I loved this! I can't wait for the sequel. The world building is so complete and interesting. I felt as though I were there. It absolutely lives up to the hype!

Full review and links to social will be posted as soon as possible.

I'd like to thank the publisher HarperCollins and Netgalley for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

Initially, I had a hard time getting into the book because of the main character. She seemed very whimsy. However, the more I read, the more I started to understand her. I did like the world-building! I also loved the slow enemies to lovers romance! I recommend this for fans of Margery Rogerson!

I finished A Study in Drowning recently and it's such a powerful book. It's a story about stories and truth, about power and women reclaiming theirs after it's been taken from them. The beginning and ending are so strong, so unforgettable. I really enjoyed this one, though I felt the middle loses itself a little with pacing and plot.

There's a romance, but it strengthens the story and the main character, Effy. It was beautiful to see her find a man who supported her without question, who insisted on advocating for her when no one else would. This book will both enrage and engage you, because of the way Effy and other women are treated. But the message is so beautiful.

I urge you to look up content warnings prior to picking this up.

This book took a much different turn than I was expecting, but WOW! Once I got past the first few chapters of setup, I couldn't put it down. I will say that this is one to read closely, as the small details might be missed if you're not paying attention--but it's worth the extra care and time to understand how and why Effy and Preson's story unfolds as it does.

***Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher for providing me with a digital copy of this book to review.***

I think I'll be trying to refind the high I got from reading this book for awhile. There are some questions I have about it that begs for a sequel, but I know this will be a great read for YA or adults alike.

I have loved Reid's previously published adult books and found this first foray into young adult books to also be excellent. I look forward to recommending it to readers.

I’m not a huge fan of why, but I love Ava‘s writing and this book was so fun! It was very whimsical and just a great adventure. I’m excited for the sequel.

A stunning YA debut! A Study in Drowning is a haunting narrative about the power of art in our lives. The prose is lush and atmospheric. The story is gothic with elements such as the isolated manor, mystery and suspense, and a girl who is haunted in different ways. Effy as a character was compelling and I resonated with her experiences. She has suffered at the hands of the institution she attends and her family isn’t that great either. Preston is a great love interest and I loved his character. The trajectory of the story was great and well paced. This is a great dark academia that tackles devotion to art and how stories bring comfort when no one else can. Beyond that this is a narrative that asks us to critically engage with the art we consume even if it brings joy, solace, and comfort. Even though this book doesn’t take place in the college which might deter lovers of the school setting the elements of dark academia are present like the gothic elements, obsession, mystery, and the ugliness of academia along with how it affects or even traumatizes a person.
As the author asks to engage with literature in a critical manner, I want to detail a few aspects of the story that fell short for me. I do think that there needed to be more moments in which Effy unpacked a lot of her opinions about Preston’s heritage. It is my hope that this will be explored more in the sequel. Also, I wish Effy would have been in the Literature college from the beginning. It would have felt more like they were academic rivals because the dynamic was presented that way but it was more of a fan versus a scholar.

All of this being said, I highly enjoyed this novel and am excited for its sequel!

This fantasy book was so good! I loved the Fairy King storyline. And the house was just like another character in the book! What a chilling portrayal. So good!

this book really did feel like it had potential but the world building was just too confusing for me to follow and the fantastical aspect just complicated it for me. would i have liked it better if the book focused more on developing the characters and the central plot? perhaps.

i will say, i was intrigued by how the author portrayed the more deeper themes of this book, primarily the effects of trauma on mental health and the struggle of women in male dominated fields. it was definitely heavier than i anticipated it to be in terms of the topics discussed.

however, it was difficult to be in the mind of our main protagonist Effy, because of the lack of connection i felt to her character as a whole. she felt very passive and constantly let things happen to her over and over again (in reference to some minuscule incidents where she’d let people walk all over her) and it’s difficult to root for a character like that when it happens repeatedly.

the book is also very slow paced, more than i’m particularly used to and pushed the boundaries of what i usually enjoy reading.

overall, i don’t entirely think it will one i come back to but i would love to try out another one of this author’s books.

Really this review is the result of a gap between the material and my expectations. I was expecting a more adult book, as her others have been, and this is closer to YA. While I love a lot of the material, characters, and plot, I wish they were more developed. I wanted a depth I didn't get there. This is a conflict between one who believes in fairy tales, and one determined to debunk them. A rivals to romance Gothic mystery, this ventures into Dark Academia.

I thought this was really cute and devastatingly sad. It a tale as old as time of women being manipulated and taken advantage of. While the tangible antagonist is the faerie king, most of the men in this story are no better -- trying to overwrite or squeeze everything they can from the women of this society which many women can relate to.

