A Study In Drowning by Ava Reid
☀️☀️🌤️

Part fairy tale, part psychological mystery, this novel gets lost in the woods it so beautifully created.

This is difficult to write, because I admire Reid's work here and can really see the time and care she's taken to craft such beautiful writing throughout. The prose is rich and atmospheric and appropriate for the gothic style. 

But that's where it starts to fall apart - this book doesn't quite fit within its genre. It purports to be mature and mysterious and whimsical, but the plot itself is pedestrian and predictable with no plot twists or interesting interpretations to justify its existence. The magical, fairy-tale aspects are nice, and that part of the world building does maintain some interest, but ultimately the rest of this universe is constantly at odds with itself - does it want to be reality, or fantasy? Straddling both was obviously the point at first, but even by the end it doesn't feel like it chooses a victorious side. 

Both main characters are bland and unexceptional. Effy is intolerably emotional, crying at nothing all the time (which could have been good character work if her traumatic backstory was given enough work beyond face value examination). Preston's single defining quality is that he's....not a creep? Apparently the bar is that low. They had zero chemistry and the romance made no sense. 

The location and the house itself were lovingly described, and as I said before, Reid doesn't lack talent when it comes to prose. It's just unfortunate that it came at the expense of the important bits that actually connect readers to the book. If I'm not rooting for them, if I don't care about the outcome, gorgeous metaphors don't matter. 

For a book of 'vibes' it's not awful, but it had great potential to be something much more exciting than it ultimately is.