Book Review: ‘A Study in Drowning’ by Ava Reid
Regular listeners of our podcast, The Dark Academicals, will know that our finale books have been cured for the last few seasons. The books have been disappointing and we’ve ended the season on a bum note, so I was determined to turn that around this season and shoe-horned Ava Reid’s ‘A Study in Drowning’ into the finale spot with the determination that this book would be a winner.
IT WAS A WINNER!
Ava Reid is already a firm favourite in the book community, and ‘A Study in Drowning’ seems to have hit the spot too - I can see why with a synopsis like this:
Effy 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 - a beloved epic about a mortal girl who falls in love with the Fairy King, and then destroys him.
Effy's tattered copy is all that's keeping her afloat through her stifling first term at her prestigious architecture college. So when the late author's family announces a contest to design his house, Effy feels certain this is her destiny.
But Hiraeth Manor is an impossible task: a musty, decrepit estate on the brink of crumbling into a hungry sea. And when Effy arrives, she finds she isn't the only one who's made a temporary home there. Preston Héloury, a stodgy young literature scholar, is studying Myrddin's papers and is determined to prove her favourite author is a fraud.
As the two rival students investigate the reclusive author's legacy, piecing together clues through his letters, books, and diaries, they discover that the house's foundation isn't the only thing that can't be trusted. There are dark forces, both mortal and magical, conspiring against them - and the truth may bring them both to ruin.
Fairies, mythology, a love of stories and a mysterious old manor house that’s hiding some big secrets? Sounds like perfection to me. And it was a brilliant read, and a brilliant end to the season.
You can listen to the full episode right here:
One of the major themes of the novel is the oppression of women and the institutionalised sexism in academia.
Effy is the first and only girl at her university, and she’s doing the only course that she was allowed access too. She experiences the reception you would (sadly) expect: name-calling, whispers and rumours, and lecherous male professors. There are discussions of men taking credit for women’s work, of drowning out female voices and female choices, and the male sense of ownership over women.
“I was a woman when it was convenient to blame me, and a girl when they wanted to use me.”
The journey that Effy goes on across the novel as she grapples with her sense of self-worth and confidence is a real path of growth and development in ‘A Study in Drowning’. Effy is a flawed character and she’s not always likeable, but that just strengthens her coming into her own.
A lot of this is linked with the way that stories feature in Effy’s life and in her community, and the power that they hold. This is relevant with mythology and folklore, but also in the stories and book you read as a child and form a part of your survival techniques. The importance of identifying yourself in stories and finding a point of comfort is so easily threatened under the patriarchal tendency to oppress your voice if you do not fit with the established narrative and the power it takes to reclaim that voice and identity.
““The Fairy King was all of them,” said Angharad. “Every wanting man has the same wound he can use to slip in.””
In Effy’s world, and in our world too, this is defined by patriarchal values and the ways in which men claim ownership over girls and women. ‘A Study in Drowning’ fights this idea as a rallying feminist cry against the backdrop of stories, beautiful writing and a gorgeous atmosphere, it was a dark academia winner for us.
‘A Study in Drowning’ is a love letter to stories, to women holding their own, and to kicking the patriarchy in the butt.
It made us both so happy to end season six of The Dark Academicals on a book that we both loved! Have you read it yet?
Written by Sophie
