fae

Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett | Book Review

One doesn’t need magic if one knows enough stories.

Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett

Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett

SERIES: Emily Wilde #1

LENGTH: 336 pages

GENRES: Fantasy, Historical, Fiction

PUBLISHER: Del Rey Books

RELEASE DATE: 10 January 2023

BOOK DESCRIPTION:

A curmudgeonly professor journeys to a small town in the far north to study faerie folklore and discovers dark fae magic, friendship, and love, in this heartwarming and enchanting fantasy.

Cambridge professor Emily Wilde is good at many things: She is the foremost expert on the study of faeries. She is a genius scholar and a meticulous researcher who is writing the world’s first encyclopaedia of faerie lore. But Emily Wilde is not good at people. She could never make small talk at a party—or even get invited to one. And she prefers the company of her books, her dog, Shadow, and the Fair Folk to other people.

So when she arrives in the hardscrabble village of Hrafnsvik, Emily has no intention of befriending the gruff townsfolk. Nor does she care to spend time with another new arrival: her dashing and insufferably handsome academic rival Wendell Bambleby, who manages to charm the townsfolk, get in the middle of Emily’s research, and utterly confound and frustrate her.

But as Emily gets closer and closer to uncovering the secrets of the Hidden Ones—the most elusive of all faeries—lurking in the shadowy forest outside the town, she also finds herself on the trail of another mystery: Who is Wendell Bambleby, and what does he really want? To find the answer, she’ll have to unlock the greatest mystery of all—her own heart.

My Review

I could almost imagine myself a maiden in one of the stories, but stories didn’t leave dirty teacups scattered throughout the cottage, or underline passages in my books—in ink—no matter how many times I ordered them not to.

This book… Amazing isn’t strong enough a word for how I felt about it. I absolutely adore it on a level that I haven’t adored a novel in a long while. Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries is a wonderful story. And it has faeries depicted far more accurately to fae lore, which is something I can’t say for ACOTAR and the like (which is something that I always hated about that series).

Anyway, the lore accurate faerie creatures wasn’t the only thing to love about EWEOF. The characters – particularly the two main ones – are expertly written, and the setting seems so magical. I also loved the way the novel was written – using Emily’s (and occasionally Wendell’s) journal entries. It’s so unique compared to how most books are written, and it was very refreshing.

Now, lemme backtrack a bit. The characters. I loved Emily Wilde so much. She’s so unlike most female protagonists that I usually have the pleasure (or displeasure) of following. And she’s so passionate and driven by her career as well – which is something else that I don’t read very often. (The footnotes were also cute and they further added to the authenticity of the journaling.)

Wendell Brambleby was a fine partner for Emily. Though he is the opposite of her in many ways regarding personality and characterization, he matches well with her. Their banter was also *chef’s kiss*. And their romance was splendid and written extremely well. I wish more books were like this. I’m looking forward to seeing where the sequel takes these characters and their relationship.

“How is it that you know how to befriend wild faerie dogs and ferret out Words of Power, yet you missed one of the fundamental rules of dryadology – namely, not cutting wicked kings out of trees.”

“I’ve learned my lesson, thank you,” I snapped. “Should you end up trapped in one, I won’t let you out.”

“You shall have to. I know you too well, Em. You could never survive without having someone around to snarl at.”

I also want to mention how real and authentic the dialogue between all the characters was. And not just between Emily and Brambleby. All of it felt like it came across very naturally, which is my favorite kind of dialogue to read. I can’t stand it whenever conversations feel stiff or unnatural while reading – it takes me right out of the book.

Another thing that I want to talk about is how the faeries were depicted here. That is, the right way. As I mentioned above, I’ve always hated how books like A Court of Thorns and Roses, as well most of the fae books that have come out since portray faeries. Personally, I’ve always preferred the more traditional representation based on myths and lore. So this was a breath of fresh air amongst the smog.

You screamed, which I appreciated, and Shadow went berserk, also kind but not much more helpful, but fortunately, Lilja has her wits about her and yanked the arrow out.

So yeah, I absolutely loved Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett, and I cannot recommend it enough. This might be my favorite book I’ve read this year, actually. And I’m so looking forward to Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands, which is releasing next month.

If you like books with traditional depictions of fae, historical fantasy, and just well written books in general, definitely check this out. It has an awesome wintery atmosphere, and some cozy vibes.

Thank you so much for reading, and I hope that you have a wonderful day/night!

See ya ~Mar

MY LINKS:

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Reading Retrospective: “A Court of Thorns and Roses” by Sarah J. Maas

So, it’s been what, like eleven days or something, since I last reflected on a book from my past? That’s far too long. Let’s change that, shall we? It’s time for some retrospecting. (Yes, I know that’s not a real word.) (No, I don’t care.)

Reading Retrospectives are when I go back and reflect on books that I’ve read. Books that I have strong opinions on, but never reviewed because I read them before I even had a Goodreads (let alone a blog), and books from my childhood to my college days. Everything is fair game, honestly. If you’ve read the title, you know what this post’s gonna be about. If you haven’t, I’m reflecting on A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas. Here we go!

