Ava ReidReseñas

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins for allowing me to read this book for review purposes. All opinions are my own.

4.5 stars. I loved this so much. I’m so obsessed with anything that has to do with fairies and fae lore, and my favorite movie is Jim Henson’s Labyrinth, so a book about a girl getting pursued by the fairy king was bound to catch my attention.

Effie Sayre, a first year architecture student, is chosen to redesign the manor that belonged to the late Emrys Myrdden, her favorite author. Angharad, his book about a girl who is taken by the fairy king and then defeats him, has been a comfort to Effie her whole life. When she gets to the cliff side house, she realizes that it’s a much more formidable job than she expected. It’s falling apart, and the sea is quickly threatening to swallow it up. She also learns that there’s another student from her university there, a smug boy name Preston Héloury, hoping to find proof that Myrdden is a fraud. But there’s something dark happening at this crumbling house by the sea, and the two will have to work together if they want to avoid drowning. Because the sea is not the only enemy they’re facing.

One thing that I loved about the story was that Ava Reid did such a good job of creating a fleshed-out fictional universe that still has so many parallels to our own. The rules of fairies in Llyr are the same rules you hear told in Celtic folklore, and their technology is similar to ours in the 1920s or 30s. Unfortunately, Effy’s world shares some of the nastier aspects of ours as well, including sexism. In fact, that’s really what this story is about; women and the men who want to have power over them.

Effy was such a good main character, flawed but relatable so many ways. As the first woman in the architectural college, she faced formidable misogyny from students and faculty. She second-guessed herself constantly, but she also knew deep down that she had the strength and capabilities that everyone in her life had done their best to gaslight her out of. We’ve all felt like we weren’t good enough at times, and I don’t know one woman who hasn’t experienced sexism. Preston, the love interest, was also amazing, as her support and as a fully developed character with flaws and trauma of his own.

The only issue I had with the book was that a very important climactic scene (that I won’t spoil here, except to say that it involved a glass shard) felt a little rushed. I would have liked more time spent in that moment. But other than that, I really loved A Study in Drowning.

Darkly compelling retelling of Shakespeare's story of Macbeth. A young girl who's eyes are said to bewitch men is sent to Scotland to marry the brutish Lord Macbeth who resides in a remote castle with dark secrets of his own. When she tasks Lord Macbeth with requirements before she will share the marriage bed she sets into motion a series of events that will forever change her fate.
I truly enjoyed this story though I had not read Shakespeare's Macbeth I was familiar with the story and I found that this version told from her point of view was compelling and definitely had me not wanting to put the book down. I think that the setting and characters were well developed and the writing style was accurate for the time frame in which the story takes place.
If you are a fan of historical fiction with some fantasy thrown in you will definitely enjoy this book.

I disliked most things about this book. The characters fell into one of three categories: either they were villainous to the extreme with no redeeming qualities and therefore fell flat for the lack of nuance, they were minor players that were part of the scenery and fell flat for lack of depth, or they were simpering and boring and fell flat for lack of making me as a reader care. There was nothing interesting about any of them. The story was also gruesome, which I detested. I was not expecting explicit details of sexual assault, eating disorder, abuse, etc. and I would have skipped it all together had I known beforehand. In addition to being gruesome, the story was also poorly paced and plotted. The big reveal was no big surprise, and while it might have had an impact had it occurred earlier in the story, as it is, it was yet another aspect that fell flat. To the author's credit, I was desperate to know how the story ended, and I did skim the last several chapters because I simply had to know how all of the pieces resolved. The writing seemed to fluctuate between an almost impressionistic style (In the House in the Dark of the Woods came to mind several times during my reading) and a more standard modern fantasy style. Both styles were good, but the fluctuation between the two gave me whiplash. All in all, this felt like the author's therapy, and while this may not bother some readers, and may even be helpful to others, as a therapist in my day to day life I want escapism in my books and this most certainly did not deliver.½

this was just too much for me, too sad, too dark, too descriptive, too stressful, etc. can see why somebody else might like it but not for me

Well, it took a bit of time to get to it, and even longer to read it when I did. It was an OK read, although I had some reservations about it:

-I was't keen on the first person narrative
-I felt it was overlong
-It was mis-titled; it should have been The Wolf-Girl and the Woodsman, but I suppose it would have been too long. I kept wondering when the wolf was going to put in an appearance.

I did enjoy the story, being Hungarian mythology rather than the more usual Western European based fantasy. As a first novel, it wasn't bad; better than the other first novel I read last year.

