About the Author: “Ava Reid is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of gothic fantasies, including A Study in Drowning, Juniper & Thorn, and Lady Macbeth. She lives in California” (Bio from author’s Goodreads).
Find Ava Reid on the following platforms:
As the only female architecture student in her department, Effy is an outcast who can’t seem to stay afloat. Her last chance to save her academic career comes in the form of a selective estate remodeling project, where she will spend six weeks at the property. When she arrives at the crumbling mansion, she is surprised to meet the son of the owner and an Argentinian scholar. As it turns out, he was given a position on the school faculty over her simply because of his gender. Surrounded by secrets, scholars, and odd dreams, Effy finds herself burdened with more than just a school project.
This is a feminist piece that explores the struggles of women in the workplace, yet also focuses on the importance of romance and friendship, which I think everyone could benefit from reading.
Reid can write a killer romance, and sapphic literature is well within her range, as seen in her most recent release. Inesa may be struggling, but she refuses to stack up debt like her hypochondriac mother. She runs a taxidermy shop with her brother, working to support their mother since their father ran away to the edge of New Amsterdam in search of liberation. When her mother racks up too much debt and finds herself having to choose a lamb for the Gauntlet, Inesa is thrown to the wolves. Being hunted by a superhuman “angel,” Inesa has to survive 13 days in the wilderness, where the angel is not her only enemy. Angels are programmed to have no remorse, but Inesa lights a fire within Melinoe and triggers her humanity once again.
I didn’t know I needed a dystopian, sapphic read in my life until I picked this book up, but once I started reading it, I only fell deeper into the plot. A must-read for sapphic literature lovers.
Read my review here!
Another retelling by Reid, Lady Macbeth, is the feminist, female perspective we never got from Shakespeare. Roscille, a bastard woman with a powerful gift, is sent to Glammis to wed Macbeth. Bossed around by her father her entire life, the new Lady Macbeth decides to take advantage of her new title. Although she is surrounded by men, Roscille challenges them by taking charge and making her own decisions, manipulating even her husband into doing her bidding.
Although Shakespeare may be difficult to understand, Reid stays true to the style without confusing the reader. The best part is, you don’t have to know Macbeth to read it!
Évike is the only person without power living in a pagan community where each person is blessed by the gods. When the day comes and someone must be given to the Holy Order of Woodsmen, Évike is offered without hesitation. On their way out of the village, the group is attacked by monsters. The only survivors are Évike and the disguised prince, and the two bond over shared experiences despite their mutual loathing. Romance, justice, and self-discovery are the main themes of this book, and Reid does a good job of captivating the reader.
Ava Reid is a young author, but her bookshelf is already filled with diverse and interesting stories. In the near future, the sequel to A Study in Drowning, titled A Theory of Dreaming, will be released, and I can’t wait for the ideas that will follow in the coming years. Reid surprises me every time with her folkloric details and gentle romances combined with the occasional tragic ending, and I’ll always pick up what she puts out.
Callie Andrews, Pine Reads Review Writer, Social Media, and Web