1st Edition of A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
2nd Edition of A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas

About ACOTAR

Series: A Court of Thorns and Roses [Book #1]

Length: 432 pages

Genre: High Fantasy, Romance, New Adult

Release Date: May 5, 2015

Book Description

When nineteen-year-old huntress Feyre kills a wolf in the woods, a terrifying creature arrives to demand retribution. Dragged to a treacherous magical land she knows about only from legends, Feyre discovers that her captor is not truly a beast, but one of the lethal, immortal faeries who once ruled her world.

At least, he’s not a beast all the time.

As she adapts to her new home, her feelings for the faerie, Tamlin, transform from icy hostility into a fiery passion that burns through every lie she’s been told about the beautiful, dangerous world of the Fae. But something is not right in the faerie lands. An ancient, wicked shadow is growing, and Feyre must find a way to stop it, or doom Tamlin-and his world-forever.

My Retrospective Review

When I Originally Read This: November 2015

Then: ★★★★✯ • 4.5 / 5 stars

Now: ★★★★☆ • 4 / 5 stars

“Be glad of your human heart, Feyre. Pity those who don’t feel anything at all.”

ACOTAR. Oh, ACOTAR. The history that you and I have.

Gonna be perfectly honest here, before I caved in and started reading this, I had very strong aspirations to never do so. Like, I saw in my local Barnes & Noble in May or June of 2015, instantly could tell what type of “YA” book (the quotes are there, cuz hindsight) this was gonna be, and just… stayed away. Or attempted to, anyway.

In November of 2015, my strength failed me, and I caved into buying this book. And it was exactly like I knew it would be. YA with a “strong, female protagonist” who falls in a “passionate, fiery” love with some supernatural supermodel.

And I loved it.

Don’t get me wrong, it absolutely irritated me that I even started reading this in the first place. But, at the time, my soul wanted a guilty-pleasure-romance, so a guilty-pleasure-romance was what I read. And I liked it mostly in a guilty-pleasure sort of way. Not because I thought it was amazing literature or anything. Because, trust me, I didn’t.

“I came to claim the one I love.”

The characters were not very likeable, for one thing. Feyre was an annoying protagonist, who continually made stupid decisions; some of which, were extremely contrived. She was also quite bland, like a blank canvas, if I may incorporate one of Feyre’s “hobbies” into a simile.

And if Feyre was a blank canvas, then the love interest, Tamlin, was the material that a blank canvas is made out of. This man – sorry, “male” – was less than a block of wood, or even a sheet of paper. He honestly barely qualifies as a character, as he was mostly just a plot device to push Feyre to do something. Because, despite this book being over 400 pages, it becomes clear after a while, that at least 150 of them could have been cut. (Maas likes to overwrite and over-describe.)

“Do you ever stop being so serious and dull?”

“Do you ever stop being such a prick?” I snapped back.

Dead—really, truly, I should have been dead for that.

But Lucien grinned at me. “Much better.”

I’d get into more of the characters, but there really weren’t any. That really qualify as characters, at least. Lucien was probably the best of the almost characters. Actually, scratch that, he was the best. Even better than Feyre honestly. Throughout the novel, he and Feyre had way more chemistry than her and Tamlin, so I was kinda rooting for them as a couple for awhile. But we can’t have nice things, so I quickly gave up.

Feyre’s family were pretty much nonentities here (except for one tiny part later in the novel), they just existed as a motivation for her. Also, they sucked. Like, they were completely horrible to her. And, let’s not get into the “most handsome man [Feyre] had ever seen.” No, that’s going in the retrospective on ACOMAF, thank you very much. I’ll get to him though, I promise.

I’d mention the villain of the story, but the book isn’t really about that, so… yeah, just gonna leave this already long rant about the characters in this book here.

This book wasn’t all bad with the characters (barring Lucien), however. There were a few good lines and character moments nestled within some of the pages, that I wish we’d seen more of. Like this:

I found him carefully studying me, his lips in a thin line. “Has anyone ever taken care of you?” he asked quietly.

“No.” I’d long since stopped feeling sorry for myself about it.

and this

“Because I wouldn’t want to die alone,” I said, and my voice wobbled as I looked at Tamlin again, forcing myself to meet his stare. “Because I’d want someone to hold my hand until the end, and awhile after that. That’s something everyone deserves, human or faerie.”

I actually really like the setting and the world building (that we get) a lot. I found it to be very interesting, even though it’s more than obvious that Maas just traced over a map of the U.K. and renamed it Prythian (and Hybern). The division of the “courts” was intriguing to me, and I wish that the series expanded on the way their hierarchies worked in a way that made sense more than it actually ended up being. (We’ll get to that, don’t worry. Just not in this review.) I also adored the magical atmosphere of the book, as well.

Despite… everything about ACOTAR, I will admit that I really enjoyed it. It was stupid fun – guilty-pleasure-romance, just as I said near the beginning. So I’ll take one thing that this book said, to heart:

“Don’t feel bad for one moment about doing what brings you joy.”

Because if we don’t read what we enjoy, then what the hell are we doing with our limited free time on this planet? We should do things that bring us joy (within reason. I’m looking at you… people who do bad things.) and if they include reading not-that-great, but also, weirdly-addicting, fantasy romances, then we should just do that!

Have you read A Court of Thorns and Roses, or any of Sarah J Maas’ other novels? What did you think of them? What are your guilty-pleasure books? (I know you have at least one…) Thanks for reading, and see you again soon for more bookish things.