Thanks to Netgalley for the eARC.

If you’re looking for a book about the sexual harassment of young girls, here you go. 😂 Major trigger warning for that!!! Most of the plot lines in this book can be pared down to just that. And the overarching plot was kind of meh, and pretty predictable actually. There was no real “twist” for me here. I predicted the ending almost to a tee. 🤷‍♀️

The characters were overall fine. I didn’t have many complaints with either main character and both of them had a few nice scenes. I liked Preston well enough - and he was cute in his liking of Effy. But neither character will stick in my mind much.

Honestly after a few weeks, I bet the whole book will be reduced to my first line up there. Because that’s all I will remember about it. 🙃

I think others will like this more - maybe people who want a dark and creepy tale of dark academia and the Fairy King. But meh, it wasn’t really that great and just fine for me.

Wow this book was amazing. A dark academia novel with fantasy and mystery. The creepy elements were so great. I couldn’t put the book down.
I loved the writing style of this book. I loved the issues that the book dealt with and how the author addressed them.
I am almost speechless.
This is a favorite for 2023.

I recently finished The Last Tale of the Flower Bride by Roshani Chokshi and was looking for something similar, so this title on NetGalley caught my eye. I was intrigued by the descriptions of it being an atmospheric, gothic mystery.

From the description, "Effy Sayre has always believed in fairy tales. Haunted by visions of the Fairy King since childhood, she’s had no choice. Her tattered copy of Angharad—Emrys Myrddin’s epic about a mortal girl who falls in love with the Fairy King, then destroys him—is the only thing keeping her afloat. So when Myrddin’s family announces a contest to redesign the late author’s estate, Effy feels certain it’s her destiny."

I grew to love our unreliable narrator, Effy. At first, she seems like a typical college girl with typical college girl problems. However, the more we read, the more we realize there is more to Effy's story than what appears on the watery surface. The fantasy part of the book is slowly revealed as we learn the story of another girl, Angharad, the heroine of Effy's favorite novel. Effy shares her thoughts about and "memories" of the Fairy King, the same Fairy King from the novel, the same Fairy King she thinks is pursuing her. Effy seems uncertain if her experiences are real or not, leaving the reader in a perpetual state of cognitive dissonance. What is real in this book? What is imagined?

I enjoyed the the rivals-to-lovers relationship between Effy and Preston as they solve the mystery of who wrote Angharad, all the water (so much water in this book), and the uncertainty of Effy's mental state throughout.

If you like atmospheric gothic fantasy YA romances with possible fairy kings and crumbling watery mansions, this is the book for you!

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins Children's Books/HarperTeen for the advance digital arc in return for my honest review.

A Study in Drowning is, at its heart, a haunting examination of the mythology behind "great men" and the secrets that are kept and the stories that are buried, often at the expense of women or girls, in order to prop up our heroes.

The main character of A Study in Drowning is Effie, an architecture student who wanted to study literature, but was denied the chance due to being a woman. Effie is a lifelong admirer of Myrddin, the beloved national author of her country, Llyr (which is, essentially, a fantasy version of Wales). Llyrian people are known for being more superstitious and fanciful than their neighbors, the Argantians, and Effie believes in the Faerie King, a figure from Myrddin's epic work of fantasy fiction, Angharad. She has seen him, and believes in his truth, and in Myrddin's work she found a voice that echoed her own. When Effie is given the opportunity to design the renovations on the late Myrddin's estate, she jumps at the chance.

When she arrives, she finds a literature student there, Preston Heloury, who is determined to prove that Myrddin's works are a forgery, not written by Myrddin at all, but perhaps one of his associates. Although Effy is at first highly insulted that Preston, who is only half-Llyrian, dare question her hero, as strange happenings take place, and Myrddin's son, Ianto, shows a more predatory side, Effy herself begins to wonder. It is her connection with Preston, which is more respectful and genuine than what she experiences from her idol's son, that convinces Effy to join in his quest for the truth, even if it means the destruction of Myrddin's legacy. A Study in Drowning plays with the idea of subjective truth and whose stories get to be told, and by whom, in a very clever way. Effy is a girl who has often been written off as frivolous or hysterical. She takes medication to keep hallucinations at bay, and we are never quite sure if Effy's hallucinations are real, or not. Preston is the only person who tells her that regardless of whatever else, what matters is that she believes they are true, This applies equally to the faerie king, as to Effy's sexual assault by her professor, which is the subject of much gossip at their university. Preston never question's Effy's account, or causes her to question herself. A rare thing for Effy!