Recommended with some reservations.

A very epic fairytale with all sorts of pagan and other religious influences. The story was a bit all over the place at times and I genuinely didn't know what to expect next. Reminded me of ACOTAR with the sassy illiterate protag, but otherwise not much connecting those two properties except the fantasy-romance part. Other aspects were very Game of Thrones-y (killing off characters randomly and the court intrigue and such). This book felt a bit long and drawn out at points (like a LOTR travel journey sequence) but it all seemed essential to later plot developments so it was worth getting through them. There were a lot of beautiful and riveting descriptions of the places, landscapes, and costumes in the book as well as the monsters, witches, and other creatures.
The violence done to many animals and people in the book is excessive as hell and was rough getting through, however, so a big content warning about that. The ending isn't necessarily happily ever after either and is more open-ended and realistic than most fiction I have read based on a similar pseudo-medieval period. Could've been worse, but the book didn't really blow me away either.

This book immediately grabbed me, and I read the first half super quickly! It didn't turn out to be the book I thought it would be. I thought there would be a lot more of the house itself being the evil, but it ending up being what it was was very interesting. Overall a pretty good YA read.

rinse and repeat of the “wild girl captured, falls in love with her captor and fights a common enemy” trope. But the use of religions was interesting.

So this book was such a strong book for me. I think this book had the right mix of dark academia, romance and mystery. This book had a really great fall setting as well. This was such a quick read but it also dealt with harder topics like SA and abuse and it has had some really intresting topics about authors and arists and how they can ler you down!! This was a rather quick read and def a new faorite in the genre!!

Merged review:

So this book was such a strong book for me. I think this book had the right mix of dark academia, romance and mystery. This book had a really great fall setting as well. This was such a quick read but it also dealt with harder topics like SA and abuse and it has had some really intresting topics about authors and arists and how they can ler you down!! This was a rather quick read and def a new faorite in the genre!!

So this book was such a strong book for me. I think this book had the right mix of dark academia, romance and mystery. This book had a really great fall setting as well. This was such a quick read but it also dealt with harder topics like SA and abuse and it has had some really intresting topics about authors and arists and how they can ler you down!! This was a rather quick read and def a new faorite in the genre!!

Merged review:

So this book was such a strong book for me. I think this book had the right mix of dark academia, romance and mystery. This book had a really great fall setting as well. This was such a quick read but it also dealt with harder topics like SA and abuse and it has had some really intresting topics about authors and arists and how they can ler you down!! This was a rather quick read and def a new faorite in the genre!!

I'm not sure if this book was really predictable or if I've just read too many books, but I figured everything out very early on. Still, the story itself is enjoyable and I didn't mind watching it play out - that is, I didn't mind much...

Ms Reid and I won't become friends anymore I fear.
Seeing this book in the monthly book box I was not really thrilled as I didn't really like the Wolf and the Huntsman, but I thought, let's give her a chance, this is after all her third book now, and she might have grown as a writer and might have gotten those things I considered major flaws in her debut under control. Sadly, she hasn't. If I thought the Wolf book suffered from plot holes and nonsensical plot lines at least her writing style was not objectionable (at least I don't remember that I was annoyed by it), now we have a story not necessarily with plot holes but still with a lot of nonsensical parts, topped with a writing style that is all over the place.
Simple sentence structure, occasional interlaced with big words (that feels like as if they were looked up just for this sentence) followed by a more "traditional" writing style, and once again, passages that are way too over descriptive. Which would not be so bad, if other parts of the story that might needed than more in depth are completely forgotten. (Did they ever eat anything at the house? Or did they only ever had coffee?)
Or for the nonsensical part, why do two grown ups need the permission of their host to leave?

I think my biggest issue is the lack of character development, which was already pretty flawed in the Wolf. Instead of having a path of how Preston and Effy get to know each other better, it is they meet and boom "hey let's write this very very important thesis together, doesn't matter that I have no idea if you can write, but when I saw you for the first time, I knew I wanted to do it only with you!' "Oh Preston, kiss me!"

On the plus side, I liked the surrealism of the decaying house, sadly Ms Reid could have done so much more with it but she drowned herself in unnecessary details just to get to a certain word counts (or so it seems) while on the other hand glossing over events that could have given the story more depth.½

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.

But musty, decrepit Hiraeth Manor is an impossible task, and its residents are far from welcoming. Including Preston Héloury, a stodgy young literature scholar determined to expose Myrddin as a fraud. As the two rivals piece together clues about Myrddin’s legacy, dark forces, both mortal and magical, conspire against them—and the truth may bring them both to ruin.

