A review by s_wandering
A Study in Drowning by Ava Reid

dark mysterious reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

awfully boring and terribly uninspiring

Pros: 
  • the writing style from Reid has always been great
  • the general plot was interesting
  • the first 50 pages were intriguing 
  • the main characters Effy and Preston (outside of their romantic plot)
  • the connection of
    Euphemia's trauma to drowning / the event that happened in the south
    really was done exceptionally well

Cons:
  • at the beginning its said "this is a love story" and with that in mind it felt in the haste to get these characters to fall in love it was forgotten that us as readers were just now meeting them for the first time. Their love story felt rushed, held no real weight and we could've done without it all-together
  • the plot became unclear, untidy, drawn out and though
    the drowning was interesting- it became clear after some time it would only ever really be explored as a metaphor
     
  • I don't mind unreliable narrators but Effy was unreliable to an unforgivable point, I think this would've benefited being told by Preston's POV or at-least  dual POV
  • so many things were introduced to set the scenery (war, timeline, characters) but never expanded on to actually provide proper world building and after 300+ pages I feel like I spent time in a world I could not identify in a line up
  • for a book about academia, the characters aren't that smart

to sum up the reading experience from my book club "a bit bored but intrigued"

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