The ultimate reveal in A Study In Drowning is not surprising, although I do not think it was meant to be. Most readers will figure out the truth behind Angharad well before Preston and Effy do, but that does not make the reveal any less satisfying. The story of the victims of sexual assault and abuse is centered in A Study in Drowning. Effy and Angharad are both victims and the heroines of their own stories. As it turns out, these stories are not the stories of great men, but the stories of the women who survive them.

Ava Reid has an atmospheric and lyrical writing style that really brings the rotting old mansion, drenched in rain and seawater, to the forefront. A Study in Drowning is positively dripping with water imagery that evokes the catastrophic Drowning that sunk large portions of the lower coast of Llyr. It is a real pleasure to read. Although the book is listed as YA, the style and subject matter is quite mature, and certainly more of an upper YA book than lower.

“why was it always girls whose form could not be trusted? everything could be taken from them in an instant.”

a study in drowning is a beautifully eerie and gothic dark academia novel. it examines misogyny within academia, how women’s voices are constantly being diminished by the older, powerful men around them. how many ways can a woman’s voice be taken from her? it contemplates the relationship between author and reader, questioning who a book truly belongs to. it is also a beautifully sweet and tender romance between two academic rivals, effy and preston.

effy means so much to me. reading about her made me feel like i was reading about a younger version of myself. shy and anxious, always jumping between hiding inside myself or otherwise trying to find a way to escape it. though soft, she proves time and time again where there is softness there is also strength. survival is an act of bravery, too. she is a refreshingly vulnerable heroine.

a lyrical love story to those who were afraid to speak up. to those who have had their voices taken away from them time and time again by others as well as themselves. to those who have loved a book so fiercely that it became a part of them. a study in drowning has no doubt become one of my favorite young adult fantasies. it is raw and it is vulnerable. it is a mystery, a love story, and a fairy tale that challenges the confines of it’s genre. within this book is my heart.

a study in drowning comes out on september 19! thank you to netgalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review

A haunting story full of magic and heart. I was hooked from the very beginning. I loved falling so completely into the world Ava Reid created. I have nothing but good things to say about Ava Reid's newest release, so prepare for a review that's simply singing its praises. A Study in Drowning is a story about monsters, about the inescapable nature of the past, about trauma and healing, about how society looks at those who have been harmed by people in authority, about gender, and, layered among the others, it is a story about love. I adored following Effy and Preston through their journey as they learned about themselves and each other, about their agreements and disagreements, about all the things that kept them coming back together. I sobbed for Effy throughout her story, but nothing made me cry more than the ending and how deeply she deserved the light of it.

I really enjoyed reading this book. It had a good amount of suspense with some romance mixed in. It also had a lot of very unique themes that were interesting to read about. Would definitely recommend!

Ava Reid does NOT miss with atmosphere. Effy was an incredible main character from page 1, and the first few chapters, set at university, gave me five star vibes. I didn't like it quite as much once we got to the spooky manor setting, although it was still really well done.

I really liked the love interest as well here. Aside from the atmosphere, my favourite part was absolutely the way that Effy's past with sexual assault was handled. Everyone kept calling her beautiful and alluring, and she was so viscerally uncomfortable with so many things that happened to her but also saw them as unavoidable and normal, and it was heartbreaking and REAL.

DNFed at 30%.

This book just might not be for me. I loved the setting and the world building involved, but the characters kind of fell flat for me. I'm so happy that books tackle heavier subjects, which this book definitely does. However, one of the problems I had is that, outside of her trauma, Effy just didn't feel like a fleshed out character and then almost every other character in the book is a terrible human. Her roommate and her roommate's partner are the only ones who weren't immediately horrible. The love interest wasn't horrible, but they did have a enemies thing going on when they met. Maybe this gets explained later, but at where I am in the story, it was just too much.

