Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries: Book 1 of the Emily Wilde Series (Emily Wilde, #1)

by Heather Fawcett

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A curmudgeonly professor journeys to a small town in the far north in this “incredibly fun journey through fae lands and dark magic” (NPR), the start of a heartwarming and enchanting new fantasy series.

“A darkly gorgeous fantasy that sparkles with snow and magic.”—Sangu Mandanna, author of The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches

LOCUS AWARD FINALIST • A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New York Times Book Review, NPR, PopSugar, Polygon, The Globe and Mail, She Reads

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, muddle 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.

Book One of the Emily Wilde Series

Don’t miss any of Heather Fawcett’s charming Emily Wilde series:
EMILY WILDE’S ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF FAERIES • EMILY WILDE’S MAP OF THE OTHERLANDS • EMILY WILDE’S COMPENDIUM OF LOST TALES

• ISBN10: 0593500156
• ISBN13: 9780593500156
• Publish Date: 24 October 2023 (first published December 2022)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Del Rey Books
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 352
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780593500156

Reviews

[Ashley]

Bored and didn't care about anyone enough to keep going. 😬

[marciemarie]

This could’ve been a 5-star book for me if the pacing had been a bit different. I feel like it took way to long to get momentum moving in the first half, and then once the ~big reveal~ happens I almost wished it would slow down so I could savor it a little more. But overall I’m obsessed with the concept, the world, and most of all our two protagonist. If you can push through the slow start it’s a delight!!

[Quirky Cat]

Book Summary:

Emily Wilde is not your typical Cambridge Professor. Why? She studies faeries. She's also not great when it comes to talking (or doing anything with) people. She'd much prefer to be left alone for her studies, thank you very much.

Despite this, Emily is about to go on an adventure. Or rather, a field research trip. It's the best way to uncover new secrets and lost history about her preferred subject. Yet we all know what happens when somebody gets too close to the truth...

My Review:

Guys, Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries is such a fun read! If you love fae and their lore, you will love this book. It has a lot of fun tropes and elements, such as the cantankerous professor trope and Hidden Ones' mythology. In other words, it's pretty perfect. Oh! Did I mention there's even an academic rival?

The characters really make this book, if I may say so. I know the description probably doesn't make it sound like Emily's character is super personable, but she's a fantastic character on the pages. Maybe not the best person to take to a party, but a great character to follow!

This was such a fresh take on a world I love so much (fae and mythology). It's the sort of thing I didn't realize I needed – until it was in my hands. So, what are you waiting for? Go read it!

Highlights:
Faeries
Historical Fantasy
Field Research...of fae
Cantankerous Professor Trope
Academic Rivalry

Trigger Warnings:
Ableism
Kidnapping
Animal Abuse & Death (mentioned)

Thanks to Del Rey Books and #NetGalley for making this book available for review. All opinions expressed are my own.

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[chymerra]

When I got the email inviting me to read/review this book, I was immediately taken by two things. The first was the cover. Now, covers don’t usually get my attention or play into why I want to read a book. Mainly because I read using my Kindle Scribed. But this one caught my attention because of how simple it was. The other thing that grabbed my attention was the blurb. A female professor studying Faeries in an alternative Norway in the 1880s? That is when I decided that I wanted, no needed, to read this book. And I am glad that I did because it was a good read.

Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries takes place in the late 1800s in an alternative world where women could hold jobs and have the same rights as men at that time. 95% of the book is set in the fictional country of Ljosland. Now, I was curious, and I googled the country. It turns out that Ljosland is a village in Norway. The village is made up (I googled that too). I liked that the author created a whole country similar to Norway but simultaneously different.

The plotline for Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries is an interesting one. In this alternative world, fairies are real. Emily Wilde is an expert on Faeries and is writing an encyclopedia of fairie lore, which will be the first of its kind. She is almost finished and is traveling to Ljosland to study the most elusive and feared Faery of that area, the Hidden Ones. A loner by nature, Emily struggles to make connections in the village. Connections that she needs if she is going to finish her encyclopedia. Help, or a hindrance if she had her say, comes from Wendell Bambleby. Wendell is her rival in the world of Faery lore. But there is something about him that Emily can’t put her finger on. As the winter rages on and her studies continue, Emily learns that Wendell is more than he seems. And when The Hidden Ones start taking children and creating mischief, Emily takes it upon herself to help. That sets off a series of events that forces Emily to reevaluate everything she knows about Faeries, herself, and Wendell. What does Emily learn? What does she find out about Wendell? Will she finish her encyclopedia?

Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries is the first book in the Emily Wilde series. Usually, I would put in here if you need to read the other books in the series first or not. Well, since it’s the first book, it doesn’t apply.

