A Study in Drowning

Starred review from July 31, 2023
Reid (The Wolf and the Woodsman) blurs the lines between reality and fantasy in this stunning tale. Effy Sayre, the only female architecture student at the country of Llyr’s most prestigious college, is an avid fan of late author Emrys Myrddin. She especially loves Angharad, Myrddin’s epic about a cruel fairy king and the mortal woman that broke his heart. When Effy is selected to design a house in Myrddin’s honor, she travels to his estate, Hiraeth Manor, in the seaside town of Saltney. Once there, she discovers that her academic rival, pedantic and handsome Preston, has arrived to prove that Angharad was not authored by Myrddin. Preston enlists Effy to help him; she agrees, believing it to be her chance to gain entry into the male-only literature program. But as the two delve deeper into Myrddin’s history, strange happenings begin to occur around Hiraeth Manor. Reid wields lyricism, dark academia, and fairy-core elements to eloquently imbue the narrative with originality and depth. The rivals-to-lovers romance is swoonworthy, and the seaside crags and fetid gothic mansion render a deeply evocative setting that ferries themes surrounding grief, gender, and the value of folklore. Major characters cue as white. Ages 14–up. Agent: Sarah Landis, Sterling Lord Literistic.

August 1, 2023
A young woman faces her past to discover the truth about one of her nation's heroes. When Effy Sayre, the only female architecture student at her university in Llyr, wins the competition to design Hiraeth Manor for the estate of the late Emrys Myrddin, national literary figure and her favorite author, it is the perfect opportunity to leave behind a recent trauma. She arrives to find the cliffside estate is literally crumbling into the ocean, and she quickly realizes things may not be as they seem. Preston, an arrogant literature student, is also working at the estate, gathering materials for the university's archives and questioning everything Effy knows about Myrddin. When Preston offers to include her name on his thesis--which may allow her to pursue the dream of studying literature that was frustrated by the university's refusal to admit women literature students--Effy agrees to help him. He's on a quest for answers about the source of Myrddin's most famous work, Angharad, a romance about a cruel Fairy King who marries a mortal woman. Meanwhile, Myrddin's son has secrets of his own. Preston and Effy start to suspect that Myrddin's fairy tales may hold more truth than they realize. The Welsh-inspired setting is impressively atmospheric, and while some of the mythology ends up feeling extraneous, the worldbuilding is immersive and thoughtfully addresses misogyny and its effects on how history is written. Main characters are cued white. A dark and gripping feminist tale. (Fantasy. 14-18)

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Starred review from October 1, 2023

Gr 10 Up-A dark academia standalone for fans of Holly Black and Erin A. Craig. In her YA debut, Reid has created a world steeped in mythos with a timeless historical feel. Reluctant architecture student Effy Sayre would rather be in the literature college studying the late Emrys Myrddin, whose fairy tales have anchored her through dark times-especially the Angharad, about an evil Fairy King who marries a mortal. When Effy wins the contest Myrddin's family holds to redesign his famed estate, she heads to the strange land that is the Bottom Hundred, and Myrddin's even stranger estate. At the manor, Effy finds a crumbling legacy and Preston, a skeptical student of the literature college who doesn't believe Myrddin wrote his most famous work. Even though Effy and Preston find themselves immediately at odds, Preston offers to put Effy's name on his thesis if she helps his investigation. Soon the strange happenings of the house mean Effy can no longer convince herself the Fairy King isn't real-and if Myrddin's greatest villain is true, what else is hiding here? Reid's evocative writing builds a gothic fairy tale on the bones of family history, casting an incisive look at grief, oppression, and consent through Effy, whose unreliable narration brings further tension to the story. The romance simmers slowly and is put in direct contrast to the other relationships. Main characters are white. VERDICT Make space for this in your collection; Reid's dark and lyrical writing will hold readers captive even after the story ends.-Emmy Neal

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