3/5

Now. I didn't hate this. But I didn't really love it, either.

The writing was beautiful. Reid's prose made this bleak world brim with atmosphere, and it was really gripping.

I also really liked when she would tell fairy tales and weave their themes into the story. That is always something I really like

But. You know me. I did have some qualms. Mostly, the plot and the ending fell flat. It left me really disappointed. I was given the promise of dark, gothic horror. The author did deliver in her lyrically morose writing, but I was left ultimately unsatisfied.

And I think it's really lame that Marlinchen got a happy ending. At least, if she had a happy ending, it should have been a girl boss moment where maybe she became her father. A little more insane, a little less happily ever after. More unhinged maniacal witch goes crazy after being stomped on and repressed. I never got the catharsis I was seeking there, I dunno.

To that point (the one of romance), I do like Sevas, but GOD does it feel like it's just sex. Oh and they're both lonely and don't want to be alone bcuz shared trauma. Lol. I did really like the scene where he looked at her in the mirror. And it makes enough sense that they like each other. Just not the direction I wanted the story to go in. She should have kiiiilllllled hiiiiiiim. or something

Strong ending, but for a good deal of the book, our protagonist's main personality trait is meek, with which is difficult to identify. The protagonist makes it very clear she's not a teenager, but the character is a young adult, and for much of the book, the character acts like a child. Part of this characterization is relevant to the plot, but it's also difficult to relate to her childish behavior.

I loved the setting: fantasy Eastern Europe, on the verge of being overrun with Western ideas. There's early 20th-century sciences mixed with old world magic, and there's an opulent ballet theater next to the slums: the imagery is wonderful.

Overall, it's not a bad first novel, and I look forward to seeing stronger characterization in future novels.

This one drills very far into the creepy and is set in an interesting world. Effy has a very tangled history, one that she's not always certain about. Was she abandoned and then not? Does she see the Fairy King, or is he a hallucination? One thing is certain, the strange book, 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. Thwarted in her attempt to become the first female to be accepted into the literature program, she's muddling along in the school of architecture.
When the late author's widow offers students at the university a chance to design plans for the renovation of the family manse in a remote southern town, there's no way she can ignore it.
Once selected and discovering that a snobbish literature student from her school is also at the house, ostensibly to research the late author's papers, things get prickly, then ultra-strange, then murky, and more.
Read the book to discover all the complexity that's between the covers. I guarantee you'll get lost in a most satisfying way.

This was fabulous! I have loved everything that I have read from this author so far so I went into this book with some pretty high expectations and I am happy to report that I was not disappointed. The writing was gorgeous and the characters were very likable. The story hooked me quickly and I couldn’t wait to see what would happen to Effy and Preston.

Effy is a first-year architecture student. She would love to study literature instead but women are not allowed in the program. When she sees the chance to possibly work on designing the home her favorite author’s home she jumps at the chance. Once she arrives, she finds the home is in further disrepair than she imagined and there is another student doing work in the home. Preston is there as a literature student. As they look into things, they discover that they have even more questions than they thought.

I loved the characters in this book. It was obvious early on that Effy had an interesting history and I loved the way that the author gave us that background a little at a time throughout the story. Effy and Preston were a great match and I enjoyed watching them connect over the course of the story. The dark gothic setting was so well-developed that it almost came alive on the page.

I paired the audiobook with a digital copy and thought that Saskia Maarlevald did a phenomenal job with the narration. I have been a fan of her narration work in the past so I was excited to see that she was reading this story. She did a wonderful job with the various character voices which helped to bring the story to life. I am certain that her narration added to my enjoyment of this story. Overall, I thought that this was a wonderful book that will be going on my keeper shelf and I would not hesitate to recommend this book to others.

I received a digital review copy of this book from Harper Teen.

Ava Reid does not write cheery, fairy tale-esque stories with happily-ever-after endings. Instead, she writes nuanced stories with vivid imagery and dark themes. She makes her heroines and you, the reader, work for every good thing that happens. To persevere through one of her novels is to observe a rich tapestry of human darkness overcome by human strength.

A Study in Drowning may be Ms. Reid's first novel for young adults, but her approach to the story is the same as with her adult novels. She does not shy away from triggering situations but does so in a way that is not explicit or visceral. Ms. Reid knows that your imagination is better than anything she could write about a character's secrets, and she is more than happy to let your imagination run rampant regarding Effy's secret. When the plot is ready for it, only then she gently hints at the truth. It is an effective method to instill anxiety and darkness with little effort but major results.

