annotation: A Study in Drowning
Jun. 9th, 2025 06:08 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
matsushima posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
pineislandSince I stopped using the-hellsite-formerly-known-as-Twitter and deleted social media off of my old phone, I often browse Libby booklists when I want to scratch that "mindless scrolling" itch. I can't remember where I found A Study in Drowning. I borrowed it from Boston Public Library but I can't even say for sure if I was browsing one of their booklists or one of the other libraries' and BPL happened to have it available now.
I can't even remember why I clicked through to read more about it; the cover art, the title - none of it has been my "thing" lately… or ever. I'm not into dark academia. I don't read much YA any more. It's been literal decades since I've had much to do with straight-up secondary world fantasy; once I discovered urban/low fantasy, portal fantasy, masquerade fantasy, etc., that's all I've been into.
… but I picked it up anyway.
I was heartened by the blurb from Melissa Albert, because I liked The Hazel Wood - although that's a portal fantasy.
I decided to give it a try. Some of it reminded me a bit of The Golden Compass, although that's probably only the academic setting and that it took me a little while to get my footing on when we are, since everything is dated "AD" and "BD." (I knew something was off when something was written "180 AD," or something - so, clearly, given that they have, at least, knights in armor and chivalry and so on, "AD" here can't mean "anno Domini.")
Well, now I've read about half of it in an evening, despite some minor annoyances - the prose veers on purple, Effy's characterization doesn't always seem consistent. I'm having fun guessing at the mysteries, like what's up with the widowed Mrs. Myrddin? and so on. I'm enjoying the modern but not contemporary setting (wealthy people like Effy's grandparents have a telephone in their home but it's not unusual when she has to go down to the local train station to make a phone call while she's in a remote area) and the "is Effy mentally ill or is the Fairy King real? or both?" kind of thing.
She takes medication to "obliterate her imagination" and I can't tell if that's a metaphor or not? They seem to be a combination risperidone (for hallucinations) and clonazepam (for panic attacks) and she takes them pretty liberally, often dry swallowing two pills at a time before she even has symptoms if she's going into a situation likely to cause a panic attack/hallucination - or where she's likely to see the Fairy King if he is actually real, which the text seems to imply that he is. Effy definitely believes the Fairy King is real and that her medications stop her from seeing him; I'm curious how that will be resolved.
I can't even remember why I clicked through to read more about it; the cover art, the title - none of it has been my "thing" lately… or ever. I'm not into dark academia. I don't read much YA any more. It's been literal decades since I've had much to do with straight-up secondary world fantasy; once I discovered urban/low fantasy, portal fantasy, masquerade fantasy, etc., that's all I've been into.
… but I picked it up anyway.
I was heartened by the blurb from Melissa Albert, because I liked The Hazel Wood - although that's a portal fantasy.
I decided to give it a try. Some of it reminded me a bit of The Golden Compass, although that's probably only the academic setting and that it took me a little while to get my footing on when we are, since everything is dated "AD" and "BD." (I knew something was off when something was written "180 AD," or something - so, clearly, given that they have, at least, knights in armor and chivalry and so on, "AD" here can't mean "anno Domini.")
Well, now I've read about half of it in an evening, despite some minor annoyances - the prose veers on purple, Effy's characterization doesn't always seem consistent. I'm having fun guessing at the mysteries, like what's up with the widowed Mrs. Myrddin? and so on. I'm enjoying the modern but not contemporary setting (wealthy people like Effy's grandparents have a telephone in their home but it's not unusual when she has to go down to the local train station to make a phone call while she's in a remote area) and the "is Effy mentally ill or is the Fairy King real? or both?" kind of thing.
She takes medication to "obliterate her imagination" and I can't tell if that's a metaphor or not? They seem to be a combination risperidone (for hallucinations) and clonazepam (for panic attacks) and she takes them pretty liberally, often dry swallowing two pills at a time before she even has symptoms if she's going into a situation likely to cause a panic attack/hallucination - or where she's likely to see the Fairy King if he is actually real, which the text seems to imply that he is. Effy definitely believes the Fairy King is real and that her medications stop her from seeing him; I'm curious how that will be resolved.
