
A Study in Drowning
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Narrated by:
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Saskia Maarleveld
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By:
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Ava Reid
About this listen
An instant Indie and #1 New York Times bestseller!
“Achingly atmospheric and beautifully sharp, A Study in Drowning will draw you in from the first page.”—Rory Power, New York Times bestselling author of Wilder Girls
Bestselling author Ava Reid makes her YA debut in this dark academic fantasy perfect for fans of Melissa Albert and Elana K. Arnold.
Effy Sayre has always believed in fairy tales. Haunted by visions of the Fairy King since childhood, she’s had no choice. Her tattered copy of Angharad—Emrys Myrddin’s epic about a mortal girl who falls in love with the Fairy King, then destroys him—is the only thing keeping her afloat. So when Myrddin’s family announces a contest to redesign the late author’s estate, Effy feels certain it’s her destiny.
But musty, decrepit Hiraeth Manor is an impossible task, and its residents are far from welcoming. Including Preston Héloury, a stodgy young literature scholar determined to expose Myrddin as a fraud. As the two rivals piece together clues about Myrddin’s legacy, dark forces, both mortal and magical, conspire against them—and the truth may bring them both to ruin.
Part historical fantasy, part rivals-to-lovers romance, part Gothic mystery, and all haunting, dreamlike atmosphere, Ava Reid's powerful YA debut will lure in listeners who loved The Atlas Six, House of Salt and Sorrows, or Girl, Serpent, Thorn.
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Critic reviews
"Saskia Maarleveld's brisk narration sweeps listeners into an atmospheric setting that blends fantasy and reality. Maarleveld portrays the dissatisfaction and resentment of literature-loving Effy Sayre, whose gender is holding her back at architecture school.... Maarleveld animates all the characters, whether human or fairy. Most notable is her portrayal of Effy's caring fellow student, Preston, who partners with her in a literature project involving mysteries about the past. Maarleveld builds their attraction as it blossoms into romance." (AudioFIle)
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Predictable? Riveting!
- By Julia on 03-03-25
By: Pascale Lacelle
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Juniper & Thorn
- A Novel
- By: Ava Reid
- Narrated by: Stina Nielsen
- Length: 11 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Marlinchen and her two sisters live with their wizard father in a city shifting from magic to industry. As Oblya’s last true witches, she and her sisters are little more than a tourist trap as they treat their clients with archaic remedies and beguile them with nostalgic charm. Marlinchen spends her days divining secrets in exchange for rubles and trying to placate her tyrannical, xenophobic father, who keeps his daughters sequestered from the outside world.
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Revenge Fantasy for Abuse Victims
- By BadKarmaCupcake on 11-02-22
By: Ava Reid
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What the River Knows
- A Novel
- By: Isabel Ibañez
- Narrated by: Ahmed Hamad, Ana Osorio
- Length: 16 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Bolivian-Argentinian Inez Olivera belongs to the glittering upper society of nineteenth century Buenos Aires, and like the rest of the world, the town is steeped in old world magic that’s been largely left behind or forgotten. Inez has everything a girl might want, except for the one thing she yearns the most: her globetrotting parents—who frequently leave her behind.
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Terrible pacing.
- By Petra on 06-02-24
By: Isabel Ibañez
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Nightbirds
- By: Kate J. Armstrong
- Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld
- Length: 12 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Fiercely feminist and set in a thrilling, intoxicating world evoking the Jazz Age—full of speakeasies with magic cocktails, sharp-edged, duplicitous glamour, and handsome rogue alchemists—Nightbirds is an exciting debut fantasy that dazzles as powerful girls emerge from the shadows to determine their own fates.
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Fun listen
- By Ana Grimaldi on 03-25-23
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Where the Dark Stands Still
- By: A. B. Poranek
- Narrated by: Ola Forman
- Length: 11 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Liska knows that magic is monstrous, and its practitioners are monsters. She has done everything possible to suppress her own magic, to disastrous consequences. Desperate to be free of it, Liska flees her small village and delves into the dangerous, demon-inhabited spirit-wood to steal a mythical fern flower. If she plucks it, she can use its one wish to banish her powers.
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2.8/5
- By Juliana on 04-15-25
By: A. B. Poranek
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After the Forest
- By: Kell Woods
- Narrated by: Esther Wane
- Length: 13 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Twenty years after the witch in the gingerbread house, Greta and Hans are struggling to get by. Their mother and stepmother are long dead, Hans is deeply in debt from gambling, and the countryside lies in ruin, its people starving in the aftermath of a brutal war. Greta has a secret, though: the witch's grimoire, secreted away and whispering in Greta's ear for the past two decades, and the recipe inside that makes the best gingerbread you've ever tasted. As long as she can bake, Greta can keep her small family afloat.
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Fantastic!
- By Brazilla A. Leonard on 11-07-23
By: Kell Woods
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The Library at Hellebore
- By: Cassandra Khaw
- Narrated by: Natalie Naudus
- Length: 9 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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The Hellebore Technical Institute for the Gifted is the premier academy for the dangerously powerful: the Anti-Christs and Ragnaroks, the world-eaters and apocalypse-makers. Hellebore promises redemption, acceptance, and a normal life after graduation. At least, that’s what Alessa Li is told after she’s kidnapped and forcibly enrolled. But the Institute is more than just a haven for monsters. On graduation day, the faculty go on a ravenous rampage, feasting on Alessa’s classmates.
