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

Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries
by Heather Fawcett

Book title: Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries
Author: Heather Fawcett
Genre: Historical fantasy
Published: January 10, 2023
317 pages
My rating: 4/5

“There was something about the stories bound between those covers, and the myriad species of Folk weaving in and out of them, each one a mystery begging to be solved. I suppose most children fall in love with faeries at some point, but my fascination was never about magic or the granting of wishes. The Folk were of another world, with its own rules and customs – and to a child who always felt ill-suited to her own world, the lure was irresistible.”

Young Cambridge professor Emily Wilde travels to the distant northern village of Hrafnsvik to prepare the final chapter of her Encyclopaedia of Faeries. She has no intention of befriending any of the local townsfolk, nor does she wish to spend any time with her insufferable rival, Wendell Bambleby, who suddenly arrives at the village. But as Emily begins to uncover the secrets of the Hidden Ones, the most elusive of the faeries, she must learn to accept the villagers’ friendship and help if she wants to escape the faeries’ enchantments.

Heather Fawcett’s Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries is a cozy light academia fantasy full of magic and faeries. I loved the main character, and her social awkwardness reminded me of myself. Her growing friendships with the rest of the cast of characters were adorable. I also enjoyed reading the book’s first person diary-style description of Emily’s experiences and the footnotes on fairy lore. This book formed a nice contrast to the dark academia vibes of my previous read, R.F. Kuang’s Babel, and I must say I prefer light academia myself. This book made a perfect cozy fall read.

So why isn’t this five stars? First of all, as it turns out, I’m not a huge fan of faeries and don’t really get why they are so popular, which is a very unfair criticism to give to a book that clearly says in the title that there’s faeries in it. Admittedly, as I continued reading the book, I began to warm up to the faeries, but they’re still not my favorite fantasy creatures.

Secondly, although I loved the autism-coded representation, I thought Emily’s characterization was rather heavy-handed, especially in the early chapters. The main character mentioned on almost every page how socially awkward she was, and it started to grate on me. A little bit more showing rather than telling would have done the trick better. Toward the end of the book, there was less telling of how awkward Emily was, and the story started to flow better.

I also wasn’t one hundred percent sold on the ending. It felt rushed and made Emily a little too much “a damsel in distress” who needed to be rescued by other people. However, it did make sense in the context of the book and its themes, as the lesson Emily needed to learn was not to be so self-reliant and learn to accept help and friendship from other people, and Emily was an active character throughout the climax. However, none of the main characters actually contributed to Emily’s ultimate rescue from the clutches of the villain. It was brought about by nameless side characters, and the main characters simply ran away.

My final criticism is the otherwise enjoyable way this story was narrated. The book uses a diary format, which had severe limitations. The narration happened after the fact, which kept the reader distanced from the action. The story already had rather low stakes, which makes it a great cozy read, but the stakes became even lower when the main character is clearly narrating the events from (relative) safety, after the action has already happened and we know she has survived the ordeal.

There were also times when the main character implied knowledge of something that would happen much later, for example saying something to the effect of “once I got to know this person better, I understood…” – except she hasn’t had time to learn to know the person better, as she’s writing the description in her diary the same day of meeting them!

The novel is set in 1909, but there isn’t really anything that gives you a sense of the time period, no mentions of historical events or inventions. A few things, such as mentions of the discovery of galaxies and women’s role in academia, smacked a little anachronistic (the first female professor at Cambridge was appointed in 1939, thirty years after the events of this book – but maybe the existence of faeries made this fantasy world less patriarchal?). This isn’t really a criticism, more like a question. It would be interesting to know why the author chose this exact year for her story when it plays no obvious role in the story, and the book could have easily been set a little earlier or later as well. The story felt more timeless than grounded in any actual time period.

All in all, I gave this book four stars. If you’re looking for a fun, cozy, low-stakes fantasy with faeries and a little bit of romance, definitely read this book!