A Study in Drowning is, in essence, a coming-of-age story for Effy. By traveling to a remote location, Effy is able to grow beyond the labels attached to her by her fellow students. She breaks the model enclosed around her by her parents and society and learns a few harsh truths along the way.

However much A Study in Drowning is about Effy, the star of the story is the mysterious and decrepit Hiraeth Manor. Everything about this setting is creepy, from the peeling wallpaper to the standing water. In creating this larger-than-life, leaking building, Ms. Reid generates the tension and horror that hallmark her stories. Long after Effy's story reaches its satisfactory conclusion, you will remember the basement full of water and the waterlogged cliffs that peel away from the edge without warning.

Ms. Reid's novels may not be for everyone, but they should get more attention than they do. A Study in Drowning is the perfect novel to introduce yourself to her dark storytelling. In it, Ms. Reid covers more than one triggering topic with a gentleness that belies her stormy setting. She also creates in Effy a character who is much stronger than even she believes. As with her other novels, A Study in Drowning is a poignant but brutal observation of women's roles in society and the bonds women need to break to not just survive but also thrive.

What I liked:
Gothic vibes, crumbling manors, tempestuous seas.
The writing style.
Angharad.
The fairy king lore.

What I didn’t like:
Effy - she’s legit racist - and the way she spoke to Preston and the names she called him were gross.
The romance was lacklustre.

**2.5 stars**

There is so much going on in the Wolf and the Woodsman that I wish the book had cut some of the events in the first 190-ish pages as they felt very repetitive. The book ramped up in the latter section and I did stay up at night to finish. However, I am still quite conflicted about how to rate this book. The FL didn't end up growing on me all the way even though I emphasized a lot with what she had gone/was going through. The ML had very little character development and it would have been very appreciated if we had been able to get into his thoughts a bit. The romance seemed to come out of nowhere tbh and some events were quite head-scratching to me eg overall fate of the turul.

My favorites were Bierdna, Szabin, and Tuula and I would have loved if they had featured a lot more.

Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book. I got a copy of this on ebook through NetGalley to review.

Thoughts: I ended up really enjoying this. It is a bit of an odd book that deals with dark fae and has a strangely Lovecaftian feel to it as well. I also enjoyed Reid's book "Juniper & Thorn" when I read it.

Effy is the only female architecture student (she wanted to go into literature but they don't let women do that because women are too flighty). She has had some trouble with her professor abusing her and would love nothing more than to leave the college. She ends up winning a contest to redesign the house of a famous author named Myrddin; an author she really admires. However, when she journeys to the desolate Hiraeth Manor she realizes she's been given an impossible task. The house is literally falling into the sea and the new lord of the manor (Myrddin's son) is strange and seems to want to use Effy in the same way her professor wanted to use her.

The only saving grace is that there is another student there, Preston Héloury, working on his thesis. He draws Effy into a mystery around Myrddin that will upend everything she thinks she knows about the fae and her favorite author.

I ended up enjoying this. The story deals some with dark fae but has more of a Lovecraftian vibe to it at points. You have the sea pounding on the town that Hiraeth Manor is located in and the way it is infusing the walls of the house. The master of the house is slowly descending into madness as well. There are also heavy themes about women being taken advantage of and learning to stand up for themselves. Many of the men in here seek to abuse and take advantage of the women in their lives.

This is beautifully written and easy to read. You can smell and taste the moldy walls of Hiraeth Manor. While I got frustrated with Effy at times, I did sympathize for her. I thought the relationship between Effy and Preston was decently done. Although, the fact that Effy went from an abusive relationship with her professor directly into a relationship with another man who says he will protect her was not ideal. It would have been nice if Effy had learned to stand on her own two feet first.

My Summary (4/5): Overall I enjoyed this. The dark damp depths of Hiraeth Manor were strangely enticing and I enjoyed uncovering Myrddin's secrets. The characters weren't my absolutely favorite but I did enjoy the dark fae and Lovecraftian vibes to this story. This was a good read and I will keep an eye out for future books by Reid. I enjoy the darker tone that her books have.

Wow, so this was nothing like what I expected. A powerless woman is sacrificed to her enemy, and on her way to the city that will be her end, gets sidetracked, learns about love and loss, hatred and intolerance, and how sometimes, the merging of faiths will overcome the truest and most beautiful of evils.

