Some books, I have been meaning to read for the longest time. Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett is that kind of book. I first found about it at a book event, where multiple people bought it. I did so the day after, since it was really cheap on Kindle. However, I never picked it up until earlier this year, but that was just the quickest DNF ever so I never tracked it. I think it was the wrong timing, and therefore decided to give this book another fair chance. Did it work out for me now?

About the book

Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett
Series: Emily Wilde #1
Published by Del Rey Books on January 10, 2023
Pages: 317
Genres: Adult, Fantasy

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

Before reading

As this book is pretty hyped, I had lots of reluctance. I only checked reviews briefly, without paying much attention to them. However, many fellow book bloggers mention the entire series – yes it’s another series – a lot in posts like Top Ten Tuesday, so this could only go right, right? I decided to wait for the Dutch translation, because I’ve heard from other Dutch readers that it might take some time to get used to the language since the faerie stories are based on Norwegian and Icelandic folklore. I’m not familiar with this type of folklore, so that’s another reason for my hesitance. Furthermore, this book is described as a cozy fantasy and that’s not really my cup of tea. As you can see, this is a recipe for a hyped book going wrong.

Characters

Emily is a character I really had to get used to. She’s socially awkward and that’s visible right from the start. She lacks tact in her interaction with the villagers and even offends some locals. Science is her safe haven and that shows. It’s never made clear why this is, we don’t get to know anything about her past. Wendell Bambleby, her colleague and academic rival, is her only friend. Emily is relieved to be away from him for once, but misses him at the same time. Bambleby is our other main character, who has his quirks as well. He raises a lot of questions straight after his appearance in the story. We get several answers later on though. The other characters are elaborated less in depth, but for this book it’s okay. However, I haven’t gotten a favourite character just yet. I enjoyed witnessing Emily’s growth in social situations, because let’s face it, she undergoes some character development.

Writing

The writing is quite unique. Maybe that’s why I had to get used to this book as well, as it’s written as a scientific journal. Emily documents her research and her experiences at the same time. This book is the start of her encyclopaedia and contains a lot of footnotes. However, you can read past them without missing anything, that’s what I did. The writing itself is easy, exactly what this book is aiming for.

Plot

My biggest issue with cozy fantasy is that there’s not much depth into the story. These books often lack tension and I was a bit afraid it would apply to this novel as well. Well, it doesn’t. It indeed gives off cozy vibes, but there’s much more tension – and even danger – than in other cozy fantasy books I’ve read. Therefore, this book was intriguing. I wanted to find out what would happen next and how everything would evolve. However, I still didn’t fully vibe with it and I don’t know why really. Nevertheless, the ending made me curious for the next book in this series which I will be reading soon.

Final thoughts

I’m glad I finally read Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett. Even though I don’t fully understand the hype yet, I still had a pleasant reading time. The characters are interesting, so is the plot. My main issue with cozy books is the lack of tension and depth. This book however, has many tense moments. In fact, it gets quite dangerous at times. The writing is easy to follow and therefore I was able to finish this novel quite quick. Even the characters got much more depth than I’d initially expected, especially Emily. She definitely shows character growth. This first book in the series has intrigued me enough to be wanting to read the sequel. I hope to get to it soon, because these books fit winter perfectly.