A Study in Drowning

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Effy is the perfect main character to follow, she's vibrant and brave and rears up against the forced narrative she is often shunted in, yet she is also scared and vulnerable, succumbing to the waves of the never-ending sea, swallowing down the salt water of her fears and drowning in the very place the world's narrative has left her. Her story is a constant battle; for sanity, for peace, for autonomy, for freedom, for greatness. It often appears that the entire world is against her, but she finds an undaunted strength within herself that she wields to face each struggle. I loved watching Effy grow throughout the story. it just confused me and ruined any potential attachment to the characters, but specifically Effy that i craved. Argant was always claiming that Lyrian treasures and traditions were really their own. Llyr was forever accusing Argant of stealing their heroes and histories." The element that I have the most to say about is here definitely the romance. For starters, I would reeeeeally hesitate to categorize this as enemies-to-lovers. For the first third of the book, Effy is just petty, spiteful and rude to Preston because he represents everything that she is being denied at college due to gender discrimination and Preston just kind of…takes it. She also makes a number of prejudiced/stereotyped comments about him being part Argantian (from the country that her country is currently at war with). My problem with this, to be clear, is not just that it *happens*. I’m fine with a story where a character who has been through a lot lashes out at someone who it’s safe to lash out at! Where it fails to work for me, though, is the way that the relationship then randomly and kind of awkwardly transitions from all the nasty, petty sniping to what is clearly supposed to be a deeply delicate, tender and respectful romance that is all about trauma sensitivity and support.

One: She was the only female student at the architecture college. Even if the boy had never so much as glimpsed her in the halls before, certainly he had seen her name on the exam results, and then, later, on the college roster in the lobby. Three days ago, some anonymous vigilante had taken a pen and turned her last name, Sayre, into something lewd, preserving the last two letters. Lyrical, incisive, and tragically beautiful, this book will haunt your dreams. Reid delivers in every way - from the atmospheric house by the sea to the achingly hopeful romance to the examination of power, gender, and control, A Study in Drowning ruins and rebuilds you. Vaishnavi PatelEffy 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.

Otherwise, the romance is more substantial than the one in Juniper & Thorn, but another big problem for me is that Preston just seems so vague and lifeless - I never really felt a true sense of what made him distinct or complex or interesting as a character at all. He’s a cynic who loves talking about his academic theories and he is kind and respectful to Effy when literally every other man in the book is a lascivious slobbering monster. There is one scene where he tells Effy about his father’s death, and that’s pretty much the most significant spotlight moment that he gets throughout the book. Why is this pitched as Gothic? Because that’s what’s popular right now too. The Crimson Peak is gothic (deliciously so), this is just a sad imitation of the aesthetic.It’s also obvious Reid did not research architecture or technical drawing. Even someone like me who took only a semester of Technical Drawing in High School (I wanted to go into chemical engineering before deciding I liked biochemistry more) realizes she has no idea what an architect actually does or the tools they use. The narrative makes it sound like Effy is always just sketching or doodling as if she’s taking art classes: there’s no mention of trigonometry, geometry, or algebra, not even in passing. Anything can be taken from you, at any moment. Even the past isn’t guaranteed. You can lose that too, slowly, like water eating away at stone.