Overall I have pretty mixed feelings on this book. Although I would consider it a good example of a well-done dark academia novel, it sometimes felt like the author was purposely letting the characters not see things for the sake of making the novel last longer than it would have otherwise. The worldbuilding was also a strange combination of exposition and just hoping you figure it out, which made the very beginning both boring and confusing– I wasn’t sure how much of a fantasy the novel was meant to be, which I guess could have also been representative of how the character saw reality, but it just didn’t work for me in particular.
However, the book really improved for me after the first part and I started to understand the world a bit better, and the characters were all well-fleshed out, and the way that the backstory of Effy was revealed, along with her motivations, was done perfectly. Also Ava Reid had the very difficult job of getting me to consider a white boy named Preston (seriously, that’s a horrible name for a literature scholar-type characters, he sounds like he owns boat shoes and goes to frat parties) a good love interest, and it worked, so that’s definitely something in the book’s favor.

So moody! I loved every bit of this. It gave me major Crimson Peak vibes and I was eating it up. Fairly quick read full of Lore, storms, faeries, ghosts, and so much more. This would be a perfect Autumn read. Ava Reid has a really lovely storytelling ability. Her books have a really nice balance of dark and light + fairytale vibes.
I wish some things were a little less predictable but overall it was a great read and a couple of the twists did take me by surprise!

I am all aboard the dark academia subgenre train and A Study in Drowning is one of the latest additions. I found this book a little difficult to rate. There were parts that I loved, the academic worldbuilding and Reid’s gothic atmospheric prose, and then there were parts that I disliked, the characters or found somewhat lacking, the rest of the worldbuilding.

A Study in Drowning, like the best of dark academia, follows our main character Effy’s obsessive study into the the Angharad, a literary epic written by a recently deceased national treasure. As she travels to the author’s ancestral home, ostensibly for architectural design reasons, but really to seek a closeness, a kinship to the Angharad, she finds herself embroiled in a web of secrets surrounding the book’s origins and the author’s history.

It’s clear that Reid has familiarity with scholarship around literature, because the academic world she builds up, in epigraphs and character discussions and in-text references surrounding the Angharad is incredibly comprehensive. We see the full scope of the history of this epic, in the way this text was regarded by both scholars and the average reader alike over time, the various interpretations of the text itself, and scholarly understanding of the demographics reading this book. The discussions around this book and how it relates to gender and culture of its larger world is delightfully nuanced, and perhaps one of my favorite parts of this book.

The rest of the worldbuilding, however, felt somewhat lacking. There was just enough to somewhat flesh out the scope of the story itself, but I felt like much was left untouched. There are vague notions of Effy’s country and its neighboring country at war, but the details aren’t mentioned beyond vague hints. Effy speaks of this war as a fight against this other invading country’s colonialist attempts to wipe out her own culture, but so little is actually described about the situation that it personally read more like two neighboring countries who’ve historically been in petty disputes driving up nationalist rhetoric to encourage the war effort, something Effy’s fully bought into. On an entirely personal level, from the tone of the writing and the overall atmosphere, this world doesn’t feel like it should have cars or telephones and it did, and that just felt off for me,

Reid’s prose, however, is a thing of beauty. Effy spends much of her time in the south, in an old, dilapated house at the cliff of a mountain against the ocean, one slowly falling apart from salt and rot. Reid somehow manages to mirror this oceanic rot and decay into the writing itself, painting beautiful Gothic imagery of Effy’s surroundings. The story itself, and the themes of academic abuse survivorship, intertwine perfectly with the tone that Reid sets.

My two main detractions from this book were the ending and Effy herself. A Study in Drowning has about an 80k wordcount and I really wish there were another 20k. The ending and the ‘final epiphany’ felt rushed and a little too sudden. I wish there had been a little more buildup and foreshadowing. Meanwhile, I found Effy herself a somewhat difficult character to follow. There’s clearly some intentional discomfort of being in Effy’s head as a sexual assault victim and the severe misogyny of this world, but even beyond that, I just found her to be a somewhat unpleasant character. Still the mysteries of the Angharad were excellent and I never lost immersion.

