A Study in Drowning

If monsters are real, so are the women who defeat them. Ava Reid's YA dark academic fantasy is The Hazel Wood meets A Deadly Education.THE SUNDAY TIMES AND NO. 1 NYT BESTSELLING NOVEL, FROM THE AUTHOR OF THE WOLF AND THE WOODSMAN'A love letter to stories - and to everyone silenced or forgotten in their retelling.' Allison Saft, author of A Far Wilder MagicEffy has always believed in fairy tales. She's had no choice. Since childhood, she's been haunted by visions of the Fairy King. She's found solace only in the pages of Angharad - a beloved epic about a mortal girl who falls in love with the Fairy King, and then destroys him.Effy's tattered copy is all that's keeping her afloat through her stifling first term her prestigious architecture college. So when the late author's family announces a contest to design his house, Effy fells certain this is her destiny.But Hiraeth Manor is an impossible task- a musty, decrepit estate on the brink of crumbling into a hungry sea. And when Effy arrives, she finds she isn't the only one who's made a temporary home there. Preston Heloury, a stodgy young literature scholar, is studying Myrddin's papers and is determined to prove her favourite author is a fraud.As the two rival students investigate the reclusive author's legacy, piecing together clues through his letters, books, and diaries, they discover that the house's foundation isn't the only thing that can't be trusted. There are dark forces, both mortal and magical, conspiring against them - and the truth may bring them both to ruin.

A love letter to stories - and to everyone silenced or forgotten in their retelling. Allison Saft
A wonderfully written, tense and moving novel that offers its audience an endlessly readable mix of historical fiction, gothic mystery and fantasy romance that will draw you in again and again. CultureFly
As merciless as a rising tide and as beguiling as a fairy's bargain. Melissa Albert
A Study in Drowning is a stunning book in every way. From one phenomenal book to another, Ava Reid is an author I am obsessed with . . . A masterclass in pacing, characterisation and tension, with a beautiful meditation on stories and who gets to have an authorial voice. The Nerd Daily
A spell-binding mix of magic, myth, and mystery. Rory Power
Reid wields lyricism, dark academia, and fairy-core elements to eloquently imbue the narrative with originality and depth that ferries themes surrounding grief, gender, and the value of folklore. Publishers Weekly (starred review)
A lyrical examination of stories told, cherished myths, and an unravelling of truths held dear. Darkly romantic and unsettlingly eerie. Erin A. Craig
A dark and gripping feminist tale. Kirkus Reviews
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 Patel
Full of myth and superstition, and heavy rains that fall upon crumbling old houses. A rewarding, romatic read, with much to chew on. Kendare Blake

Ava Reid is the Sunday Times and No. 1 New York Times bestselling author of A Study in Drowning, Juniper & Thorn and The Wolf and the Woodsman. She has a degree in political science from Barnard College and lives in New Jersey.

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