Ava Reid and Her Problematic “Theme”: Xenophobia

plus the other shit I found out while researching

An Introduction to the Problem

Last year, I read Ava Reid’s A Study in Drowning (ASID), hoping to love it, but instead, it fell flat. I had many issues with it and thought that maybe this was the only work I wouldn’t like, so I wanted to try out Lady Macbeth (LM) by her in the future.

However, these books have one thing in common that is weirdly very present yet glossed over by many people: xenophobia. And not like, the theme of xenophobia is brought up within the book and dealt with, no. The female main character (fmc) in ASID is xenophobic towards the male main character (mmc) quite glaringly throughout the book until maybe the middle to end.

I didn’t read LM by her, however, I have heard from a couple of people who did read the book that there are moments of xenophobia. I let it go at first, pledging to not read it anymore, but it kept bothering me. Same with ASID; I put the book out of my mind after reading it, but when I came across multiple reviews of this book and not once mention the xenophobia, I felt like I was crazy. I don’t care if you enjoyed it, by the way, I am not bashing lovers of this book. I just genuinely thought maybe it wasn’t as prevalent or a big deal as I thought it was.

So I did some research (aka Reddit and StoryGraph reviews) of LM in particular to see if anyone mentioned xenophobia since I didn’t read it. I also looked up information about ASID to see if there was a reason why there were themes of xenophobia. Spoiler alert, I didn’t get much, so really this is just a post about me putting my thoughts out there for others to read and/or maybe educate themselves on the books. Unfortunately, this has an unsatisfying ending research-wise.

Xenophobia in A Study in Drowning

Synopsis

From Goodreads:

“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.”

Apparently, this book is getting a sequel. I honestly thought the ending of ASID was sufficient enough that it didn’t need one, but I guess I was wrong.

Anyway, I still have my copy of ASID, so I will use direct quotes from the book to showcase some of Effy's xenophobic comments. Not all, because this would be too long, but definitely some that had me raising my eyebrows in shock.

The Xenophobia

When Effy first finds out that Preston is Argantian, she is shocked and says a few weird things to him and to herself:

“I don’t know why you care about Myrddin at all. He’s our national author. Not yours. Have you even read his books?” pg. 54

And a few paragraphs later…

“‘You want to be the first to tell his life story. You’re — you’re just the academic equivalent of a carpetbagger.’ An Argantian trying to write the narrative of a Lyrian icon’s life — of Myrddin’s life — it was an aberrant that she was at a loss for further words. […] Underneath the righteous anger she felt about an Argantian perverting Myrddin’s legacy, there was something deeper and more painful.” pg. 54-5

I understand her shock and confusion as to why Preston would want to write Myrddin’s life story, but all the undertones of xenophobia there are just so unnecessary.

“I mean, how many Argantians want to study Llyrian literature? Underneath it was a second, unspoken question: What gives them the right?” pg. 90

Girl… why are you so against the idea of an Argantian person studying Llyrian literature? Like honestly, it’s very annoying at this point in the book.

“Of course he wouldn’t believe in Sleeper magic, being a heathen Argantian and an academic to boot.” pg. 110

And then she accuses him of sabotaging the war between Llyr and Argant because Preston thinks that exposing Myrddin would be a justified loss of morale for Llryian soldiers. How much more ridiculous can she be?

And here, probably the most blatant example of Effy’s xenophobia towards Preston and Argantians in general:

“‘[…] I bet you hate it when people paint Argantians in such broad strokes. You know, most Llyrians think Argantians are cold, leering little weasels who believe in nothing but mining rights and profile margins. I can’t say you’re doing much to dispel those beliefs.” pg. 125

She does have some regret in saying this to Preston, but she has no problem thinking similar things to herself.

Those are just some examples, I don’t really feel like going through the whole book, to be honest, but Effy really doesn’t stop her prejudiced thoughts until near the end. She ends up apologizing to Preston and he just forgives her easily. Otherwise, it’s never addressed. This is why I don’t really care for Preston and Effy as a couple, and I am not interested in the second book coming out, A Theory of Dreaming.

Breton Language Controversy

This is something I found out while researching Ava Reid’s xenophobia in her books, but I thought it was appropriate to mention. All information on this part is from this Reddit post.

The poster talks about the language Breton, a “Celtic language that’s very close to Welsh from the Celtic nation of Brittany, a region in the northwest of France”. They saw a whole quote written in Breton in ASID, and they were excited because their culture was seemingly being represented in a popular book.

