{"id":73211,"date":"2025-08-16T17:47:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-16T17:47:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/73211\/"},"modified":"2025-08-16T17:47:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-16T17:47:08","slug":"theory-of-dreaming-ending-explained-ava-reid-book-to-movie-adaptation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/73211\/","title":{"rendered":"Theory of Dreaming Ending Explained, Ava Reid Book to Movie Adaptation"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tSPOILER ALERT:\u00a0This story contains spoilers for\u00a0Ava Reid<\/a>\u2018s \u201cA Study in Drowning<\/a>\u201d sequel, \u201cA Theory of Dreaming<\/a>,\u201d released July 29 by HarperCollins.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cA Theory of Dreaming,\u201d Ava Reid\u2019s eagerly anticipated followup to her hit 2023 YA fantasy novel \u201cA Study in Drowning,\u201d has landed on The New York Times Best-Sellers list this week<\/a> following its July 29 release. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe novel was the final book in a duology following two college students, Effy Sayre and Preston H\u00e9loury, who are embarking on a budding romance while dealing with the fallout from the bizarre and fantastical experience they had in \u201cA Study in Drowning.\u201d Effy, who has been plagued by her relationship with the Fairy King throughout the majority of her life, is free from his grasp in \u201cA Theory of Dreaming\u201d thanks to Preston\u2019s help, but struggling with her identity now that she\u2019s fundamentally been changed so much. <\/p>\n

\n\tPreston, ever the sceptic, faces his own dream world this time around and has to fight the forces to remain in reality with Effy. This all while both Effy and Preston are trying to prove the truth about a famed author\u2019s work amid an ongoing war between their two home countries.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt resolves with a proposal and a promise of a happily ever after, but not before several brushes with death and nightmares come to life.<\/p>\n

\n\tHere, Reid discusses with Variety the ending of \u201cA Theory of Dreaming\u201d \u2014 and how it\u2019s not the \u201ctrue\u201d conclusion to Effy and Preston\u2019s story \u2014 plans for her next adult-focused book, \u201cInnamorata,\u201d and the progress for the film adaptation of one of her books.<\/p>\n

\t\tAt the end of \u201cA Theory of Dreaming,\u201d Preston chooses to keep his entire fantastical experience from throughout the book private and not disclose what happened to Effy. Why does he make this choice and do you think he will tell her some day?\t<\/p>\n

\n\tI don\u2019t think he would tell her. I think that for him, his experiences in \u201cA Theory of Dreaming\u201d are like what Effy\u2019s experiences were in \u201cA Study in Drowning.\u201d And Preston never sees a physical manifestation of the Fairy King, and that\u2019s OK, because he believes Effy and he believes that the feelings and the pain she\u2019s experienced are real to her, and that\u2019s what\u2019s important. And I think that Preston will express his pain and his grief, as he does in the end when they visit his father\u2019s grave. <\/p>\n

\n\tAnd I think that\u2019s what\u2019s important and that\u2019s always been the narrative through line of these books: the truth is not an objective thing, and it means something different to everybody. And what matters more than truth is belief, and as long as Effy believes Preston, believes his pain and cares about his feelings, that\u2019s more important than her having proof or hard evidence of the thing that\u2019s happened to him.<\/p>\n

\t\tWill the upcoming illustrated companion book, \u201cAn Archive of Romance,\u201d reveal more of Effy and Preston\u2019s life after \u201cA Theory of Dreaming\u201d?\t<\/p>\n

\n\tSo it is a book that\u2019s divided into thirds. The first third is all in-world materials from \u201cA Study in Drowning.\u201d So every time you see an excerpt from \u201cAngharad\u201d or a letter or a diary entry, you will see that expanded in \u201cAn Archive of Romance.\u201d And you\u2019ll also see some additional materials, like Preston\u2019s diary entries from \u201cA Study in Drowning,\u201d so you see his perspective on some of the scenes that we didn\u2019t get to see because it\u2019s in Effy\u2019s POV. And then the same in \u201cA Theory of Dreaming,\u201d you\u2019ll see expansions of all of the poetry, all of the letters, all of the newspaper articles, in addition to some new material and character illustrations and art. <\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s just a physically beautiful book, as well. Every page is full color and it\u2019s really, really stunning. There\u2019s maps now! For \u201cA Study in Drowning,\u201d we were gonna have one and there was no budget for a map. So now we have a map. <\/p>\n

