Review: Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett

This book falls into the niche subgenre of “fake naturalist narrative in which the naturalist studies fantastic beings.” Brennan’s Lady Trent stories also come to mind.

Fawcett, instead, opts to tell stories of fairies…and not the nice Disney kind either. These fairies can’t be trusted, and you don’t want them to like you any more than you want them to hate you.

(Well, except the dog. It took me a couple of chapters to realize it wasn’t a dog at all. But don’t worry, nothing bad happens to the dog).

Told in the style of a journal or travelog, this book is definitely a faerie tale. And an interesting one. If you like that kind of thing, you will love this book. Just understand it gets a little bit dark in places.

And no, the romance is not resolved in one book.

Thoroughly enjoyable.

I received a free copy of this book for award consideration purposes.

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

This series is kind of along the “Characters have a series of adventures and the overarching plot is emotional” lines.

Specifically, it’s the romance. The romance is pretty solid…and very adult. There aren’t so much sparks as very solid, well banked embers. They take time and they think about it, and I like that.

It’s still a faerie tale, and not in the Disney sense. The fairies in this book are actually quite, quite nasty, although the fox is adorable. The author is also using fairies from all over Europe, not just the Celtic fringe, which I appreciate.

If I have an issue it’s that Emily is sometimes a little flat. All the characters could use a tiny bit more depth. But its well written and enjoyable despite that.

I received a free copy of this book for award consideration purposes.