However, they voice their discomfort with the Breton language being used because, in ASID, it’s used as a “made up” language, Argantian. It’s put against the Llryians, which takes from the Welsh. Reid also does not bring any acknowledgement to the language in her book or anywhere she talks about ASID in interviews.

This is particularly problematic because Breton is classified as severely endangered by UNESCO. This is directly from the poster:

“It's a language from a region and a people that have been vilified and reduced to nothing by the French government for centuries. My grandparents were beaten at school when they were caught speaking it. You can't use Breton letters in names you want to give your French children to this day and until recently, Breton names were sometimes straight up denied. France is still trying to stop the efforts that have been made to make Breton relevant again, to preserve the language and the culture that go with it, because it's just not French enough.”

The poster says that it feels like cultural appropriation, and I would agree. Reid took an endangered language and posed it as made-up Argantian with no acknowledgment in sight. With how much I’m sure she researched the Breton language to use it in her book, I highly doubt she didn’t come across the knowledge of it being endangered.

This is not her first time appropriating a language; in her other book, The Wolf and the Woodsman, she uses Finnish words as a fantasy language, and the words wouldn’t match their meaning in the contexts they were used. This came up in the comment section of the Reddit post.

This is very reminiscent of Rebecca Yarros, author of Fourth Wing, appropriating the Scottish Gaelic language in all three of the books in her series without any acknowledgment of the language (wrote more about that here).

Authors need to take more accountability for the languages they use as “fantasy languages”, especially when they are minoritized or endangered languages. I am disappointed to not see more about this in reviews of the book or in bookish spaces. This is the first I’ve heard of it. It’s safe to say that I will most likely not be reading any more of Reid’s books.

Somewhat Enjoyable

Despite everything I talked about above, I did like some aspects of this story. I rated this 2.5 stars, not 1, so there were some things I enjoyed.

Even though Effy shows a lot of prejudice against Preston, their bickering (when Effy is not being a bully) is entertaining to read. A lot of times in academic rivals to lovers or enemies to lovers, the mmc is just mean to the fmc, and I did see a lack of that in this book. Even though, in my honest opinion, he could’ve been rude because of her xenophobia, but I digress.

Reid is also a great atmospheric writer. She knows how to set a scene and the feeling of the book. When Effy kept thinking she saw the Fairy King, I could feel the undercurrent of dread. Especially that scene near the beginning where she escapes the car when Ianto, Myrddin’s son, is driving her and giving major creepy vibes, I could feel the impression she was trying to give off with the heavy rain and cold air.

Honestly, that’s all I can think of at the moment that I enjoyed in the book. At least, those were the moments that stuck with me all these months later after reading it.

Xenophobia in Lady Macbeth

Synopsis

From Goodreads:

“The Lady knows the stories: how her eyes induce madness in men.
The Lady knows she will be wed to the Scottish brute, who does not leave his warrior ways behind when he comes to the marriage bed.
The Lady knows his hostile, suspicious court will be a game of strategy, requiring all of her wiles and hidden witchcraft to survive.
But the Lady does not know her husband has occult secrets of his own. She does not know that prophecy girds him like armor. She does not know that her magic is greater and more dangerous, and that it will threaten the order of the world.
She does not know this yet. But she will.”

General Commentary

Okay, first of all, that cover is amazing. I love it so much. Sometimes the prettiest covers are sacrificed to mediocre books.

To be honest, I’ve never read Macbeth by Shakespeare (I know don’t kill me) so, even if I had read this, I wouldn’t be able to comment on its accuracy to the original play. However, the general consensus I’ve seen from multiple reviews/reviewers is that it does not really do the original play or Lady Macbeth justice. It is a feminist (I think) retelling, so of course it’ll be different, but many have pointed out the inaccuracies and how it’s not really a feminist retelling because of how Lady Macbeth and other women are treated/viewed.

Before getting onto the xenophobia part, I have to apologize that the majority of my information on this part is from reviews from different people. I wish I had more credible sources (like the book itself) but unfortunately, this is the best I can do. I understand that reviews are not always 100% accurate and you should form your own opinions on this book; however, the reviews I have come across mention the same things from the book so I don’t have any reason to believe that they lied or exaggerated these scenes.