By: Cassandra Khaw
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Repeat after Me
- By: Jessica Warman
- Narrated by: Tina Wolstencroft, Matt Weisgerber
- Length: 10 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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It was already a weird Friday. My class is stuck on an eerily remote island for our senior trip, I’m pretty sure Mr. D (“call me Max”) is hiding something from us, my ex–best friend turned nemesis keeps stealing my candy, and tonight’s plan for my boyfriend and me to finally lose our virginity to each other is going hellishly. I mean, ceviche is delicious, don’t get me wrong. But a dish made from a supposedly immortal octopus should really come with a warning label.
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I like it, but so many questions at the end
- By Sota on 01-26-25
By: Jessica Warman
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Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries
- Book One of the Emily Wilde Series
- By: Heather Fawcett
- Narrated by: Ell Potter, Michael Dodds
- Length: 12 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Cambridge professor Emily Wilde is good at many things: She is the foremost expert on the study of faeries. She is a genius scholar and a meticulous researcher who is writing the world’s first encyclopaedia of faerie lore. But Emily Wilde is not good at people. She could never make small talk at a party—or even get invited to one. And she prefers the company of her books, her dog, Shadow, and the Fair Folk to other people. So when she arrives in the hardscrabble village of Hrafnsvik, Emily has no intention of befriending the gruff townsfolk.
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Enjoyable Fantasy Read
- By Jordan Brubaker on 07-03-23
By: Heather Fawcett
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Blood Heir
- By: Amélie Wen Zhao
- Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller
- Length: 13 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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In the Cyrilian Empire, Affinites are reviled. Their varied gifts to control the world around them are unnatural - dangerous. And Anastacya Mikhailov, the crown princess, has a terrifying secret. Her deadly Affinity to blood is her curse and the reason she has lived her life hidden behind palace walls. When Ana's father, the emperor, is murdered, her world is shattered. Framed as his killer, Ana must flee the palace to save her life. And to clear her name, she must find her father's murderer on her own.
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By the end, I was in trepidation
- By Rami Ungar on 04-07-20
By: Amélie Wen Zhao
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The Hurricane Wars
- A Novel
- By: Thea Guanzon
- Narrated by: Jeanne Syquia
- Length: 16 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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All Talasyn has ever known is the Hurricane Wars. Growing up an orphan in a nation under siege by the ruthless Night Emperor, she found her family among the soldiers who fight for freedom. But she is hiding a deadly secret: light magic courses through her veins, a blazing power believed to have been wiped out years ago that can cut through the Night Empire’s shadows.
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DNF...
- By Zhana Johnson on 04-23-24
By: Thea Guanzon
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A Fragile Enchantment
- By: Allison Saft
- Narrated by: Fran Burgoyne
- Length: 14 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Niamh Ó Conchobhair has never let herself long for more. The magic in her blood that lets her stitch emotions and memories into fabric is the same magic that will eventually kill her. Determined to spend the little time she has left guaranteeing a better life for her family, Niamh jumps at the chance to design the wardrobe for a royal wedding in the neighboring kingdom of Avaland.
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A PRIDE AND MAGICAL PREJUDICE
- By 🐺 SCARLET PIMPERNEL 🐺 on 01-26-24
By: Allison Saft
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Bound by Dragons
- By: Alisha Klapheke
- Narrated by: Caitlin Davies
- Length: 3 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Talia is half-fae. Wrong blood. Wrong ancestors. Wrong everything. She'll never be allowed to become a Mist Knight, the dragon riding warriors who defend the kingdoms wild north coast. But when the noble female she squires for runs off with a bar keep, she decides to take the nobles place, risk death by fire, and sneak into the tournament that will name the next Mist Knight.
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Amazing Characters-Did Not Want it to End!
- By Lisa on 02-25-25
By: Alisha Klapheke
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A Door in the Dark
- By: Scott Reintgen
- Narrated by: Jesse Vilinsky
- Length: 11 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Ren Monroe has spent four years proving she’s one of the best wizards in her generation. But top marks at Balmerick University will mean nothing if she fails to get recruited into one of the major houses. Enter Theo Brood. After a failed and disastrous party trick, fate has the two of them crossing paths at the public waxway portal the day before holiday. A fight breaks out. In the chaos, the portal spell malfunctions. All six students are snatched from the safety of the school’s campus and set down in the middle of nowhere. And one of them is dead on arrival.
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Why
- By Ted Alling on 06-01-23
By: Scott Reintgen
Not what I expected
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Loved it!
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I enjoyed the read!
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This one brought me into its world and resonated on a deep level like few can. I'm going to buy a paper copy for my bookshelf so I can re-read and let others borrow and reliah as needed. Thank you!
ripples in a tar puddle
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The writing style
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gripping, dark, mysterious and riveting
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Overall Ava Reid writes a good gothic story and the narrator knocks it out of the park. Some of the establishing of the MC's trauma felt heavy handed to me, and I was initially skeptical of the male MC. The story and characters however developed and wrapped up nicely. My favorite part of this book was the delicious gothic prose.
Gothic novel vibes with a TW
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Great! Narrated beautifully, love her accent
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*Could* be useful if you’ve experienced SA and need a story to latch onto about overcoming your fear and frustration.
SA!
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Riveting
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