Overall, I rate this book a 4/5. While I had my dislikes, it hit all my favorite aspects of the dark academia genre. The academic worldbuilding, prose, and atmosphere were all top notch, and while I didn’t love the characters, I was sucked into the secrets they were uncovering.

A Study in Drowning is a moody, slow-burn mystical realism book about fairytales and idols, and what happens when reality is oh so different than you were led to believe. Effy believes in fairy tales, she has been seeing the Fairy King her entire life-so it makes sense that her favorite book is an epic about a girl who falls in love with the Fairy King, and what happens afterwards. But when she is invited to compete to design her idols house it seems like an impossible task, especially with Preston Heloury there hellbent on proving the author a fraud. As this unlikely duo works together to piece together clues as to the mysterious author's history, what they will find will change everything.

I really enjoyed the mood that this book inspired in me. It was lightly dark, mysterious and just the right amount of moody. There were a lot of moments that made me so angry and distinctly uncomfortable, without being too graphic. The author superbly wrote about anxiety. There were a lot of hard topics that she didn't shy away from. I really liked the basis of the story, even if I found the ending rather anticlimatic.

This is a slow moving book, so if you like things to be succinct and fast-paced this may not be for you. Check the content warnings if you know you have subjects that trigger you!

Overall, I enjoyed this book. It isn't a new favorite, but I'm happy to have been able to listen to it. The narrator does a wonderful job matching the moodiness of the story. YA fantasy lovers should definitely check this one out!

Really enjoyed this book, and I'm so thankful to the publisher and NetGalley for a digital ARC for review. Definitely recommend this when it comes out in September.

The main character is Effy, who wants to study literature but is unable to do so because the literature program does not accept women. So instead she enters the architecture program, even though she doesn't have any talent or skill in that direction. But it at least gets her a higher education. As the only woman in that program, she's dealt with a lot. So when she sees a notice about a competition to design a house for the widow and son of her absolute favorite writer, Emrys Myrddin, she jumps at the opportunity. And she wins the competition and goes off to visit the location and finish out her design.

Enter Preston, a literature student studying Emrys Myrddin, who has died six months prior. He's been sent by his professor to research and find primary documents (letters, journals, etc) from the estate for their academic work.

Effy discovers that things are not at all what she expected, including Preston, and the two of them must work together to figure out what is going on.

Partly dark academia (vibes), a bit rivals to lovers, and lots of creepy vibes and involvement with myths and stories.

There is a big mystery that the two characters are trying to solve, and although the answer doesn't come to them until late in the story, the reader figures it out pretty quickly. And that might seem like a problem with the book--that the answer seems so obvious that it is annoying that the characters can't figure it out. But I'd argue that the mystery being "easy" to solve is part of the point.

First, this book is not a mystery, so the solution is not the point of the book. Really it's a lot about "truth" and women being believed and mental health when it's not taken seriously. So the focus is on the theme, not the mystery. And the fact that the answer is "easy" for the reader but extremely difficult for the characters to realize further emphasizes the point about truth and women's stories. It's quite masterfully done, I think.

Other themes:
"Survival is bravery" -- there's not just one way to be brave
"drowning" -- the book really delves into many different meanings and ways of looking at what it means to be drowing

Thank you to NetGalley, Ava, HarperCollins, and everyone else involved in allowing me to read an advanced copy of this book. Truly, I am grateful.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 for me!

My thoughts:

This is a hauntingly beautiful tale, told with all the trappings of a fairytale, wrapped in the deep mists of gothic romance, and a more modern dark academia aesthetic. Mystery, fantasy, and horror themes come through in a beautifully woven plot. The sea brine creeps in on you like rust and mildew... The atmosphere Ava creates is dense and immersive, giving the reader a real sense of this world.

This book made me cry many different kinds of tears. I am preordering a physical copy asap.

This book explores themes of power, loss of control, voice, escapism, facing hatred and scorn, trauma, and finding strength in survivorship. Where does reality end and fantasy begin, and what does your definition of those things do to change you?

This book is heart-rending and deeply romantic. I loved this. One of the best books I've read this year. I might need to unpack some trauma with a therapist after this book.

