Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of Faeries: A book review
Emily Widle’s Encyclopedia of Faeries didn’t interest me much at first. Most of us (my little discord reading community) thought it was just going to be a compilation of faery stuff with pretty illustrations. Much to our surprise, it turns out it’s a cozy romance with a couple of academic rivals!
Emily Wilde offers you a reading experience
I was going to club him over the head with my encyclopaedia when it came out.
I can say first and foremost, the biggest enjoyment I got out of the book was in it’s format. Obviously, the journal format has been done before. Chapter names were replaced by dates, and it’s all written in the first person. However, the biggest strength that truly made this book a joy to read was the references and Heather Fawcett’s masterful world building.
Emily Wilde is working to create the first complete encyclopedia of the Fae (or Folk as they call them) and she’d been working on this book for 9-years. She’s a published scholar from Cambridge, and is currently working towards getting tenure. This book takes place with Emily on her last expedition to study a so far unproven race of the Folk.
Her character absolutely oozes through her narration, making you have a feeling of picking this journal up after the fact and reading through it for some sort of report you yourself are writing. There are many points in this book where you feel like you should be taking notes!
As I mentioned before, there’s references. I read this book on my kindle and much like my textbooks, you can click the reference link and it’ll take you to a little note. These will usually describe and cite other academic papers that were published in this universe, to further explain things that Emily is talking about in her journal. This book is more than just reading a book, it’s a whole experience!
Not only a gimmick, but a gripping story too!
Bambleby was allergic to serious conversation — or indeed, any work at all — that took place before breakfast. We ate it together at Cambridge whenever we were both on campus, and had done ever since he found out that I didn’t ordinarily bother with it. He’d reacted with a horror befitting a confession of murder and immediately swept me from my office to his favourite café on the university grounds,
The content itself is also fantastic. The book is filled with so much whimsy and funny moments, I constantly found myself giggling to throughout my read. Sometimes, when a book tries to take on a lot of things, it can be a little confused and lose it’s way. Each of the plot threads were well handled and the relationships were satisfying and added a lot to the story.
The love interest, Brambleby, was also a wonderful experience. In the tagline for this piece I call this book a satire. When reading you can see where all the aspects of this book are drawing inspiration from- from classic fae tales of out witting these tricky creatures, to the love stories we’re used to with Sarah J. Maas era fantasy. Brambleby was an obvious product of these ideas, exaggerating the personality traits we’re all used to, and using aspects of the fae we don’t get to see very often.
All in all, a short book worth your time
If you’re looking for something to read casually, something that wont challenge you too much but simply be a joy to read- Emily Wilde’s is it. From the masterful and creative world building to the endearing relationship between the leading characters, it’s definitely a book that will prove to be the highlight of your reading experience this year. Especially if you’re looking for something to shake up your usual reading selections!
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