A Study in Drowning
Reviews
“And, well, I suppose that’s partly why I don’t have much faith in the notion of permanence. Anything can be taken from you, at any moment. Even the past isn’t guaranteed. You can loose that, too, slowly, like water eating away at stone.”
the fmc was insufferable at first but she managed to redeem herself. i am glad i decided to push through and finished the book.
i had goosebumps the entire time i was reading! love love loved this blend of fantasy and real life strife
I absolutely loved this one. Incredible imagery, writing, characters, and storyline. I will be thinking about this story forever.
I did not want to leave this world.
I liked how well crafted these characters were. I loved how there was life and lore breathed into the book. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever read.
I’m definitely looking into Welsh mythology after this.
if i could give this 10 stars i would….. PRESTON AND EFFY YOU ARE EVERYTHING TO ME
i love this so much oh my god. read this book for seven days (i've been busy) and normally if this is like some other books, i'd definitely lose interest on the third day. but this, whenever i get the chance to read this, it sucks me. i have all my attention on this book everytime i read it. the atmosphere is also top tier. it does get cringey sometimes and the sex was so unecessary to me ngl
this was endless boring but the writing isn’t bad, i’m sure this book will be the complete opposite for other people but for me was terribly
Idk this was clumsy and convoluted, and I really didn’t enjoy how the MC was painted as such a victim. Also it’s a pet peeve of mine when authors build a whole fantasy world (and make me learn its nuances) then they still rely on cars and phone booths and vinyl and anxiety meds and cigarettes.
this was very good! the atmosphere was super well done, like for much of the book I wasn’t sure whether it actually was magical or imagined, and I thought it was very effective for the story she was telling. the romance was sweet, I love nerdy cuties. the whole thing made me want to actually read this epic poem of angharad. I will say I wish we maybe got a bit more on the literary analysis and writing the thesis, and also maybe more sections of the angharad, I could’ve done with more academia. but overall it was really engaging and I liked it a lot!
Overall enjoyable. The themes and symbolism are good and the plot is decent, but I felt like Angharad itself— the fictional book— was far more interesting than this book.
um.. ok. i can see what the book is TRYING to do with themes of bigotry, misogyny, and sexual harassment/assault. but i do feel like it’s taking on these extremely big topics, making it the central theme of the book, and handling them all so haphazardly that it’s so disappointing and leaves me kinda icked out.
A unique story, I liked reading it but I fail to see the wow factor many others do. It may just be my taste as I don't gravitate towards books with fae folk, however, I still found the concept of this book interesting. The commitment to water imagery was well done, it really makes you evaluate the sea as a symbol. I also liked how each chapter opened with an extract of some sort, it gave it that dark academic feel. I didn't completely like Effy's character I found her a little insufferable and childish at times, I understand she apologises and grows but her earlier behaviour towards Prestion left a bad impression on me that did not go away. Nonetheless, its worth the read, especially if you enjoy water imagery and reading about evil fae.
4.75 ⭐️ Ohhhh this one is for the feminine rage. Loved it. It was so infuriating, relatable, and fascinating. I loved how atmospheric and immersive the setting felt. The characters were great too… loved that the main protagonist is layered and confusing at times. The writing was beautiful and haunting. The only thing holding it back from being a 5 star book for me was that I saw almost all of the reveals coming very early on. Still loved the storytelling and themes though!
While Ava Reid's atmospheric prose shines, especially in her descriptions, I found that most of the book's plot felt lost in all of her writing and world-building. And when the world-building was being done, it was to establish just one person (Myrrdin) and not to establish this historical fantasy-like setting that Reid drops us into. I would have liked getting to know more about the two countries as well, especially considering one of her main characters is established early on as being Argantian. Plotwise, it felt like not much was happening for a good portion of the book aside from trying to hand us clues that didn't quite fit without the progression of the actual plot. The core of this narrative deals with larger issues of academic/institutional elitism and misogyny, mental health, and the power dynamics not only between men and women, but between teacher and student. Reid handles these masterfully, weaving them into Effy's personal narrative and into the plot, which is where it does shine. Overall, I did enjoy this, and I'm glad to see it will be getting a sequel, as I think that will help unravel more of the things I discussed here.
