Ava Reid has written a stunning sequel to A Study in Drowning.
Effy Sayre and Preston Héloury are still feeling the after-events of their controversial takedown of beloved author Emrys Myrddin. Effy is now the only female student in the literature college and hates the soulless, formulaic syllabus and the constant gendered discrimination, while Preston is haunted by the threat of war against his homeland. His university supervisor starts pressuring him to join his latest project: a form of lucid dreaming using Llyrian magic. But when Preston slips into his dream world, his visions of a mysterious underwater palace start eerily mirroring real life.
While Drowning was mainly focused on Effy, Dreaming is absolutely Preston’s story. He faces intense xenophobia due to his multi-cultural heritage, and this trauma manifests through his desperation to stay in the idealised dream world. He is a character you truly care for, and his devotion to Effy is very sweet to read.
A LOT happens in this sequel. We’re thrown into the bustling city of Caer-Isel, and the story is split between religion and magic. Reid retreads the same plot beats of stolen authorship, exploitation and women being written out of history, this time focusing on two epic poems called ‘The Neriad’ and ‘A Garden in Stone’. The mystery surrounding these poems is compelling, but I felt like the book’s multiple plot threads wrapped up very quickly. But that might be because A Theory of Dreaming had me hooked and I finished it in two sittings. I loved it!
Reviewed by Rachel Denham-White
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ava Reid was born in Manhattan and raised right across the Hudson River in Hoboken, but currently lives in Palo Alto, where the weather is too sunny and the people are too friendly. She has a degree in political science from Barnard College, focusing on religion and ethnonationalism.
Ava Reid is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Study in Drowning, Lady Macbeth, and other novels. Her books have been published in over fourteen territories.
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