45 pages • 1 hour read
Ava ReidA Study in Drowning
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2023A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 10-13Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 10 Summary
Effy and Preston are both restless—Preston because of his encounter with Ianto and Effy because of the things she has seen and potentially hallucinated. They argue about Blackmar and the country’s superstitions, with Preston believing that everyone should always try to tell the truth. She asks him his opinion on ghosts, and Preston explains that he believes ghost sightings are manifestations of human emotions. They make plans to visit Blackmar. Preston reveals that he’s already tried to reach out, but his letter was returned without response. He shows it to Effy, and Effy admonishes the stoic, academic approach. Effy writes another letter, this time filled with flattery. While she waits for a response, she and Ianto discuss her plans. Ianto is in a better mood, and Effy asks after his absent mother. They discuss his family and Myrddin’s impoverished upbringing.
Soon after, Effy receives an enthusiastic response from Blackmar. It’s addressed to her real name, Euphemia. Preston seems disconcerted by her name and asks her if she was a changeling. In southern culture, changelings were children who had been abandoned by their mothers and reclaimed by others, usually fairies. They were given the names of mythic saints. Effy recounts the traumatic story of her childhood in which her mother left her behind at a river, and the Fairy King came to claim her. However, her mother changed her mind and returned at the last moment. The Fairy King took her ring finger so that no one else could give her a wedding ring. Preston struggles with her story, suggesting that she conjured images of the Fairy King to deal with the trauma of being abandoned. That evening, Effy returns to her guest house and repeats lines from Angharad to herself. She sees the Fairy King outside and hides herself in the cottage before taking her sleeping pills and going to sleep.
Chapter 11 Summary
Effy and Preston make plans to go see Blackmar. They develop a cover story to tell Ianto, and Effy asks him if she can take a few days away. Ianto is initially reluctant but encourages her to go after a visible internal struggle. As she and Preston leave the house, Ianto watches them enviously. They drive through the countryside and discuss their quest. Preston states that he thinks Blackmar is the true author of Angharad. Later, Effy asks if Preston has a girlfriend. He says no, and they both become embarrassed. They bond over their minority status—he as the only Argantian in the literature college, and she as the only woman at the architecture college. They arrive at Blackmar’s estate, which is luxurious and ostentatious in contrast to Myrddin’s decrepit home. Blackmar, an ancient man, greets them enthusiastically. They explore the house, where Blackmar offers them brandy and they talk about his relationship with Myrddin. Blackmar reveals that Myrddin worked for his household. Once Effy mentions Angharad, Blackmar becomes evasive. He suggests they speak to his editor, Marlowe, who will be coming the following day. Effy and Preston spend the night at the house; however, Effy realizes she’s forgotten her sleeping pills. She tells Preston that she suffers from severe anxiety without them, and he offers to spend the night in her room so she’ll feel less afraid. They lie down together, and Preston quotes some sayings in his native language. Once Preston falls asleep, Effy examines him through her hagstone and finds he looks the same. The next day, Effy mourns the distance between them.
Chapter 12 Summary
Effy and Preston get ready for their day, and Effy explores her room. She looks beneath her bed and discovers several discarded scraps of paper. They turn out to be letters from Myrddin to a secret lover. In the final letter, Myrddin recounts something the woman told him; Effy recognizes it as a famous line from Angharad. She and Preston realize Myrddin must have been having an affair with Blackmar’s daughter. Exploring further, Effy discovers an iron knife hidden in the room. She and Preston go downstairs and discover a banquet laid out. However, Blackmar admonishingly tells them the food is reserved for their party that evening. Effy and Preston recognize an opportunity to learn more. As they prepare, Effy suggests that the girl from the photos was Blackmar’s daughter. At the party, she and Preston speak with Blackmar and Marlowe. However, Marlowe is badly drunk and overtly flirts with Effy. When she asks Marlowe about Blackmar’s daughter, Blackmar intervenes and cuts the conversation short. Marlowe offers Effy information in exchange for a dance, and Effy sees the Fairy King behind him. Preston comes to her aid and leads Effy away to dance. Once the song finishes, they quickly leave the house.
