Rating: 3.5 ⭐️

Altogether, A Theory of Dreaming is an enjoyable read! It picks up at the end of A Study in Drowning. Preston and Effy are now back at school and Effy is starting at the literature college. They are both having their own struggles: Effy, in a university that doesn't value her and Preston, in a country that doesn't value him.

A Theory of Dreaming has that same witchy-briny aura of the first and feels like an organic continuation of the original storyline. This book has interesting atmosphere and politics and theming, however, some parts didn't feel fully realized. Both this book and the first revolve around some great work of Llyrian literature. However, in this one, I found that aspect to be less impactful. In A Study in Drowning, the reveal of the true authorship of Angharad is so important because of what it means to Effy. This version felt a little more disconnected. I also found parts of Preston's storyline, especially his "dreaming," to feel a bit disconnected from the rest of the story. What happened in his dreamscape, or even its very existence, didn't feel overly important.

However, this is still a good sequel with some great characters and a great setting. It continues some important plot lines from the first. One, being Effy and Preston's relationship. It continues the Llyrian-Argantian conflict and what that means to Preston, being Argantian. It shows the realities of Effy's acceptance into the literature college and the difficulties she faces being the only woman. It also continues the narrative about female authorship of literature. The addition of this book lends these storylines a more complete, well-rounded conclusion.

For anyone who enjoyed A Study in Drowning, I would definitely recommend that you continue the series!

Thank you to Netgalley and HarperCollins for providing me early access to A Theory of Dreaming in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
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Pre-read:
Already requested on NetGalley. You best BELIEVE I’m getting my hands on this.

EDIT: GUESS WHO GOT APPROVED!!!!!!

A theory of dreaming? How about a theory of devastation 😭😭😭😭😭😭

Ava Reid wow. I’m emotional. I am unsure how to recover from this sequel.

With no trigger warning page, I recommend everyone look up if you have big triggers lol.

This book followed Effy and Preston as they navigate the harsh realities of coming back to school after their semester away in a study in drowning. There’s a lot of miscommunication and a lot of depression surrounding this story as they face racism, a looming war, lies all around them, and hard to explain magic. As two very young characters, it was refreshing and heartbreaking to see them absolutely crack under the pressure.

Finally this story touches on the difference between finding solace and safety in dreaming and the courage to live. Many people have been pushed to dream only due to their circumstances.


THE WRITING IN THIS BOOK CHANGED MY BRAIN CHEMISTRY:
- There is only so much any mind can endure before it must reject reality. Before it must reject wisdom and reason. I have always found my fragments of freedom in fantasy. It has served me better than any shield or sword, and certainly better than any of the laws of men.
- The only inevitability of our existence is death. I wish I did not carry this knowledge at only age fourteen. I can only imagine that it will get heavier and heavier as I grow old.
- Because reality is too much to bear. Because everything else is too fragile, too changeable, too frightening. Because I have no power there.
- The man who I thought had saved me was in truth the one who had caged me. With that epiphany, I drifted and was lost. There is no bleaker darkness than that found when the light of love is snuffed out.
- Does grief alter one’s spirit, or does it merely reveal one’s fundamental nature?
- “I thought I could do it.” A small, choked breath. “I thought I was strong enough to survive all of this. Anyone else could. There’s just something wrong with me. Something that can’t be fixed.”
-“And you are strong. You’re stronger than anyone I know. It’s not a fault, to be in pain. It’s braver to hurt than to feel nothing at all.”

This one was alright. It was fun seeing Preston’s POV. A lot of misogyny in this one too and I felt it was a little too close to the storyline in A Study in Drowning. And poor Effy. She has had a hard life. I hope her and Preston live a HEA.

This was one of my most anticipated reads of 2025, and it absolutely lived up to my expectations.

A Study in Drowning is such a unique, atmospheric book that is a cross between dark academia, thriller and cozy fantasy in a way that made me nervous as to how the second book would replicate that. Ava, my dear, I’m so sorry I ever doubted you.

A Theory in Dreaming takes all of those elements and cranks them up a notch with the college setting, new fantasy elements, darker themes and personal struggles. And socio-political struggles that make this book such a multi-faceted expansion of the amazing groundwork laid by ASID.

what a perfect and emotional and devastating and healing sequel. I fear I am NEVER moving on 🫠😭❤️‍🩹 A Study In Drowning leaves you with a lot of questions. The bells? The controversial thesis? The war between Llyr and Argant? Yet, it still felt like a complete book so I was hesitant about the sequel but guys, IT WAS EVERYTHING AND MORE!!!!!!! 🥹

