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!
No comments:
Post a Comment