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 14-17Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 14 Summary
In the morning, Effy encounters the Fairy King. She runs away, baffled, as she’d taken her pills and vowed not to believe in imaginary things. She hopes that when she and Preston uncover the truth, the Fairy King will leave her alone. On her way to the house, Effy meets Ianto, who is preparing the trees for the coming storm. He asks her to bring him his jacket, and she takes the opportunity to steal the key from around his neck. Inside, Effy meets Wetherell, who tells her he is leaving and encourages her to do the same. She and Preston approach the flooded basement, and Effy swims inside. She struggles to retrieve a metal box printed with the word “Angharad.” Back at the guest house, Effy changes from her wet clothes and begs Preston to stay. They have sex and fall asleep for their final night at Hiraeth Manor.
Chapter 15 Summary
Effy wakes to the sound of the approaching storm. They prepare to leave, but they realize Myrddin’s photos and letters are still inside. Near the cliff edge, Effy sees the violent sea and thinks about the legend of the Drowning. She begins to worry that they have brought on a new drowning by soiling Myrddin’s legacy. Inside, they discover that the house is collapsing. Once they reach the study, they meet Ianto; he has received a call from Blackmar informing him of their visit. He has also discovered Preston’s thesis. Effy tries to reason with him, but Ianto tells them he has spoken with the university. He learned about Effy’s experience with Master Corbenic and of Preston’s father’s death. They try to leave, but Ianto holds them at gunpoint. He begins telling them the story of Llyr’s first king, who first used an orphan sacrifice to build his castle. He forces them downstairs to the basement, where he chains Preston and leaves him to drown. He leads Effy away and demands she finish the house plans, believing Preston’s death will ensure its survival. Ianto admits that he chose her specially because no one would miss her. He kisses her, and Effy pushes her hagstones into his mouth. She uses one to look at him through and sees the Fairy King. He takes on his true form and tells her that she has belonged to him since she was reclaimed as a baby from the river. Effy tries to barter Preston’s life but fails. She offers to kneel before him and picks up a shard of a broken chandelier, which she reflects back at him. Defeated, the Fairy King crumbles to nothing.
Chapter 16 Summary
Effy runs to save Preston, who is nearly underwater. He implores Effy to escape alone. She refuses and continues trying to help, and she is unexpectedly aided by someone else. Together, they’re able to free Preston. Turning to her rescuer, Effy recognizes the girl from the photographs. She addresses her as “Angharad.” The three of them take refuge in the guest house. Angharad introduces herself as Myrddin’s widow and Ianto’s mother. She explains how Ianto became the Fairy King’s living vessel, and Effy is relieved to hear someone else who believes in him. Effy tells Angharad that she saw moments where Ianto tried to overcome the Fairy King and was kind to her. Angharad tells them the story of her courtship with Myrddin. He was eventually taken over by the Fairy King, inspiring her story that he later published under his own name. After discovering their affair, her father bartered her and her manuscript to Myrddin in exchange for some of the profits. Effy realizes she was sent away to the guest house in an effort at protecting her from the Fairy King, as it was bound in iron that wards off fairies. They open the metal box that Effy retrieved and discover letters between the two lovers. The box also holds a mirror, which Effy uses to examine herself.
Chapter 17 Summary
Effy and Preston return home and compile their findings. Preston warns that their publication will create social and political upheaval. Angharad rents an apartment nearby, and Effy visits her. She asks Angharad to sign her book for the first time. Back at the university, Rhia announces a homecoming party, and Effy and Preston present their thesis to the literature college. The college head, Dean Fogg, and Preston’s advisor, Master Gosse, are in attendance. They discuss the ramifications of their discovery and the contention that will take place. Dean Fogg tries to displace Effy from the paper, and Preston stands up for her. He announces that without dual authorship, they will sell their work to the newspapers. They agree to offer Effy a place in the literature college, but Effy refuses to accept unless Master Corbenic is fired. They reluctantly agree. At the homecoming party, Rhia interrogates Preston, and Preston debates with fellow literature students. He and Effy go home together, then go to a cafe the next day. They consider what will happen to Myrddin’s legacy.
Chapters 14-17 Analysis
These final chapters encompass the novel’s closing act and denouement. Chapter 14 opens with an observation on the weather: “The rain had already begun the next morning, just a light spray of it” (281). This seemingly harmless opening marks the first moments of what will become a cataclysmic storm, both literally and figuratively. At this point, Effy once again sees the Fairy King in spite of her medication, and, for the first time, in spite of the daylight. This shows how the Fairy King’s power has grown despite Ianto’s efforts to keep him repressed. As the storm gathers, everyone prepares to leave, apart from Ianto, who is forced to remain. As his barrister Weatherell says, “This house is nothing but an ugly, rotting testament to the late Myrddin’s cruelty, and the price Ianto is paying for it” (285). Although Ianto is forced to act as the novel’s primary antagonist, this moment highlights his helplessness in the face of the Fairy King and his noble efforts to contain him.
Once Effy has secured Ianto’s key so that she and Preston can venture into the basement, the story’s primary antagonist shifts to the impersonal force of the natural world. The phrase “the only enemy is the sea” (289) is a repeated motif that arises again here, suggesting a contentious dichotomy between man and nature. Effy goes underwater to retrieve the box containing Angharad’s records, the first stages of escalating conflict within this dichotomy. Afterward, she and Preston finally come together in a culmination of their journey so far, open and unguarded after their shared secrets and experiences. The story then shifts to the ferocity of the storm and what it means for all involved. Effy has a brief crisis of faith as she considers “that the Southerners believed that the Sleepers were the only thing stopping a second Drowning. That Myrddin’s consecration was keeping them safe” (307). Within the house, Hiraeth Manor begins to fall apart as the earthly constraints around the Fairy King are uprooted, symbolizing how Myrddin’s reputation as a cultural touchstone is crumbling. Once they confront Ianto, there is a blending of his two selves; he becomes the crueler version that she had witnessed in the pub. At the same time, however, he leaps to defend his father, enraged by the besmirchment of his memory. This suggests that the Fairy King and Ianto are not necessarily two opposing polarities, but rather a spectrum that blurs between the two.
Once Preston is left behind to be sacrificed, Effy faces the Fairy King alone. Like Angharad in her eponymous novel, Effy ultimately defeats him not through brute strength but through ingenuity. This leads to the novel’s falling action, which still includes hurdles to be overcome by the protagonists: The truth must be revealed, Effy must be accepted into the literature department as desired, and Professor Corbenic must be fired for his actions. Within this section Myrddin’s widow finally makes herself known and reveals her tragic story, clearing up the novel’s guiding mystery and giving Preston the truth he had been searching for—although not in the form he had expected. Finally, Preston and Effy return to school and take their final stand against institutional prejudice and injustice. The novel closes with Effy contemplating her inner growth and her path forward, as well as the childhood innocence she had to sacrifice along the way.