First, I’d love to talk about Effy Sayre. Effy is such a complex character. I relate so deeply to her want for escapism, for things to stop hurting, not really knowing why your brain works the way it does. I think Ava Reid does an amazing job of portraying mental health struggles. Effy’s journey of acclimating to her new role at college while also dealing with the aftermath of the events of the first book really take a toll on her, more so than in ASID, and it is portrayed so realistic. Effy is a character I will tuck deeply into my heart and never ever let go of. NEW SOUL CHATACTER UNLOCKED!!!! 🫂

Then, Preston! MY LOVER BOY! Some of the quotes that came out of this man’s mouth??? ENGRAVED INTO MY BRAIN! But apart from being a secret romantic, I loved being in his POV and following along on his journey. He deals with so much when he gets back—Master Gosse and the mystery project, the ongoing war, societal prejudices, xenophobia, grief, and being there for Effy. His struggle of believing and giving into magic vs. refusing it, and the portrayal of magic as a form of escapism was a central theme to this book and to Preston’s arc, and I loved how hesitant yet courageous he was.

The romance in this book was EVERYTHING. There is so much love and devotion and consideration between these two to the point where they’d do anything if it meant the other person was happy and safe. All of their obstacles felt right for the story. By the end, it’s impossible to not believe in their love and adoration for each other because you have seen it stand through so many difficulties. I! LOVE!!! THEM!!!!

A Theory Of Dreaming dives deeper into the issues and politics of academia, the media and its power, and the beliefs people hold on to push aside the harsh realities. It does this not just with Preston and Effy, but in a bigger scale with the university and the Sleeper Museum. It was powerful and important and felt so right for the big picture of the story.

Overall, saying goodbye to this story and these characters feels unthinkable. I am in AWE of Ava Reid and her mind. I will protect Effy at all costs and I love Preston with my entire heart. GO READ THIS!!!!!!!😭

The magical sequel to ‘A Study in Drowning’!Im not going to go into more details, cause spoilers ✨
For a book that wasn’t going to exist at first, I found that Reid did such a good job with her characters and the story. The book was just as magical as the first, and brought the same energy. I absolutely loved reading Effy and Preston’s adventure continue and their love story flourish. I’m so happy that Reid decided to write the last book in this duology, it was amazing and I know people are going to love it!
Thank you Harper Collin’s and NetGalley for an eARC of this book!

Wow such an amazing book. I loved the characters and the story line and it didn’t have the second book curse which made me so happy. So happy I got to read this book thank you thank you

<b> Thank you NetGalley and HarperCollins for approving me for the ARC!!! I LOVE <i> A Study in Drowning </i> and couldn’t wait to finish this duology!! </b>
<blockquote> There are <u> SO MANY </u> quotes I want to include in this review, but since this book isn’t published yet I’ll have to refrain until publishing day, which is <b><u> AUGUST 5th!! </b></u></blockquote>
Ava Reid’s ‘A Study in Drowning’ was an amazing read, one that will be considered a top tier book on my shelf. As much as I loved this book and its poetry, I feel like it lacked elements that the first book was drenched in. I feel like there was no real definitive resolution at the end, and maybe that’s just me being dissatisfied with real world issues, but in my fantasy books I’d at least like them to go away (men).

Effy faces some serious mental struggles, and I do like the way Ava Reid broached these issues, especially given this is a teens book, but I think it Effy’s situation should have been given more attention. Nothing truly changes for her, and I feel it’s implied Effy will go down this path again, which is something that’s ok to admit in adult books, but maybe not in one meant for teens?

<b> I loved how this book is about Preston’s POV!! </b> This book highlighted his struggles with nationality, and having to make every decision with that political unrest on his mind.

<b><u> This book feels like a second book in a series, not the end of a duology. I really hope Ava Reid feels this way too and can continue this series, perhaps even highlighting the side characters who I would love to hear more from! </b></u>

And I thought the story was over but Ava Reid proved me wrong and wrote a very enjoyable sequel to my favorite book by her.
I can’t wait to get a physical copy 🫶🏻

Wow! What a wonderful sequel to a study in drowning.
I was hoping for more magic but this book offers more character perceptive and focus on them, especially Preston. I thought there was a bit of lack of growth between their relationship overall when it could have been more development in their relationship.
I would say ASID was better than this but I still overall enjoyed it! I will be planning on grabbing the special edition to match by current copy of ASID. I’ll be recommending it as well. I think this book just was more of a filler feeling compared to ASID, which was still enjoyable, but felt overall lackluster and impactful in the end.
I will still be recommending this though! Especially for lovers of Ava Reid.

It felt so good to be back in the world of ASID. I was expecting more magic, dreams, and folklore, but was confronted with the harsh truths of their realities and their own reasons to escape through dreams and sleep. I expected Effy to be the main source of magic, but it was Preston's turn to be faced with a new alluring dreamscape reality. You get a lot more detail and world building with the political climate unfolding around them, as well as a taste of what female scholars and writers face in their academic world.