It's not too terribly complex, but the poetry in it is beautiful and quotable.

Quick read. Easy to get through.

I enjoyed this well enough, but thought the writing could have been better. Will still purchase for my teen readers, as I think they'd enjoy the concept and atmosphere.

This book was such a pleasant surprise.
It's more than just a Dark Academia book, more than a romance. It's about women surviving, it's about breaking the silence, it's about monsters and women slaying them.

This story was such an incredible one. I wanted to read the books Effie and Preston were reading. And what a powerful move by the author, when you want to study the history and the books the characters are enjoying.

The parallels between the stories and what is reel was incredible. There were parts I didn't know anymore what I shoul believe, what was true. But in the end, monsters are monsters and monsters are real.

And Effie ! I loved her so damn much. She's an amazing character that went through so much in her life. And she learned to survive through stories and there isn't something more relatable to readers than that.

Which readers haven't found solace in a book ?

Finally, read this if you love :

✨ Dark Academia ;
✨ Folklore, Fae ;
✨ The power of stories ;
✨ Romance ;
✨ Book about books ;
✨ Surviving.

Enemies to lovers is tough because it’s really easy to make one of the characters an actual villain if the author isn’t careful. And. I’ve gotta say Reid was not careful. Effy is a xenophobic hypocrite and I didn’t want good things for her. Preston was… have you ever had really cheap white bread that went stale? He could have literally been anyone!

Overall I think there were *some* okay aspects to the book - I think it fits well into the gothic genre, and Reid does an adequate job with descriptions (if some of the prose veers into purple, that is the least of the sins). If she didn’t have characters who were, at my most generous, deeply boring and, at my least generous, actively hateful that the reader was supposed to believe both fell in love with each other and deserved the final reward of love? I still wouldn’t have liked the book (it was so boring), but I wouldn’t be texting all my friends who have this on their “want to read” shelf like “hey girl. Let me tell you about this book.”

REVIEW✨
A Study in Drowning
By Ava Reid
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I have some mixed emotions about this book, I loved the vibe and the gothic/dark academia feel to it. It deals with the sexism in academia, dark academia vibes of a house rotting on a cliff, the main character is dealing with SA, and the way that the main character deals with her drama was very beautiful. But I had a hard time connecting with the plot and some of the characters didn’t make sense to me.

Romance: ❤️
Plot points: 💥💥💥
Stars: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Ava Reid is a master class in literature. I loved this world, the characters, and everything about this story. I wouldn't change a thing.

This was a unique tail that I was surprised at how much I liked. Ava was able to capture an almost dystopian like five and an end of the world vibe with how she concocted the study and drowning story. I enjoyed the main character a lot and I thought that the main female was kind of witty, but also a unique twist on being more intellectual than a fighter. I liked all of those surprises that she threw into the story. And I really enjoyed the resolution of the flood and the drowning system, and the whole prophecy that the story was based on.

Absolutely obsessed with this book that I've read it a few times. I thought I already made my review and I apologize that it wasn't posted here. After reading it the first time, I made my book club read it and it was so interesting to hear the different perspectives and people share things that I missed. I have bought three editions of this book physically and I do think it's going to be added to my yearly re-read list.

I absolutely loved the book and it’s probably one of the better ones that I’ve read in a while. I have PTSD and the drowning metaphors didn’t seem like too much for me personally because I could fully understand each one and the moment. This book had me feeling her anxiety with her and the last few chapters kept bringing me to tears. I love stories that bring out my emotions.

The little pre chapter snippet for chapter 8 is when I caught on to a twist, I just didn't get it exact!

I loved Preston from the start and how he was always trying to be respectful of her and her space. Learning later (*SMALL SPOILER*) that ~of course~ he knew about the rumors made me love him more.

Effy grew on me throughout the book. She couldn’t even handle a man talking to her or being in the same space at the start of the book until Preston. It felt like she didn’t even have the same skittishness with him at all and that hit. As someone with PTSD, I remember feeling so weird that I had no negative feelings about my husband when I met him for the first time which was SO different than most men I meet for the first time. I’m glad she fought for herself by the end of the book.

I will say, the butler annoyed me. I could never tell whose side he was on/who he cared about. Did he know? Why didn’t he warn them at all? He literally just bounced and never came back. I couldn’t even tell if the bit about him at the end meant he was back around and had helped Angharad get set up or if she just meant he did all that after her husband passed.

I really appreciated the in world magic and was so satisfied with how this book ended.