\n\tAnd then the last third is kind of the sequel part, so it picks up after the end of \u201cA Theory of Dreaming,\u201d so we get to see where they are and the true end to their story.<\/p>\n

\t\tDoes that mean we will get to see illustrations of scenes from their wedding? Effy\u2019s wedding dress?\t<\/p>\n

\n\tIn \u201cAn Archive of Romance,\u201d we may or may not have sketches of exactly what she wears.<\/p>\n

\t\tLast time we spoke, you had teased one of your books is in the works as a movie. Any update on that project, and which title it is?\t<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s so funny \u2014 if this interview had taken place literally a day later, I think I would have been able to tell you more, because I have a meeting with my film team tomorrow. But I can confirm that things are moving along. I\u2019m really excited. We have a lot of really, really amazing people on board, people who have done incredible things and who are really passionate about it. The girlies, they get it. So I\u2019m very excited. I don\u2019t think I\u2019m allowed to say much more. It is one of my adult titles. And I can say the comps that we\u2019re using are \u201cNosferatu\u201d and \u201cThe Handmaiden\u201d by Park Chan-wook, which is my favorite movie of all time. And when I heard that they were pitching it that way, I was like, they get it. So if that gives people any hints as to what book it is \u2014 I think people might be able to guess it based off of that.<\/p>\n

\t\tYou\u2019ve also recently announced your next book, \u201cInnamorata,\u201d which is set in a different world from any of your current works. How does it differ from your magical stories so far?\t<\/p>\n

\n\tThis is a world that is very \u2014 I wouldn\u2019t say nonliterate, but one of the things that has happened on the island where this book takes place is, it was conquered by a very powerful foreign city-state. It\u2019s inspired by Venetian-occupied Corfu; so the analogs for the Venetians have conquered this island, and they have tried to erase the pre-conquest cultures and traditions and rights, and that includes the burning of libraries. So this is intentionally a culture that doesn\u2019t have much of those relics of the past and doesn\u2019t have these literary traditions. And it\u2019s a culture that disdains these things because of their association with the magic that was also stamped out. That was something I was really excited to write \u2014 a book where there was not a lot of literary context for what was going on, and no religion.<\/p>\n

\t\tOne last one \u2014 Effy\u2019s iconic black hair ribbon from \u201cA Study in Drowning\u201d gets swapped out for a white one at the start of \u201cA Theory of Dreaming.\u201d What was the significance of that?\t<\/p>\n

\n\tYeah, I\u2019m so glad you asked, because I feel like it\u2019s such a small thing, but it\u2019s also symbolic because that is kind of her character. Like, if this were a cartoon, that would be what she wears every day. That\u2019s so core to the visual identity of her character. In \u201cA Theory of Dreaming,\u201d she switches to white instead, because the black one gets quite literally taken away, ripped out of her hair by the wind. The version of herself who wore the black ribbon is taken away from her because she loses who she was: the person who lived half in this fantasy world, who had those dreams. And she has to try and form a new identity for herself, and that\u2019s really, really hard, and she is going through the grief of that. Black is also this color that we associate more with darkness and fantasy in the arcane And white is a color that we associate with newness. So it\u2019s this new version of herself that she\u2019s trying to create and it\u2019s also a very subtle foreshadowing to the end of \u201cA Theory of Dreaming.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThis interview has been edited and condensed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SPOILER ALERT:\u00a0This story contains spoilers for\u00a0Ava Reid\u2018s \u201cA Study in Drowning\u201d sequel, \u201cA Theory of Dreaming,\u201d released July…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":73212,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[57032,57033,64,63,57034,457,134],"class_list":{"0":"post-73211","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-a-study-in-drowning","9":"tag-a-theory-of-dreaming","10":"tag-au","11":"tag-australia","12":"tag-ava-reid","13":"tag-books","14":"tag-entertainment"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73211"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73211\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}