Ava Reid continue this story with her beautiful prose. The first half of this book had me in it's grasp but unfortunately lost me at about 50% through. I was satisfied with the ending. I felt like both our main characters were not acting like themselves and it felt disingenuous. I very much enjoyed A Study of Drowning and will continue to read works by this author.

Sequels are always hit-or-miss for me. I'm sad to report that A Theory of Dreaming didn't make the same impression its predecessor did. Writing this review is giving me flashbacks to when I finished Foul Lady Fortune, another series whose first book I raved about endlessly. My thoughts are exactly the same. In short, the first book was better.

The elements that I loved most about A Study In Drowning were absent in the sequel. I didn't fully realize the magnetic pull of the Fairy King until I read a story without him.

As a whole, this book is more about character development than adventure. Reid takes the time to delve into the effects of the political conflict on Preston and Effy's mental health. (I want to clarify that there is nothing wrong with concentrating on character development. In fact, I think that it makes sense to focus on who exactly are Preston and Effy considering that this is the sequel. However, character-driven books aren't my preference so this wasn't an immediate favorite for me.)

While I sorely missed the mystery surround Hiraeth Manor, I am such a fan of the mental health representation, mainly the fact that Effy's mental health didn't magically improve following A Study In Drowning's happy ending. Love doesn't cure all and I am so pleased to see that depicted in YA literature.

Even though I didn't love A Theory of Dreaming as much, I don't regret having read this. I am satisfied having seen Effy and Preston's stories through. They remain two of my favorite fictional characters.

Bottom line: I remain blown away by Reid's writing.

3.5/5 stars
Recommended if you like: dark academia, Gothic vibes, fairytales, stories

This review has been posted to Goodreads as of 1/21 and will be posted to my review blog on 3/27 and to Instagram on 3/14.

TW: depression, suicide attempt
Well that wasn't horribly depressing or anything. If you're someone who struggles with their mental health, I would definitely recommend reading both TWs prior to reading this book. I read and liked Study well enough and so was expecting some level of mental health themes in this book, but was caught completely unaware at the depth of what this book discussed. And honestly? It did put me in a funk for a couple of days after reading.

This is one of those situations where a standalone should have been left as a standalone. There were definitely still questions at the end of A Study in Drowning, but overall I think the story was neatly tied up and didn't necessarily need an addition. At the end of Study, Effy and Preston discovered the truth about Angharad and are writing a paper on the subject revealing all they know and on top of that they've vanquished some enemies and have gotten together. Whatever I felt about it when reading the book initially, I have to say that that's a pretty solid ending.

But then this book comes along and opens up a whole can of worms about what it's like for them once they get back to the university and the aftermath of their paper (which, from what I can tell, hasn't even been published yet?!). The plot of this book simply did not exist in my opinion. One of my issues with Study was that it moved pretty slowly, but I really loved the mystery author concept and was invested in finding the truth. In this book, Preston seems to be running around with his advisor trying to figure stuff out about magic, despite his not believing in it, while Effy suffers through misogyny and smear campaigns. Book 1 had the emotional payoff of the characters discovering/overcoming something, but this book lacks that payoff and even when the characters overcame something, it didn't really pack a punch.

This book had the potential to be super interesting. The war with Argant is still going on, but morale is down with the news about Angharad. As a result, both the university and the country begin campaigning pretty hard for a 'national story' and to boost what is, essentially, nationalism. I think this is a super interesting setup and there are so many directions this book could have gone in with those themes. Alas, these elements were largely brushed aside in favor of what Effy and Preston were doing, which was a whole lot of nothing. Preston in particular, I think, had a good setup for this since he's half-Argantian and half-Llyrian and in fact we do start to see him exploring these themes toward the end of the book. I just really think the ball got dropped in regard to the most interesting part of the story. I would have loved to see Preston exploring literary heroes and 'national stories' and what that means considering what he discovered in Study and what he discovered here. But his literary discoveries here really take a backburner, which I think is a shame.

Since this is meant to be 'Preston's story,' I'll start with him. As mentioned, I think there was a really nice setup there for him to explore interesting literary concepts and their applications in the story's world. However, instead of doing this, he spent most of his time with his advisor working out the magic of 'dreaming' (hence the title). His advisor is interested in the Sleepers and the magical state they seem to be stuck in, and that (for some reason) is the direction their research goes. This direction does actually have the potential to be interesting as well considering Preston doesn't believe in magic but also is the one who heard the bells at the end of Study. But honestly I didn't find his research and activities in this area all that interesting. Like I mention above, there's little emotional payoff from his discoveries and so I found it difficult to invest. There was little pressure on Preston to change and frankly he doesn't really change that much, so it was hard to feel engaged.