Chapter 13 Summary
Preston and Effy drive rapidly away, and Effy becomes overcome with despair at the loss of her literary hero. Preston comforts her as she considers the ramifications of her favorite work and her experiences with the Fairy King. She decides that there is no magic after all, and her mind is simply unbalanced. Preston begins telling her the story of his father, who sustained a brain injury from a car crash. He began to mentally deteriorate until he died shortly after. After his death, they learned that he had suffered from damage due to water in his brain. They continue on their journey to Hiraeth, and Effy retires to the guest cottage. The next morning, Ianto tells them a fierce storm is approaching in two days’ time. He asks to speak with Effy alone, and when Preston leaves, Ianto enquires about their trip and accuses her of seduction. She goes to see Preston, visibly shaken by her encounter. They discuss Myrddin’s relationship with Blackmar’s daughter and decide to explore the house’s sunken basement. Effy promises to secure the key and go into the basement herself, and Preston becomes angry at her recklessness. Effy tries to seduce him, but Preston keeps her away, citing her negative experience with Master Corbenic. Effy realizes he must have heard rumors and known the whole time. He admits his longing for her but doesn’t want to act on it.
Chapters 10-13 Analysis
This section focuses on the development of Effy and Preston’s relationship and the internal storyline following their visit to the Blackmar estate. Chapter 10 largely follows dialogue between Preston and Effy as they discuss their contrasting perspectives on The Variability of Truth, ghosts, and the unknown. Some of these contrasting perspectives are illustrated in the letters each sends to Blackmar; Preston believes in objective, austere truth, while Effy is not afraid to lie where necessary. At this point, Effy also reveals the truth about her childhood abandonment and her encounter with the Fairy King. This deepens Preston’s understanding of her along with the reader’s. Although this could become a point of contention between Effy and Preston—as their attitudes toward the unknown are not complementary—Preston’s kindness toward her grief brings them closer together.
The following chapters focus on their journey to see Colin Blackmar, beginning with detaching themselves from Hiraeth Manor. In this scene, Effy witnesses a battle of wills between Ianto and the Fairy King, though she doesn’t yet understand what she’s seeing. As they depart for their journey, Effy sees hints of Ianto’s inner conflict:
It was neither the cloudy-eyed, jovial Ianto nor the bright-eyed, dangerous Ianto. It took Effy a moment to decipher the look in his pale eyes as they skimmed from her to Preston and back again. But it was worse than she had ever imagined: worse than fury or loathing or wrath. It was envy (209).
This offers more mystery to Ianto’s actions and intentions. Instead of being recklessly cruel or clinging to his home for unknowable reasons, it’s implied that there is something he wants that Preston and Effy possess: freedom. It elicits uncertainty about Ianto as a character at least and sympathy at most. Here, the novel alludes to the later revelation that Ianto is a tragic figure holding himself trapped in his home in order to limit the reach of the Fairy King.
Once they arrive at Blackmar’s estate, the manor is used as a foil setting to Hiraeth; its grandeur and opulence juxtaposes Hiraeth’s squalor and decay. Although Preston assumes the wealth is a result of “family money” (218), this is the first hint that there was substantial amounts of money involved in the juggling of Angharad. When Effy and Preston spend their first, chaste night together, the novel incorporates phrases of the fictional Argantian language to enhance the worldbuilding of its fantasy setting. At this point, Effy begins falling in love with Preston, her earlier animosity forgotten. As they discover letters between Angharad and Myrddin, they recognize words and phrases that would later appear in the fictional novel. In particular, Effy struggles with the revelation that Myrddin had been “lying beside a young girl while she spoke aloud Angharad’s most famous line” (242). This is the first clue that the young woman whom he was seducing may have been the mastermind behind the story after all.
At Blackmar’s party, the novel takes on a fairy tale quality despite its sociopolitical and academic undertones. Effy and Preston are both forced to dress up and end up sharing a dance together, with Preston playing the heroic role. Later, Preston shares the story of his father’s death—a confession of an intimate tragedy that mirrors Effy’s earlier story about her own childhood trauma. Through this, they create a two-way bond in which each has seen the deepest and most hidden parts of each other. This story reveals details about the reasons behind the choices he makes, such as his fear of drowning and his reliance on seatbelts. Later, however, when Effy attempts to initiate sex with Preston, he declines. This marks a turning point in their relationship as they move toward the final act.
