Format: Hardcover, 384 pages
Release Date: September 19, 2023
Publisher: HarperTeen
Source: Publisher
Genre: Young Adult / Fantasy / Historical
Bestselling author Ava Reid makes her YA debut in this haunting stand-alone dark academic fantasy, perfect for fans of Melissa Albert and Erin A. Craig.
Effy Sayre has always believed in fairy tales. She’s had no choice.
Since childhood, she’s been haunted by visions of the Fairy King. She’s
found solace only in the pages of Angharad—author Emrys
Myrddin’s beloved epic about a mortal girl who falls in love with the
Fairy King and then destroys him. Effy’s tattered, dog-eared copy is all
that’s keeping her afloat at Llyr’s prestigious architecture college.
So when Myrddin’s family announces a contest to redesign the late
author’s estate, Effy feels certain this is her destiny.
But
Hiraeth Manor is an impossible task: a musty, decrepit house on the
brink of crumbling into a hungry sea. And when Effy arrives, someone
else has already made a temporary home there. Preston Héloury, a stodgy
young literature scholar, is studying Myrddin’s papers and is determined
to prove her favorite author is a fraud. As the two rivals piece
together clues about the reclusive author’s legacy, dark forces, both
mortal and magical, conspire against them—and the truth may bring them
both to ruin.
Ava Reid's A Study in Drowning is part historical fantasy, part rivals-to-lovers
romance, part Gothic mystery, and all haunting, dreamlike atmosphere. Reid's powerful YA debut is also an unflinching indictment of
institutions that sacrifice young girls on the altar of men’s “genius”
and a gripping read that will stay with you long after its final page. Set in a historical fantasy world inspired by early twentieth-century
Wales, this novel reinterprets the Fair Folk in the guise of a brooding
and sinister Fairy King.
Effy Sayre is a survivor who believes in the Fairy
King while everyone around her dismisses the stories as rural
superstition. Effy has always believed in fairy tales. She’s had no choice.
Since childhood, she’s been haunted by visions of the Fairy King who she believes she met after her mother temporarily abandoned her like parents normally do to changelings. She’s
found solace only in the pages of Angharad; author Emrys
Myrddin’s beloved epic about a mortal girl who falls in love with the
Fairy King and then destroys him.
Effy’s tattered, dog-eared copy is all
that’s keeping her afloat at Llyr’s prestigious architecture college. So when Myrddin’s family announces a contest to redesign the late
author’s estate, Effy feels certain this is her destiny. But
Hiraeth Manor is an impossible task: a musty, decrepit house on the
brink of crumbling into a hungry sea. And when Effy arrives, someone
else has already made a temporary home there. Preston Héloury, a stodgy
young literature scholar, is studying Myrddin’s papers and is determined
to prove her favorite author is a fraud.
When Effy and Preston go head-to-head over Emrys
Myrddin's papers, sparks fly instantly—much to their mutual chagrin. As
they investigate side by side and trust and affection bloom between
them, they become a pair readers will absolutely fall in love with. Through its historical fantasy lens, this novel touches
on complex topics such as sexual assault and coercion, depression, and
institutional sexism. As Effy struggles with a feeling of disconnection
from her life and grows into greater confidence, she develops
relationship skills, self-awareness, self-management, and responsible
decision-making.
Over the course of the novel, Effy faces dark forces and
darker truths and will answer once and for all the question of whether
magic is real or something that only haunts her nightmares. By helping Preston dig into the truth about the author of her favorite book, she may be on the road to immortality. Ava renders the crumbling, sea-sprayed halls of Hiraeth
Manor and the stormy skies of the sodden countryside of Llyr in
stunning, moody detail. Readers who have loved recent YA fantasy by Erin
A. Craig and Shea Ernshaw will love the notes of Gothic suspense and
creeping tension.
*Thoughts*
As a reader, I am sure many of you have often wondered what kind of home your favorite author lives in, or what kind of life do they actually have to create some wonderful novels. Now, imagine having a once in a lifetime opportunity to reconstruct your
favorite authors gothic home. What secrets are behind the doors? Are the
characters real? Is the Fairy King real or is it Effy's imagination?
Maybe she should take just one more pink pill which she has taken for years since she was left behind by her mother and has been having some strange dreams for years. Did she imagine what happened to her, or was it real? How do you explain the missing digit on her hand? By the end of this book, instead of a scared and unsure of her self Effy, you get someone who is ready to take on the world, and don't nobody get in her way or else!