Originally posted on Just Geeking By.

One of the books that I heard about in the Del Rey UK 2021 Virtual Showcase, The Wolf and the Woodsman caught my attention immediately as a pagan because this is a book where the main character is a pagan! That in itself is highly unusual and the more I learned about this book, I realised it was just the tip of the iceberg. I had to get my hands on it and the lovely people at Del Rey were kind enough to provide me with a free copy in exchange for an honest review. Many thanks to Rachel Kennedy for the opportunity to review The Wolf and the Woodsman!

The Wolf and the Woodsman is a novel that delightfully discusses and interrogates the idea of what is belief, what happens when it changes and when that change is forced on society through the use of fantasy. Évike and Gáspár are thrown together in a situation where they must choose what is more important; their beliefs or their survival. Is it worth dying just to cling to those beliefs? At first Gáspár, a deeply devout follower of the Patrifaith is willing to do just that, whereas Évike's pagan beliefs allow her to be a little bit more lenient. It isn't her gods that call for her to avoid getting close to Gáspár it's the blood on the hands of the Woodsmen, the Holy Order of soldiers that have claimed so many of her fellow wolf-girls for the King's pleasure. Can she let go of her anger, of her disbelief in the hypocrisy of what Gáspár believes?

As the pair travel together they realise that there is something more important than the rift between them. Gáspár's brother threatens the safety of both their homes and of Évike's father's people, the Yehuli, an indigenous religion under persecution. Nandor's hatred for everyone outside the Patrifaith threatens to consume the entire nation in a religious war just as the Kingdom fights one at their border. No one would be spared, including Gáspár, the son of a foreign queen, and those loyal to him.

Let's be clear about one thing; this is a fantasy novel but it talks about some very real and horrific topics. Fantasy is the lens in which Reid uses to examine real past historical events, particularly the brutal acts of a newfound patriarchal faith that washed away all other traditions and belief systems with blood to establish itself as the dominant religion. As with the Patrifaith in The Wolf and the Woodsman, it did so by intertwining religion with state and crown until it controlled everything. Modern societies still bear many hallmarks of those actions today. The dire consequences of such an act are optimised through the character of Nandor, Gáspár's brother, a figure who has the power and presence to unit people in their hatred and faith to ensure that their country will be cleansed of anyone who does not follow their faith. It isn't an idle threat or a promise, it's a fact, with the blood of as many Yehuli as he can get away with already on Nandor's hands.

The Yehuli already live in persecution, already fear the sound of the soldier's footsteps when they celebrate their holy days and festivals. Likewise, the pagans have been cowed into conversion, forced into hiding or live under constant threat of one of their girls being taken by the Woodsmen. Neither community is a threat to the Patrifaith. They just want to be left to live their lives in peace, to continue the traditions as their ancestors have done for generations. It's a sentiment that I think a lot of us can appreciate. Even more so we recognise the oppressing forces who will not just let us do that, who demand that we should do things their way, that what we do is wrong just because they do not understand it.

Reading The Wolf and the Woodsman I saw in Gáspár a need for some controlling outside force to guide him, to show him the right way, likewise the same with Évike's father and the other Yehuli. Their scrolls were integral to their belief. In comparison, the pagans have a fully oral storytelling based system and that is enough for them. They do not need ritual or the written word to reinforce their faith.

While The Wolf and the Woodsman is a brutal depiction of three religious communities and their differences, it is also the story of their similarities. While stories are the foundation of the pagan belief system each one has stories and this is just one overlap that Évike recognises as she learns more about them. Even as the Patrifaith shuns pagans she sees things that they do that aren't that different to the villagers she's left behind, not that they would ever admit it. Then there's the blatant hypocrisy of a king who wants to use pagan magic to consolidate his power yet shuns the pagans of his country. I appreciated that Reid did not shy away from the stark truth, showing every repulsive act horrifically without any fairytale pretence.

Such as the relationship between Évike and Gáspár, which people have claimed was not romantic enough. If you read this novel and your takeaway from it was that there was not enough romance then you seriously missed the entire point of The Wolf and the Woodsman. I hesitate to even call it "romance" because romance conjures up a certain ideal and Évike and Gáspár's relationship is one born from two people being thrown together in a stressful, horrible situation and realising they care for one another. They are running for their lives, trying to survive monsters and weather, and are the only people who can stop the genocide of two peoples. There's no time for romance. It's real life, and real life is messy, quick and whatever you can get when you can get it. I honestly would have lost a lot of respect for Reid if she had made a point of making it all fluffy and romantic because it would have made a mockery of everything else in the novel.

