment she said it I knew in my heart it was all real. It’s a bit of a tale as old as time, a young woman who is experienced no one believing her for so long that she begins to doubt her own senses and sanity. Don’t get me wrong, I was very invested in the mystery behind Angharad and wanted to see what the truth would unfold to be, the most of all I wanted to know if Effy would ever get to experience realizing and proving that herself as right in her own personal story. I also don’t understand how people don’t see the romance in this story, because I very much did; it was tender and rooted in someone caring for and believing in you. Especially with the blatant juxtaposition of very masculine older men trying to tell Effy who she was and what she needed, her relationship with a same-aged peer and quiet academic felt very precious to me and I enjoyed every minute they were on-page together.
My main critique would have to be the way the events of the book unfolded from the climax to the end; when considering the pace of the rest of the novel, it did feel very fast and like so much information was suddenly dumped on us.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny, Sexism, and Gaslighting
Moderate: Sexual assault and War
Minor: Death of parent
marc_le's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual assault, and Death of parent
Moderate: Death
Minor: War