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Effy Sayre has always believed in the stories told in the southern part of her country, where people are more superstitious. It’s been hard not to, since she’s been plagued since childhood by visions of the terrifying Fairy King. Her only source of solace has been the wildly popular book Angharad, which tells the story of a mortal woman taken for a wife by the Fairy King. Because she loves the book, Effy has likewise adored its reclusive author, Emrys Myrddin.
Effy is the only female student in architecture at her college; she’d like to be in literature, but that department doesn’t admit women at all. She’s struggling for various reasons but pushing on. Then she sees a poster announcing a contest to design a home for Myrddin’s family. He’s recently died and his family are hoping to update their house. Effy can’t resist applying, and somehow, she wins. And then she’s off to the part of the country called “the Bottom Hundred.”
On the edge of a cliff in that area, known for having lost land and people to The Drowning two centuries before, Hiraeth Manor as it stands is a wet, crumbling-down mess. Effy is astonished and confused at the terrible condition it’s in. She’s also confused by the sometimes-strange behavior of the host, the author’s son.
Another complication? Another student from her college has taken up residence, doing research using Myrddin’s letters, books and diaries. Preston Héloury is a literature student, smug and uptight, and is seeking to prove that Myrddin wasn’t the real author of Angharad. It’s abominable.
Effy’s stay at Hiraeth Manor is uncomfortable and strange, and it gets scary. Her visions increase and she’s having a hard time convincing herself the stories are just stories. Why was she chosen to come to the manor? Why does she have the visions? How can she stop them? And could Preston be right? What dark secrets is the manor hiding?
A Study in Drowning is a gothic tale complete with a crumbling-down mansion, plenty of mysteries and secrets, and paranormal elements. I enjoyed it fairly well but was confused throughout by the setting. The story is not set in our world, but in fictional countries with their own superstitions and histories, geography, etc. Women can attend universities but are limited in what they can study. The months are the same as ours but years are different (oriented around a major flooding event). What’s particularly odd is that they have cars and telephones. That jarred me. It’s hard to explain why, but it all just didn’t fit. Of course, authors can make up whatever kinds of worlds work for them, but the mix of elements just didn’t work well for me, for some reason. It distracted me from the story.
Otherwise, it’s a satisfactory fantasy book with a sweet romance.
Rated: Moderate. Profanity includes just 10 uses of mild language. Sexual content includes kissing and some sex scenes. They are not very detailed and erotic but aren’t completely brief and not-detailed, either. Violence includes a number of references to young women being preyed upon by older, more powerful men, with some sexual assault involved; some neglect and brief abandonment by a parent; threats with a gun; leaving a character to die by drowning.
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