Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries review

Rating: ★★★★★

The Memoirs of Lady Trent meet Howl's Moving castle in this utterly charming fantasy about academics studying faeries in a remote Scandinavian village. I loved every second of this book, from the tromping around in the wintry forests to the sweet (and snarky) moments between Emily Wilde and Wendell Bambleby.

The characters in this book are spectacular. You immediately get a sense of who they are as people and also quickly get attached. I enjoyed Emily's independence and slight stodginess, but I also liked seeing her melt a little as she realizes that people care about her and she cares about them in return. Wendell was a delight. Charming even at his most annoying or outrageous, he was just so much fun to read about and I loved the chapters (or rather, journal entries) we got from his perspective. Fans of Howl Pendragon or Nikolai Lantsov will find a lot to appreciate with Wendell. I also really liked the side characters, like Poe (Poe!!!), Shadow, Lilja, Thora, and Aud. Even the characters with less page time felt fully fleshed out relative to their roles in the story.

I also want to add that I felt like I could tell that Heather Fawcett had written middle grade books before this, but not in a bad way at all. Reviewers will sometimes say that a book feels middle grade when they think the writing is bad or the characters are juvenile. I don't really agree with this, as middle grade is a wonderful genre full of great writing. The friendships and relationships between the characters just had a particular charm that I associate with middle grade and I enjoyed it a lot in this story. I don't think this book is juvenile or poorly written at all, though. I want that to be very clear. IF anything, this just means that the book might appeal to a broader audience.

The faerie world and lore were definitely a big draw for me to this book and I think it was executed perfectly. The blend of actual faerie interactions, folklore stories (whether real or invented by Fawcett, I couldn't tell, and liked them either way), and visits to the faerie realm itself were perfect for me. This book made me both want another five books about Emily and Wendell (and a movie, while we're at it) and to go look up stories about faerie interactions myself. The research and care Heather Fawcett put into the faerie lore of this book really shone through and it was a delight to read.

In conclusion, all I can really say is that I'm obsessed with this book and come January I'll be recommending it to everyone on possibly the most flimsy of justifications. I've already begun telling my friends and family to read it when it comes out, and my bookseller friends to read it sooner if they can! This book is definitely a new favorite of mine and it has definitely inspired me to read more of Heather Fawcett's work (and to eagerly await future Emily Wilde books).

I will say, at least one review I've seen (from the School LIbrary Journal, no less) recommends this book for fans of Sarah J Maas. I assume that's because both this book and ACOTAR have faeries in them, but...I have to say, the faerie kings Fawcett writes in this book are very, very different from Maas' high lords. Very different. If I were going to compare this book to any other faerie book, I would choose Holly Black's folk of the air series, but even then, I think the tone and focus of this book is quite different from Folk of the Air.

That being said, I certainly wouldn't DISCOURAGE SJM fans from reading this book...I wouldn't discourage anyone from reading this book, I just don't want people to expect SJM-style romance from a book whose main couple reminds me much more of Howl and Sophie, if Howl was very good at sewing. This is definitely a book for the cozy fantasy crowd.

September 2021 Wrap-Up

What a busy month! September flew by, probably at least in part because I read seventeen books this month. That...has to be a personal record. The nice thing is, I enjoyed almost all of them! Here are some brief thoughts.

1) Tales from Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin

Out of all of the Earthsea books, I admit I struggled the most with this one. It felt like a bit of a chore to have to read about Earthsea history when I really wanted to know what would happen next with Tehanu, Tenar, and Ged. But ultimately this book is definitely worth the effort. I think I was just a little too impatient on the first reading. In future I'll be able to savor the stories more. If, like me, you're impatient to pick up with The Other Wind, I would recommend reading at least the first and last story out of Tales.

 

 

2) The Other Wind by Ursula K. Le Guin

A really enjoyable and lovely conclusion to the books of Earthsea. Now that I've read it, I can't imagine the series feeling complete without it. I definitely recommend this book and the series as a whole.

 

 

 

3) A Winter's Promise by Christelle Dabos

 

I will need to write another post about this series, because it's my new...obsession? My new favorite book series? Yes. And yes. This book follows Ophelia, a citizen of the ark Anima, when she is betrothed to a man from the Pole ark. Compared to Anima, the Pole is cold, cutthroat, and overwhelming. But Ophelia is determined to survive, even if no one thinks that she will - even her fiance. Christelle Dabos definitely knows how to slowly unfold a story in a complex and satisfying way. I really like Ophelia as a protagonist. She has some traits that can be executed poorly (clumsiness, supposed "plainness," bookishness) but luckily they're done well here and don't get on my nerves! In particular I like the explanation for her clumsiness. She has the ability to walk through mirrors and got stuck between several mirrors as a child when it was first manifesting. As a result, even after physical therapy the different parts of her body have remained out of sync with each other. Details like that make the world of A Winter's Promise feel very real and satisfying to read about.