The Xenophobia

In LM, the issue is the xenophobia towards Scottish people in the book. I will be referencing two reviews of the book that mention its xenophobia. The first part will be from this review.

The reviewer brings up how Scottish people are represented in this book. They write:

“There are no women in the castle, so it is all men, all of whom are a mix of brutish, stupid, easily manipulated, cruel, ugly, and predatory. The only Scottish women we meet are ugly, monstrous, or victimized, if sometimes kind and well-meaning. […] Similarly, if any of the good men we interact with where Scottish, then it would be less of an issue. But they’re not. The only ‘good’ men we meet are half-English, and even then one of them inherits monstrous traits from his Scottish side. What that leaves us with is very strange, borderline xenophobic, representation of all Scottish people (in this book) as brutes who are less civilized, and much crueler, than the rest of the world.”

They go on to explain that it’s not an issue with Roscille who has negative experiences with Scottish people; it’s the fact that Reid characterizes all Scottish people in her novel as these horrible, brutish people, so much to the point of it becoming objective in the narrative. I’m sure that Scottish people would not like to see themselves characterized this way, even if it is a fictional book. Books have an impact, and I think Reid went about this in the most insensitive way possible.

The next review I’m going to reference is from Goodreads. I can’t give a direct link to it, but when you look up Lady Macbeth in the search and scroll to the reviews, it should be the first one-star review by ‘liv’ that I will be looking at. Side note, I hate that she has to add an edit to her review to talk about the people harassing her over her review. Not everyone is going to like a book, one-star reviews are allowed in review spaces. But anyway, that can be a topic for another time.

This review pretty much reinforced the xenophobic patterns in the novel. She mentions the same things, that Scottish people are framed as “stupid, violent brutes and there is no nuance to that”, and that the love interest is the only man really seen in a positive light, despite treating her as a possession, isn’t even fully Scottish.

The reviewer mentions why she took issue with the xenophobia being used in this book:

“First, there is nothing from the source material that would give any reason for Lady Macbeth to hate the Scots and I found it to be a very jarring addition and second, [it’s] never challenged in any way and every Scotsman we meet falls into these brutish xenophobic stereotypes. Without seeing this viewpoint challenged in any way — even if it was just the readers seeing a single Scotsman be a good person — this part left a really bad taste in my mouth.”

Without even reading it, I agree. Seeing how Scottish people are portrayed in this book is very upsetting and disappointing on Reid’s part. Why would she write them like this? What is the point? I can’t see a point where this would be a valuable addition to the novel, especially when the source material doesn’t give any indication of Lady Macbeth hating the Scots.

So… Why?

This is a question constantly in the back of my mind while researching Reid’s books and her as an author. Why does she have such an affinity for xenophobia in her novels? Why did she co-opt an endangered language as made up Argantian?

There is no actual concrete answer I could find. In the comments of the aforementioned Reddit post, someone made a joke saying, “Maybe she’s French”, however, she is not. She was born in Portugal (or New Jersey? I found conflicting answers to that which is weird) and raised in New Jersey. I have no idea why she uses these things in her stories. I guess there doesn’t have to be a specific reason, but it’s become a common theme.

I guess there’s also no real justification as to why Yarros used Scottish Gaelic in her Fourth Wing series either, she just needed a fantasy language and couldn’t be bothered to make up her own. I guess the same could be said for Reid as well; she just didn’t want to go through the trouble of making up her own fantasy words, instead, she had to use an endangered language that she might have thought was interesting enough.

I just don’t understand why it’s so hard for these authors to give an acknowledgment in the book, whether it be in the notes or… you know, the Acknowledgments page. As I’ve already mentioned too, it’s a bit baffling that I don’t see more conversations of Reid’s misuse of languages and her xenophobic ideas in her books. I’m not saying she holds these beliefs in real life, but with Lady Macbeth, it seems very overt.

Conclusion and a Way Forward

Again, if you loved Lady Macbeth or A Study in Drowning I don’t hold it against you and I’m not judging you. I’m just pointing out problematic themes in Reid’s novels that should be more in the open and discussed critically. I know that I didn’t really offer a solution to this issue, but really all we can do is bring more attention to it and hope that her future novels are cleared of these controversies.

If you’ve read these books — or just one of them — and saw these topics come up as well, let me know! I’d love to hear your thoughts. Maybe I’ll keep an eye out for A Theory of Dreaming for research purposes to see if she learned from her mistakes or not (but I will not be purchasing the book).