The pacing of Emily Wilde (I am shortening the title for this review. Plus Encyclopaedia keeps getting autocorrected) is slow for the first 70% of the book. And when I mean slow, it was snail or turtle slow. There was a point in the book where I debated DNF’ing it. It was that slow. But, once certain things happened (I can’t say because of spoilers), the book picked up speed.

The characters of Emily Wilde were interesting and diverse. I liked that the author chose this alternative world to be LGBTQ-friendly (a lesbian couple is featured prominently in the middle and last half of the book). I enjoyed it. It was refreshing for the period it was in (as was Emily, 30 and unmarried).

• Emily—She was an odd duck right from the beginning. She had zero people skills and managed to tick off not only her host but the unofficial chief of the village. Her only companion was an elderly dog named Shadow. She was able to win over a couple of the Fairy. One was a sprite who lived in a tree, and the other was a changeling who just wanted to go home to his mother. I did feel bad because she did try. I wasn’t prepared for what she did 70% through the book. I am not going to go into it much, except that it went against everything she had warned the villagers about during the first few days of her stay. But, in a way, it did make sense because she got the last bit of information she needed for her encyclopedia.
• Wendell—Ok, so I figured him out from the beginning. I don’t know how Emily didn’t figure it out sooner. All the signs were there. I can’t get more into what I am talking about because of the spoilers. But it is something huge. One thing I can talk about is Wendell’s feelings for Emily. Even I could see that he loved her. He followed her to that snowy land and helped her with her research. And then, he stayed and helped her out when things went sideways. Wendell made me laugh because he did things to annoy Emily deliberately. Like adding entries into her journal or just being a pain in the butt. But he did have an alternative reason for being there. One that made me sad.

Emily Wilde fits perfectly into the fantasy genre. The author spun a world where Faeries were real and were studied. There were points in the book where I wished that it was true. But then I would read about the more dangerous Faery and say, “Nope, glad they’re fictional.“

There was a slight, very slight, sliver of romance in Emily Wilde. It was so small that I almost missed it. But, towards the end, it became more apparent.

The storyline with Emily, Wendell, and the research into her encyclopedia was interesting. I couldn’t believe the different kinds of Fairies that Emily had encountered on her research journies. I wondered how much of the folklore was true and how much the author made up. Usually, I google this stuff, but I didn’t want to go down a rabbit hole, so I didn’t. The Faeries that Emily met in the north were as cold-blooded as the weather. There was a point towards the end of the book (after the rescue mission) when I worried for Emily. There was a neat twist in the plotline that happened after the tree scene. I did laugh a little at Emily’s dismay (what did she think was going to happen!!), but my laughter did turn to concern for her. Everything did work out in the end.

The end of Emily Wilde was interesting. I was slightly put off by how it ended until I remembered it was a series. It ended on a bit of a cliffhanger, and those annoy me. But it did its job and made me want to read book 2. I pray that it isn’t as slow as this one was. I couldn’t do that again.

I recommend Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries to anyone over 16. There is mild violence, no language, and no sex.

I want to thank Random House Publishing Group – Ballantine, Del Rey, and Heather Fawcett for allowing me to read and review Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries. All opinions stated in this review are mine.

[annieb123]

Originally posted on my blog Nonstop Reader.

Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries is a wonderfully engaging fantasy series starter by Heather Fawcett. Released 10th Jan 2023 by Penguin Random House on their Del Rey imprint, it's 336 pages and is available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately.

This is such a beautifully written, appealing, and entertaining book. It's a fantasy homage to the Victorian/Edwardian naturalist field studies of the period and it's jolly well done, complete with footnotes and observations galore. The titular protagonist, young fiercely bookish Dr. Emily Wilde is ferociously intelligent and academic, but mostly at sea when it comes to navigating interpersonal relationships. She finds it easier to confine herself to codifying the unspoken rules which govern the fair folk than to understand the same with her fellow humans. 

There is (naturally) an element of slow-burn romance in the form of an undisguised frenemy, the exasperating (but devilishly handsome) Dr. Wendell Brambleby, well-born, charming, and infuriatingly indolent.

For fans of Katherine Arden, Natasha Pulley, Cat Rambo, and Catherynne Valente, this book will recall the wonderful feelings from those authors' books. It's not derivative in any way, but it *is* magical. I also enjoyed that despite being set in the early Edwardian period, the author doesn't have any problems dispensing with the more annoyingly rigid social mores of the time. Dr. Wilde is refreshingly forward thinking and the book simply ignores the inconvenient proscriptions against women being unchaperoned and engaging in academic careers on a level playing field with their male colleagues.

Five stars. Gorgeous. Looking forward to finding out what comes next. 

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.