Effy has a lot of changes going on in her life, such as now being the first female literary student at the college. This is her dream, though she knows it'll come with challenges, and she's determined to go into it confident and prove herself. Unfortunately, she faces much of the same problems she did in the architecture school, made even worse by the media's interest in her and a smear campaign against her. I really wish we could've seen that confidence carry through to more of the book, unfortunately, in the face of everything, Effy does lose confidence pretty quickly. Something that I did think was interesting was how Effy dealt with the loss of the Fairy King. While there were bad things associated with him, he was also a lifeline for Effy when things got rough. With that magic gone, she really struggled with grounding herself, or escaping, when things got tough. Unfortunately, Effy begins spiraling into a depression pretty early on in this book so, like with Preston, we don't really get to explore this concept as much as I would have liked. I did think Effy was going to have something else going on with Lord Ardor's poetry. Again though, while there was something there that was interesting, and really could have turned into an interesting discussion on literature and labor and who gets the credit, Reid again chooses turn away from this and let it kind of float away.

A lot of Effy's story in this book deals with her depression. She becomes very, very depressed as a result of the things mentioned above, and thus exhibits a lot of the classic signs and symptoms of major depressive disorder. Her friend Rhia seems concerned, and so does Preston...but somehow Preston magically fails to notice when she stops going to class for weeks on end despite knowing she's struggling. How exactly does that work? 'Sorry honey, I thought you were pillows under the blanket, I didn't realize you were still in bed?' Or was it more, he got wrapped up with his advisor and didn't see her for weeks on end? Like...what was the deal with that.

The ending of this book was not nearly as satisfying as the ending of Study and overall I think the lack of emotional follow-through for the discoveries in this book combined with the fact Reid introduced but didn't follow up on interesting plot points in favor of boring ones leads me to rating this book lower than A Study in Drowning, which I already had mixed feelings on.

Wow! This was such a great sequel! Effy and Preston's love is just beautiful and I was so glad to be back in that world. I can't wait to get my hands on a physical copy when this comes out! It's currently planned to come out Aug 5th and there will be a matching deluxe edition to the first one!!! So excited! Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher for my digital ARC!!!

A hauntingly tragic descent into the comfort of dreams offers opportunity beyond compare but is it peace or madness that will find you if you overstay your welcome?

Returning to the world of looming war and acedemia Preston and Eddy return to school with hungry eyes eager to disprove their thesis when a new study threatens to unlock the secret of the bells ringing in Preston’s ears but it may cost him all that he loves most.

When I read the first book it felt as though you were stepping into the sea soaked rot of a once beloved fairytale now standing as a reminder for what can be taken from you and here with book two it felt like what happens when depression and self doubt burrow deep in the psyche threatening to keep you chained to those fears.

Both Preston and Effy are not without their doubts and anxieties and while stronger together it was sad to see how you could drift while being in the same room. This felt more like Preston’s journey for me though both suffer great losses and take hits in their self worth I think him having to understand who he is at his core when faced with opposition and the ease of disappearing into nothing can be tempting even to those with the best intentions. And Effy my sweetest darling I adore her softness but man do I wish to see her break some noses (she does not).

The only thing I wish came from this and maybe it’s because I felt such a strong connection to the literary mystery side of the first book is that we tease so much of it here with Effy’s new obsession and due to other events it sort of fades away just when I was expecting a horrid secret to be revealed which was a bit anticlimactic.

I enjoy these books in a way that rings close to how I feel for Erin A Craig in that kind of ghostly beckoning to follow when you know you must not but find yourself following anyway.

**special thanks to the publishers and netgalley for providing an arc in exchange for a fair and honest review**

This duology is just special. I was a little skeptical going in because truly, I do not find myself enjoying “dark academia” books HOWEVER… i ate this one up. This story is so magical and I love Preston and Effy so much.

This truly is a book that makes you feel whimsical and I cannot recommend it enough

Lotto DID steal the show for me though :)

A theory of Dreaming is a beautifully written book. This book was more character focused than ASID with the focus on Preston. Although it was really nice to read a book that was from his pov I felt like there was basically no interaction between him and Effy that would suggest their relationship growing. There were so much secret keeping between the two of them... I loved that this book had more of the dark academia vibes than the first one. Overall enjoyed this book and the ending to this duology.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with this eARC.

I had such high expectations for this book and that was my fault. This was a good sequel but I feel like it was lacking the spark the first one had.

A Theory of Dreaming picks up where A Study in Drowning left off. The Fairy King has been defeated and Effy and Preston have returned to the university to find themselves dealing with new challenges.

The writing style of A Theory of Dreaming follows the same dark academia vibes found in A Study in Drowning. If you loved A Study in Drowning, I think you’d enjoy this one as well. If you moderately enjoyed A Study in Drowning, this could be hit or miss for you.

This book moved at a slower pace. The characters are distant with each other as they deal with the trauma resulting from the first book. It also felt like I was struggling to find the plot. For those reasons I dnf’d this book. I may try reading this again in the future so probably a soft dnf.