Gripping, myth-driven gothic fantasy explores misogyny.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 15+?
Any Positive Content?
Violence & Scariness
some
The main character is grabbed, forcefully kissed until bleeding, sexually harassed, bullied by classmates, and tormented by memories of past harassment. She experiences night terrors of a creepy man in the corner of her room, then in the woods and in a car. She sees a ghost in the house. A jump from a moving car results in minor injuries. A man is tied up near rising water and nearly drowns and another man disintegrates. The story of a baby briefly abandoned. Stories told of a massive drowning event in southern town that killed many. More stories of ritual drownings, of prisoners and of people forced to drink so much water they drown. Another story of a car accident, a traumatic brain injury, and an eventual death.
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The main characters have sex in a short scene with some undressing, kissing, groping, and penetration described, along with talk of the importance that the main character feel safe and respected. Racy photographs are described.
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Preston smokes cigarettes and Effy starts smoking around him. Drinking of hard liquor at parties, bars, and meetings by college age characters and older. Preston and Effy drink heavily at a college party and wake up hungover. Effy's mom is always drinking gin.
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Effy is in survival mode at the beginning of the story after unwanted advances by her college advisor that get rumors flying. For years before that she's relied on pills to sleep and other pills to stop what she thinks are hallucinations after a traumatic childhood experience. She's constantly fearful, her fears are never listened to, and she doesn't trust her own instincts as a result. As she confronts her fears head on and seeks out support from someone she finally trusts, she begins to heal and value herself more highly as someone intelligent and worthy of love and success. She's even courageous enough to demand the respect of others who would discount her just for being a woman.
Positive Messages
a lot
A dissection of misogyny and its harmful effects includes a reminder that there is no such thing as consent between a college-age woman and her university advisor or her employer or any other older man in a position of power above her. The power of stories to bring understanding and comfort. How hard it is to be disappointed by our heroes and why humans seek truth even if it destroys a comforting myth. How imagination aids survival.
Educational Value
a little
Shows some of the ways scholars research their subjects -- through old correspondence and photographs, museum visits, personal diaries, interviews, and by combing through all the published material they can find. Also explores the line between mythology and history and how it's drawn differently according to personal experiences and where you live.
Diverse Representations
a little
In two made-up countries people are all light skinned, but those in the south of one country are considered backward and superstitious while the north is industrial and more forward-thinking -- kind of. Women are thought of as too flighty for academia and Effy has to fight for her place in the only college that will allow her until she can finally demand change. Effy's roommate is a woman in a relationship with another woman.
Parents need to know that A Study in Drowning is the first young adult book by author Ava Reid (The Wolf and the Woodsman) and a good choice for mature fantasy-loving teen girls to read and discuss with their moms. Through this romantic gothic fantasy, some vital topics come up about misogyny and its harmful effects, plus the reminder that there is no such thing as consent between a college-age woman and her university advisor or her employer or any other older man in a position of power above her. The main character is grabbed, forcefully kissed until bleeding, sexually harassed, bullied by classmates, and tormented by memories of past harassment and assault. She experiences night terrors of a creepy man in the corner of her room, then in the woods and in a car. A man is tied up near rising water and nearly drowns and another man disintegrates. College age characters drink hard alcohol and smoke cigarettes. The main character has sex in a well-described short scene that also includes a discussion of her feeling safe and respected. The transformation of the main character, Effy, is remarkable as she faces her fears and begins to believe in her own worth.
This book has a great story, and a well written, well developed cast of characters. It’s partially because of that background that this book has some much more mature themes, but those same themes are also prevalent throughout the plot. Themes include sexual harrassment, misogyny, and light sex and nudity.
What's the Story?
In A STUDY IN DROWNING, Effy is just six months into her studies as an architecture student and it's going horribly. She's failing classes and her advisor is making advances that have started rumors all over school. She'd much rather be in the literature college studying her favorite recently deceased author, Emrys Myrddin, but they don't accept women. So when she sees a contest to redesign Myrddin's family estate on the remote southern coast, she enters. The escape isn't quite what she'd hoped when she discovers the cliffside house is a moldy, waterlogged abomination inhabited by the author's recluse and mercurial son and his bed-ridden widow. Worse than that, an egotistical literature student has taken up residence in Myrddin's study poring over old papers for a his thesis. And even worse than that, this dreary remote manor is intensifying Effy's regular hallucinations of a cruel fairy king who longs to claim her.
This gripping, smart gothic fantasy explores the magic of mythology and story and makes readers think about the many facets of sexual harassment and assault and how deeply it affects the victims. This ambitious tale takes some getting into -- way too much needs explaining while Effy is at university -- but when she lands at the moldy manor there's no putting the book down. The setting is fantastically creepy and brings out all the worst of Effy's night terrors about the fairy king even during the day.
There are so many mysteries to solve, about what's real and imagined, about why the author's son Ianto is so erratic and secretive about his father's published works, about what's submerged in the flooded basement, about whether Ianto's mother really is hiding somewhere upstairs. As Effy gets closer to Preston, the literature student she at first despises, Ianto becomes even more unhinged. Can Effy and Preston make it out of there alive, and with the closure about the author they came for? Here's a story that demands revisiting both for its deep understanding of Effy's trauma journey and for the sheer joy of delving into this darkly superstitious and folklore-rich world constantly in danger of being reclaimed by the sea.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about consent in A Study in Drowning. Why is Effy both confused and horrified by the advances of Master Corbenic, her college advisor? How does what others in the college and in society think of women make it harder for her to realize his actions were wrong? What other characters in the story had similar experiences?
Ianto says that women are one of two goddesses in their country's folklore: Patroness of seduction or patroness of submission. In our own cultures, are women put into harmful categories such as these, or is it a thing of the past? What purpose does putting women into stereotypical categories serve? Do men experience any similar types of categorizations?
Effy finds extreme comfort in a book that speaks to her experiences of misogyny and trauma. Are there any books you turn to for comfort after a hard day or after an experience that leaves you upset and confused?
Effy experiences a transformation in this book. What character strengths does Effy show that make her growth possible? How is she courageous? What helps her persevere? What about her integrity?
Available on:
Audiobook (unabridged), Hardback, iBooks, Kindle
Last updated:
November 6, 2023
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Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by
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Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.
By Carrie R. Wheadon
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