"For so many years all I could do was run and hide. I just sat there and let the water pour in around me. I dodn't know I could fight back. I didn't know how to do anything but wauit to drown."
"Oh no, Effy. You dn't have to take up a sword. Survival is bravery, too."

4.5 stars?
I don’t know how to describe this book other than that it is a clever exploration of storytelling and the women who are often left out.

First off, I loved the fictional citations at the start of each chapter, (They’re from the works of Effy’s author, scholars writing about said author and quotations from academical works about historical events) and they really add an immersive quality to the story. The literature Effy is so engrossed with are not just fictional words by a fictional author, the reader gets snippets of it too.
The atmosphere of this book is fantastic in general. The descriptions create a gothic, sinking old manor on a cliff and I could practically hear the floorboards creak.

Effy herself is an anxious young woman. She takes medication, sees things that may or may not be there and clings to her favourite author like a lifeline.
I really liked how Effy’s personality was never belittled. Her never ending fears and thoughts were not her being silly or stupid.
It felt like the opposite of the ‘not like other girls’ trope. Effy is very much the physically weak, scared and hesitant ‘other girl’, but she deservs to be taken seriously anyway. She is not less because she doesn’t snap back at men and she is not boring or dumb for freezing and panicking instead of fighting.

The book does an excellent job showing the pressure and prejudice women face in academic settings. Effy wants to study literature, but that course doesn’t accept women so she takes the prestigious architecture course instead. Teachers talk over her, male classmates make bad ‘jokes’ and laugh, multiple people tell her to just pick a ‘normal’ course. Her love for her favourite author is belittled because ‘he is popular among girls’. I cannot count the amount of unwanted advances she had to rebuke. And so on.
It happens unexpectedly at the turn of a page and it’s just as much of a slap to Effy as it is to the reader. Not fun but unfortunately very realistic. She is just surviving, and that is enough.

The second main character and love interest is Preston. He is from the neighboring country, I forgot its name, that they’re at war with. As a result he’s looked down upon because he has the accent and the surname. The both of them are staying at the house of Effy’s beloved author and they…. Don’t really get along at first.

What I loved about him was the way he questioned everything about the author they research. Does a story belong to one person or is it the combined effort of everyone who influenced the author? Whose right is it to tell, and sell, a story? What are the consequences?
Preston’t thesis poking holes in the legacy of a national author could weaken morale in the war and cause a literary uproar. Meanwhile Effy is ill equipped to handle less than savoury facts about the author she holds so dear.

Effy is angry that Preston is allowed to study literature from her country, even though he didn’t grow up with her stories, even though he isn’t even interested in writing himself. Meanwhile she is a woman and thus not allowed on the course even if it is her great passion.
The book goes back and forth about who has the rights to read and dissect certain stories. What gives a foreigner the right above Effy? Does Effy have the right to be mad at him at all?

In a way this reminds me of RF Kuang’s Babel. Both stripped the pretentiousness of academia down to the men in power who put others down. Both made the experience of being put down visible with painful precision. Both are amazing books about the importance and power of words.
But where Babel failed to do the immense struggle of women justice, (both female characters in Babel never addressed this in the complex way it deserves), A Study in Drowning didn’t truly capture the struggles of foreigners in an academic world where they stand out.

Except for this one thing, I thought the book was brilliant.
It has so many layers to it….
I can and will read it again sometime.
I read a digital ARC and can’t wait to get a physical copy of this.½

Following a young woman from a pagan village, Evike, and her journey as she is forced from her home village to a one-eyed Woodsman; this story is a culmination of how various faiths and mythos clash.
This is a complicated one to rate as it is both fantastic and awful at the same time. A first for me reading wise, Reid is masterful at world building which is often the hardest part about writing a fantasy world, she brings in many real-life reflections of religions from pagan beliefs to Jewish mythos and Christian practice in a way that is well-done and still unique and interesting to the world that's been created. The depth of the world felt tangible and flowed in an easy way that kept me intrigued. On the other hand, the actual story and plotline were, quite frankly, awful. A hundred pages could have been cut from convoluted plot progressions and it is almost sad to say you could remove almost all of the actions of the main characters and end up with the same ending and outcome of the story.
So for world-building and those interested in reading fantasy stories inspired by real-life religious mythos and history than the book is great, but if you're looking for a good story this is not it. This is Reid's first book, and she certainly has a skill to support a great story once she figures out how to plot one.