 

 

4) Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson 

This one was recommended to me at work. YA Mysteries aren't what I usually read, but I liked this one. The mystery was intriguing and I thought the main character Stevie's anxiety was well-written and portrayed realistically. I have now read the rest of the series, and I wish there had been a little more meat to the mystery if it was going to be spread out over three books, but it's still a good series.

 

 

5) Forest of a Thousand Lanterns by Julie C. Dao 

A fun YA fantasy vilification arc about a character destined to become Snow White's evil stepmother, although I feel like the main character's descent into evil could have gone a little harder. I wanted her to kill people personally. What does that say about me? Not important.

 

 

6) The Vanishing Stair by Maureen Johnson 

Book 2 of Truly Devious and unfortunately the one that feels most extraneous. This trilogy might have been better as a duology followed by standalone mysteries like The Box in the Woods.

 

 

7) Winterkeep by Kristin Cashore 

I really enjoyed this, although tonally it's quite different from the other Graceling books. Especially with how many POVs there were! I have since read it a second time, and I think it suffers from a few too many POVs and uneven pacing. Also, while I love Kristin Cashore's writing, I don't think her political intrigue is very good.

My Goodreads review

 

 

8) Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao 

I support women's wrongs! This book is very flawed, but I had a lot of fun reading it. It's refreshing to read about a YA protagonist who is so unapologetically vengeful and never softens that about herself. I plan to read the next book when it comes out.

 

 

9) The Other Side of Perfect by Mariko Turk

A YA contemporary about a girl struggling to come to terms with the loss of her potential ballet career. The romance in this book was sweet, but what I was most intrigued by were actually the friendships. The main character has been avoiding her former best friend who still dances and her new friends in theatre make fun of another girl for being too committed to acting. Later on there's a reveal that they also made fun of the main character for being so committed to ballet, which was really interesting and I actually would have liked to see that explored more. A good read.

My Goodreads review

 

10) How to Become a Planet by Nicole Melleby 

A middle grade coming-of-age story about a girl who has recently been diagnosed with depression and is struggling to cope with the help of a checklist that she needs to complete by the end of the summer. Not always the lightest read, but it has a hopeful ending and I think it's good for books like this to exist to help teach kids about these issues (and to let them know they're not alone).

 

 

11) Fireborn by Aisling Fowler 

A middle grade fantasy. I think it's the first in a series? I enjoyed it, but of course all the details have completely slipped my mind. I would recommend it to fans of Ranger's Apprentice.

 

 

12) Not Here to Be Liked by Michelle Quach 

This was so much fun! A YA contemporary romance filled with conversations about feminism and the many forms it takes. The main character, Eliza, is part of her high school's newspaper staff and loses the role of editor-in-chief to a newcomer that she doesn't think is as qualified. The rant she writes somehow gets posted to the newspaper's website and then to instagram, where it is seen by a lot of other students. Eliza ends up at the center of the ensuing conversations about feminism that happen at her school. This book isn't inventing groundbreaking new feminist theories, but the conversations about it felt realistic and nuanced, and the romance was super charming. Michelle Quach did a great job capturing the butterflies-in-your-stomach excitement of staying up late to text someone you really like.

 

 

13) The Accursed Vampire by Madeline McGrane 

I liked this a lot! It's a charming graphic novel about vampire children trying to recover a witch's grimoire, but the witch kind of sucks so they don't actually want to help her. I would read more about these characters for sure.

 

 

14) The Missing of Clairdelune by Christelle Dabos 

Book two of the Mirror Visitor series. Even better than book one, but the cliffhanger pretty much killed me. This series has the slowest slow burn of all time, I swear.

 

 

15) The Memory of Babel by Christelle Dabos 

This was quite a change from the first two books, because we enter an entirely new setting. I feel like it's hard to talk details of the plot without spoilers, but know that I devoured this book.

 

 

16) Six Crimson Cranes by Elizabeth Lim 

A Wild Swans retelling with a gorgeous cover. Unfortunately, I didn't like it. I feel like this book maybe shouldn't have been a retelling at all, given how every plot point it borrows from the fairy tale it seems to kind of fight against or undermine. It's not a terrible YA fantasy, but it's really not what I generally want from a fairytale retelling. I don't plan to read the sequel.

My Goodreads review

 

 

17) Star Daughter by Shveta Thakrar

I don't think this book is that bad, but reading it so soon after The Missing of Clairdelune andThe Memory of Babel definitely gave me less patience for the flaws of other books. This book can be described as a mix of Stardust and Indian mythology, where the half-star main character goes to visit the stars in the sky in order to get a cure for her sick father. Unfortunately, I found the competition that she's part of while in the sky deadly boring, and I wanted more political intrigue and scheming from the stars that just didn't happen. I also truly did not care about the love interest. He got on my nerves.