Ava delivers another amazing story, and in this last year has become one of my favorite authors.

This is such an amazing fantasy with dark academia and gothic paranormal thriller vibes! The setting in a crumbling house on the edge of a soon-to-be-drowned landscape was the perfect background for this stunning and melancholic read! The setting puts you on edge as the main characters worked through the mystery and reluctantly began working together. I also loved the feminist themes and how clever Effy is throughout the book. This is the first book I have picked up by Ava Reid, and I will have to pick up her other books soon! Her writing style is gorgeous, and I really enjoyed this book!

Thank you to Netgalley and HarperTeen for this ARC in exchange for my honest review!

3.5⭐️

Content warning: Sexual Assault, Bullying, Sexism, Classism, Child Abandonment, Gun Violence. (Also a child treated as mentally I’ll when they aren’t)

A Study in Drowning is the YA Fantasy child of Emily Wildes Encyclopedia of Faeries and Divine Rivals. This novel is a stand-alone and is 3rd person pov. It takes place in a fictional world similar to the 1930-50s time period.

I really did have a fun time reading this and didn’t want to put it down towards the end, but I also had some problems with it. The synopsis sounded like way too much going on, but I actually think it was all tied together nicely in the end.

Writing Style: I’ll be honest, the first 50 pages was painful to get through and I don’t know why it felt so different from the rest of the novel. In the first fifty pages, the writing style is choppy, it’s telling and not showing, and I couldn’t figure out the setting. But I didn’t have any of those problems in the rest of the novel.

Characters: Effy’s prejudice to Argantians was incredibly annoying and I didn’t like the way it was handled. (For background, Argantian is the neighboring country that is at war with Effy’s country, and it’s where the LI is from). Effy said just absolutely disgusting things to the LI, barely apologized, and never really checked her prejudice as a whole. It was more of a “oh I met this one Argantian who isn’t that bad, oops” but her thoughts towards the nation as a whole are never held accountable.

Romance: I also felt that their relationship could’ve been developed more, or that the pacing could’ve been better. This was described as rivals to lovers but the rival part is very one sided and is just rooted in Effy’s prejudice. This story is also not romance focused.

Plot: As for the plot, it was fun to read and I wasn’t sure till the end if it was going to be happy or sad or a cliffhanger, but I did have the plot twist figured out at 60% so I wish it had been a little bit more held back from the reader.

As far as diversity/ rep goes, I believe everyone in this novel was white? There wasn’t anything that led me to believe otherwise, unless I missed some description. There is one sapphic side couple, that gets maybe three pages of time.

Overall, despite the issues, I still enjoyed this book and the gothic setting was definitely there. I was reading this with the light on because something about the depiction of the Fairy King really got to me.

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperTeen for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

First this book is stunning. It was my most anticipated of the year and it did not let me down. There are so many beautiful quotes, moments, and sentiments in this book and I loved every minute of it. While I did guess one of the ultimate reveals, instead of being annoyed I felt vindicated.

I am not 100% sold on this being a YA book (and I believe it's actually being published as adult in the UK which makes more sense) but I can see teens enjoying this one - and I think that there are some really good lessons and takeaways for teen girls specifically.

A Study in Drowning, the stunning young adult debut by Ava Reid, plunges you into a dark academia fantasy where a reader's obsession with her beloved author leads her to uncover the truth behind his work and how that relates to her own past, present and the nightmares she has of the monster in her favorite book.

Genuinely, the prose in this is stunning and I really loved Reid’s character work, parallelism and the lore she created for the novel.

My one wish is perhaps that there would have been a map at the front just because I wanted to be able to visualize how far people were traveling but since I got a digital advanced reader copy it’s possible that will be included in the final publication!

Easy 5/5 stars!

Thank you to Netgalley, the author, and the publishers for this ARC! So sorry it took so long to give a review, I wrote a review but I guess it didn't submit properly.

This book is stunning and the first book I have ever read by Ava Reid and I am blown away. Her writing was beautiful and I kept wanting to keep turning the page of this book. This book is a must read for everyone and one of my favorites of 2023 and I am so excited for this book to come out because once it does I am going to get a physical copy of the book.