Ava Reid

Ava Reid (born 1996) is an American author of young adult fiction and adult fiction, best known for her New York Times bestselling debut A Study in Drowning.

Early life
Reid was born in Manhattan, New York, and grew up in Hoboken, New Jersey.

She attended Barnard College and has a degree in political science, in which she focused on religion and ethnonationalism.

Personal life
She has lived in Palo Alto, at Columbia, Cambridge, and as of 2023, Stanford, with her academic partner. Her maternal family is composed of Ukrainian Jews.

Reid uses she/they pronouns. She is Jewish.

Career
After graduating from Barnard, Reid entered PitchWars, a pitch contest for unagented authors, eventually securing agent representation and selling her first novel, The Wolf and the Woodsman.

Influences
Reid says her style is inspired by Gothic literature as well as works by Kelly Link, Carmen Maria Machado, and Helen Oyeyemi. She feels naturally more drawn to adult fantasy but wanted to try her hand at young adult. Some of her favorite novels include Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle, which she collects copies of, and the Gormenghast trilogy by Mervyn Peake, as well as Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan and The Kingdom of Little Wounds by Susann Cokal.

The Wolf and the Woodsman
Her debut novel, published by HarperVoyager, tells the story of a woman surrendered as blood sacrifice for their king, but survives the attack.

She was inspired to write the novel after reading an anecdote about Saint Stephen, the first Christian king of Hungary, who had his nephew and heir apparent’s eyes stabbed because he didn't want pagans to inherit the throne. Reid describes The Wolf and the Woodsman as a story about exclusion. For this book, she was particularly inspired by Naomi Novik, Katherine Arden, Leigh Bardugo, and Catherynne Valente.

Reviews were mostly positive. It was a Summer/Fall 2021 Indies Introduce adult selection. Kirkus Reviews called it "Compelling, complicated, and worthwhile," while also noting an overreliance on purple prose as well as muddled action scenes. Publishers Weekly called it a "notable debut."

Juniper and Thorn
Set in the world of her debut novel, Juniper and Thorn was inspired by the Grimm's fairytale The Juniper Tree. Due to her family's ties to Ukraine, she specifically wanted to set the novel in a fictional analog to Odesa, Ukraine, to "sweep away" cliches of Eastern Europe.

It was published in June 2021. Juniper and Thorn received a starred review from Publishers Weekly.

A Study in Drowning
Her third book, A Study in Drowning, was published by HarperTeen in 2023. It is a romantic dark academia young adult fantasy about two rivals who work together to uncover the mysterious legacy of an author.

The novel has themes of abuse and trauma, as do all of Reid's novels, and she says it's a subject matter very important to her. In the main character Effy, she says she wrote about experiences that reflect her own. Reid says she considers being able to discuss one's own experiences in a narrative is powerful and considers that to be the central theme of the novel. It's inspired by Welsh mythology.

It debuted on the New York Times bestseller list on October 8, 2023, at #1. It received mixed reviews. Locus Magazine called it "intriguing, intelligent, and suspenseful" and it received a starred review from Publishers Weekly and School Library Journal.

It has also been criticized for capitalizing on "the dark academia trend" while not adding anything new to the conversation, and having no clear message, according to Michigan Daily. Kirkus Reviews called the Welsh-inspired setting "impressively atmospheric", while the mythology as "feeling extraneous."

Lady MacBeth
Lady MacBeth is described as a "feminist retelling" of Shakespeare's character Lady Macbeth, enfusing the story with dark magic and gothic atmosphere, to be released by Del Rey in August 2024.

Reid has said Lady Macbeth is her favorite character, due to her ambition and wiles, which inspired her to explore her character in a novel of her own. She calls the novel a work of "gothic, feminist fiction".