With themes of emotional growth, female empowerment and how at times people might not be who they seem, A Study in Drowning by Ava Reid is as immersive as it is food for thought. Effy Sayre is the only female architecture student at her school, spending her time invested in her studies and showing her promise and talent. Her hard work does not go unnoticed and leads to her winning a significant honor in an intense competition.
As a girl with an intense love of literature and a passion for the late author Emerys Myrddin, her admiration of the author leads her to an unexpected place. Myrddin left behind a gorgeous and eerie estate in disarray by the ocean. Now, Effy has the chance to redo it utilizing her learned architecture skills.
Yet, there is one problem that she must face. Preston, an entitled male student at her university, feels like he does better than anyone else, including Effy. Effy dreams of studying literature at the university, like Preston. However, the program doesn’t accept female candidates. As Preston works at the estate, going through old documents and files, he promises to help Effy get her foot in the door of the program, and she accepts.
As the two begin to work together, searching for Myrddin’s manuscript of Angharad, the book’s story takes a dramatic turn. Effy and Preston soon realize there’s more behind the story of Myrddin’s writing. It seems that the author, his estate, his background and his works might hold unexpected dark secrets. With a fast-paced, beautifully written tale, Reid proves once more that she has the type of writing talent that captures the reader’s attention with engaging prose, a plot dabbled with lessons, and well-thought-out characters.
We had the chance to ask Ava Reid a few questions about A Study in Drowning, tackling YA for the first time, and her upcoming reimagining of Lady Macbeth’s story.
Your adult fantasy novels, The Wolf and the Woodsman, as well as Juniper and Thorn, have timeless themes. Woodsman explores faith with folkloric elements, while Thorn invites the reader into a dark gothic fairytale with a toxic family. What inspired you to dive into these complex themes and mix them with fantasy?
I’ve always loved the ability of fantasy to take human emotions and ramp them up to an eleven by adding the luster of magic. Sibling rivalry can be turned into a succession crisis and a bloody fight for the throne. Feelings of anguish and self-loathing can be expressed via a magic system that requires literal blood. The universal pain of unrequited love can be made even more dramatic in an imaginary society where romance is forbidden. In these unreal worlds, real emotions can be expressed in their most extreme.
I think that art exists to arouse strong feelings, often as a form of catharsis, and by giving these feelings the varnish of fantasy, they can be even more evocative and compelling.
Your latest novel, A Study in Drowning, is your YA fantasy debut. Was writing a YA fantasy always in the cards for you?
I’m definitely more naturally inclined toward adult fantasy, but I’m very glad I tried my hand at YA. It has been gratifying and edifying to connect with younger readers and think about the unique experiences of being a teen. Revisiting my own teenage emotions was obviously not something I had to do when writing my adult novels!
What do you think or hope that YA readers will take away from A Study in Drowning?
I hope, as with all my books, that it provokes strong emotions and complex questions. For young readers in particular, I hope that they can see themselves in Effy, and maybe feel a bit less alone. A Study in Drowning is a book about how important books are — so I hope that, in some way, my book proves important to readers.
The main character in A Study in Drowning, Effy Sayre, is an architecture student who takes the opportunity to design the old home of her favorite author. Effy is surrounded by a dark academic world as she dives into the project and deals with her competitive rival. What makes the competitive world of academia a compelling setting?
As my partner is a classicist, I’ve spent a lot of time in the world of academia. It’s filled with strange rituals, archaic traditions, and is highly exclusionary and almost secretive. I think this is part of what makes the dark academia aesthetic so appealing to people — it’s sort of a fantasy world in and of itself.
(I want to mention that many academics would take issue with this characterization — however, I do think that this is largely the perception of the academic world in the popular imagination).
The element of exclusivity is particularly interesting, because academia is and always has been very much restricted to society’s elite. This setting allows for a lot of commentary on privilege and social class, which is definitely a significant part of A Study in Drowning.
What strikes me, too, about the world of academia is that it is so driven by obsession and passion. Academics are, almost by nature, very obsessive people, especially because most of them are working on topics that are highly specific. There really isn’t anyone who considers themselves the world’s foremost expert on Roman history, but there might be someone who is the world’s foremost expert on the fiscal administration of civitates during the Roman principate (and even this is an unusually broad topic!).
I think the amalgam of esoterism, privilege and obsession is what makes the world of academia so compelling, and it was very fun to explore in A Study in Drowning.
How did you find that perfect balance between internal character development and the outside forces that get in the way of these characters’ goals?
All characters need goals and they need something that is preventing them from achieving those goals, because those are the stakes of any story. Often — and in my favorite types of stories — those obstacles are internal, not external. And in A Study in Drowning, Effy’s obstacles are actually largely internal. The fears and traumas and difficulties she needs to overcome are part of her own internal world — and she has a very expansive, detailed internal world!
So the challenge with ASID was actually externalizing those obstacles, rather than the other way around. The story’s villains — Ianto, the Fairy King, the misogynistic world of academia — represent the obstacles that Effy faces within herself. They are her own horrors made physically manifest.
As the book progresses, we see Effy go from believing in fairy tales to realizing not everything is as perfect as it seems. How do you feel that books and their characters provide healing and give readers a chance to escape from the outside world? Why is this important?
Everyone has to escape reality sometimes. The act of dissociation is normal and can be healthy, because it allows us to compartmentalize our feelings in a constructive way. It can be as simple as “thinking of something else” instead of getting bogged down in negative and destructive emotion. Dissociation is necessary and often encouraged as a coping mechanism and self-help tool. And books can be a very healthy way of doing this; it’s part of what makes literature so meaningful.
However, Effy is an example of a person for whom dissociation has become maladaptive and damaging. She escapes into fantasy because she is unable to cope with the pain of reality. And to some extent, it’s okay that she does this. She’s protecting herself.
But eventually, her fantasy world starts to harm her more than it helps her. She devotes so much energy to keeping this world intact, to building up these walls, that she has become almost completely isolated, growing more and more untethered from reality.
The challenge for Effy in the book is to let go of this fantasy world and rejoin the real world, but she can’t do that until she knows it’s safe. Without safety, all her energy must go to defense. Her relationship with Preston and her growing sense of self-worth make her strong enough to leave the fairy tale realm behind.
What can readers and fans expect to see from you next? Is there anything exciting that you can share with us?
My next book is Lady Macbeth, which is an adult historical fantasy novel that reimagines Shakespeare’s play from Lady Macbeth’s perspective. I’ve been pitching it as sort of a magical Wolf Hall. It will be out in summer 2024 and I’m very excited to share it!