Book Review: Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands by Heather Fawcett

Emily Wilde's Map of the Otherlands
by Heather Fawcett

 Book title: Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands
Author: Heather Fawcett
Genre: Historical fantasy
Published: January 16, 2024
337 pages
My rating: 4/5

“I’m afraid I have not gotten over my resentment of him for saving me from the snow king’s court in Ljosland earlier this year, and have made a solemn vow to myself that I shall be the one to rescue him from whatever faerie trouble we next find ourselves in. Yes, I realize this is illogical, given that it requires Wendell to end up in some dire circumstance, which would ideally best be avoided, but there it is. I’m quite determined.”

Emily Wilde, professor of faerie folklore, has just published her comprehensive encyclopaedia of fairies with the help of a fellow scholar and infuriatingly charming faerie king Wendell Bambleby. Her new research project is a map of the faerie realms, but her research is interrupted when Wendell’s murderous stepmother sends assassins to kill him. In order to free him from his family’s sinister plans, Emily and Wendell must travel to the Austrian Alps in search of a door to Wendell’s realm.

Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands is the second book in Heather Fawcett’s light academia fantasy series. I read the first book, Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries, a year ago, and I enjoyed it a lot. The second book was as charming as the first one. I still loved Emily’s character and her diary-style narration. One thing I liked more in this installment than in the first book is that I didn’t find this book as heavy-handed in Emily’s autism-coded representation. That may be due to the fact that we already know the character, so there is no need to over-explain her personal quirks.

Another thing I liked more in this book was how Emily wasn’t so much a damsel in distress as in the first book. Like she notes in the quotation above, she is determined instead to be the one who saves Wendell, and without spoiling the story too much, that is exactly what she succeeds in doing. The stakes are a little higher than in the first book, as the faerie creatures we meet in this book are darker and more dangerous. There’s also a little bit more romance here, but it doesn’t take over the plot. The local villagers play a small role in this story, and instead the book focuses on Emily’s relationship with another professor and her niece Ariadne, who works as her assistant, and we get a cute cameo appearance by the brownie Poe.

I’m still a little unsure why this series is specifically set in 1910, when there are no mentions of historical events or inventions or anything else that gives the reader a sense of the time period. Maybe that’s just the historical fiction lover in me, but I would have liked some facts that had grounded me in the setting rather than a quite timeless presentation of Europe.

Nevertheless, I continued to enjoy the series. If you loved Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedie of Fairies and are looking for a cozy light academia fantasy with faeries and a little bit of romance, definitely read this series. I gave this book four stars.