Side note: The Shakespeare scholar in me was really digging the authorship plot, and it made me think about Katie Bender's play, "Judith," which I just saw performed a few months ago... highly recommend checking that out.
man i gotta learn how to swim
I love this book. So whimsical and romantic. I wish Angharad was a real book. Ava Reid is a new favourite author.
This was an interesting mystery story with a little bit of fantasy sprinkled in!
she should’ve been a selkie / mermaid but that’s it ..
3.75 ⭐️ great premise, great writing, but overall it fell flat for me. i wasn’t really connected to the characters. what i liked about this book was the spooky and eerie vibe it gave. the mmc was somewhat bland, but it wasn’t a huge deal to me. it just felt as if he was the only nice guy to Effy. it only got okay towards the end, the romance was cute between Effy & Preston.
Highlights
The truth was very costly at times. How terrible, to navigate the world without a story to comfort you.
"...it’s not fair. Men just say whatever they want and everyone believes them.”
That was the cruelest irony: the more you did to save yourself, the less you became a person worth saving.
Why was it always girls whose forms could not be trusted? Everything could be taken away from them in an instant.
A friendly gesture, a bracing pat on the shoulder. But didn’t all drownings begin with a harmless dribble of water?
:(
“It’s terrifying,” Effy confessed. “Most beautiful things are,” Ianto said.
“Everything ancient must decay,” he said, and it had the cadence of a song. “A wise man once said thus to me. But a sailor was I—and on my head no fleck of gray—so with all the boldness of my youth, I said: The only enemy is the sea.”
We must discuss, then, the relationship between women and water. When men fall into the sea, they drown. When women meet the water, they transform. It becomes vital to ask: is this a metamorphosis, or a homecoming?
What is a mermaid but a woman half-drowned,
What a selkie but an unwilling wife,
What a tale but a sea-net, snatching up both
From the gentle tumult of dark waves?
There was an intimacy to all violence, she supposed. The better you knew someone, the more terribly you could hurt them.
It was an eternal feeling, this sense of being unwelcome. No matter where she was, Effy was always afraid she was not wanted.
“How come all the spiders are men?”
“Because then it feels more satisfying to squish them.”
She was tired, tired of trying so hard for something she didn’t even want.
“You’re so pretty. You really are. You’re the most gorgeous girl I’ve ever seen. Do you know that?” If she said yes, I do, she was a conceited harpy. If she shook her head and rebuffed the compliment, she was falsely modest, playing coy. It was fae-like trickery. There was no answer that wouldn’t damn her.
It began as all things did: a girl on the shore, terrified and desirous.
Some things are constant,' Effy said. 'They must be. I think that's why so many poets write about the sea.'
'Maybe the idea of constancy is what's actually terrifying. Fear of the sea is fear of the eternal- because how can you win against something so enduring. So vast and so deep.‘
I say, it is because a romance is a belief in the impossible: that anything ends happily. For the only true end is death-and in this way, is romance not a rebuke of mortality?
Fear could make a believer of anybody.
Well— I was a woman when it was convenient to blame me, and a girl when they wanted to use me.
“She wanted someone to know how lanto had touched her—even if she was still trying to convince herself it had been nothing at all. A friendly gesture, a bracing pat on the shoulder. But didn't all drownings begin with a harmless dribble of water?”
"I was a woman when it was convenient to blame me, and a girl when they wanted to use me."
This was it. The line that fully broke me.
" [ . . . ] Even the past isn't guaranteed. You can lose that, too, slowly, like water eating away at stone."
And changing your mind isn't foolish. It just means you've learned something new. Everyone changes their mind sometimes, as they should, or else they're just, I don't know, stubborn and ignorant. Moving water is healthy; stagnant water is sickly. Tainted."