Reviews with content warning for Blood - Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries

Reviews tagging 'Blood'

Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett

132 reviews

samchase112's review against another edition

adventurous funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

The hype was real, and it was beautiful! I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Emily, Wendell, and the rest of the quirky, wonderful characters that populate this book. The incorporation of faerie legend and worldbuilding was so gorgeously and naturally done, and I could not get over how much I loved that part of the story. Truly a beautiful reading experience, and I can't wait to get my hands on book two!!!

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nisaak's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

This was mostly cozy except for one part so I can’t 100% recommend it as cozy fiction but I loved, loved loved it. I’m so glad there are two more books in this series!!!

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kylieqrada's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Perfection. Neurodivergent MC in a cozy fantasy romance written in diary entries? Yes please thank you very much!

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sophiesmallhands's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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gillian_aftanas's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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martafernandes's review against another edition

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lighthearted relaxing slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Really liked this one. A bit slow at the beginning, stayed mainly for the cozy vibes and the FMC's personality and dark humour. Started to pick up the pace around the 25% mark, but still remained a simple read, without major action scenes or complicated worldbuilding, which I enjoyed. I was kind of thrown off a bit by some gory details that showed up in random places, specially because the rest of the book was very "light" on that aspect. I wish the romance was a little more developed, Bambleby's actions

a.k.a. proposal

fell kind of flat. Definitely will be reading the second one.

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aformeracceleratedreader's review against another edition

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medium-paced

4.0

A fun story about fae. As with fae, there are some darker parts of the story but nothing too brutal. Would def check out the 2nd book of this series.

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emilywrayburn's review

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adventurous funny lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

"I would sooner interview a dozen bloody changelings than navigate my way through this thicket of social conventions."

Recently, I reposted a Thread from the QI Elves defining the word gigil, a Tagalog word that refers to “the irresistible urge to squeeze something or someone that is unbearably cute”. That was me with this book. More specifically with Emily and Bambleby, but they are fictional and thus intangible, so I had to make do with pacing around my flat and then curling up on the couch and hugging a cushion with a goofy grin on my face.

You can keep you ACOTAR, if I say I want a book with fairies, this is what I’m talking about. I’ve always had an interest in Fae folklore ever since doing an assignment on the Cottingley Fairies in high school. This book is deeply rooted in traditional folklore around the Fae, involves our intrepid dryadologist traipsing through the snow in the possibly vain hope of finding a fairy to talk to. When she does, their interactions involve her keeping his tree free of snow and him baking her bread. Also he’s all pointy edges and mostly made of tree and less than a foot tall.

Which is not to say that there aren’t any unbelievably attractive Fey royalty about (*looks pointedly at Wendell and his perfect hair*) but there isn’t the same kind of glamour or sheen that I tend to associate with the ACOTARs and similar that are currently at the top of all the Fey romance lists. I’m not talking about the book covers and the physical books when I say that, I’m talking about the story itself. I hope I’m making sense!

As to the characters and story themselves, I will say this is written for a particular type of reader. Emily Wilde is a scholar, and the nature of her fieldwork means often doing the same thing again and again. The book avoids too much repetition, but at the end of the day, an academic in a small town with a lot of snow isn’t going to appeal to everyone. Having said that, I felt that there was enough going on that this was never an issue for me. I am picky about cosy fantasies – I didn’t especially love Legends & Lattes because it’s just too nice. Nothing happened. I want the cosy vibes and still a bit of something going on.

Fawcett takes us into the Fey world on more than one occasion via a few very bad decisions on Emily’s part, which only work out well because of Emily’s vast knowledge of Fey workings and the way their worlds are entirely bound up in the stories told about them. Emily is all about the research and not entirely afraid to put herself in danger for the sake of knowledge. The fact that during this research trip, she starts to accidentally care about the people involved, as well as realise that she is in fact worthy of being cared about by others, comes as a complete surprise to her. This is my favourite kind of character development and it’s done so well.

Wendell Bambleby is a great foil for Emily. Where she’s about the research, he’s about the people, so while he might be magnificently annoying, he is also charming and can get into places and gain information that Emily cannot. He also truly admires Emily’s intelligence and resourcefulness, even her prickliness, though he does tease her about that. Actually, he teases her about most things but it comes from a place of love. But he’s also a Fae in exile (I won’t say more because spoilers) and has the same capricious nature that many of their kind are known for. Poor Emily has to take “Oh, sorry, lost my temper back there” as the only acknowledgment of the fact that he slaughtered a group of fairies in cold blood when they threatened to hurt her.

(I will say as an Emily who often has people just start calling me Em out of nowhere, I am certain that’s what Bambleby has done to Emily Wilde, and she just doesn’t know how to tell him stop. 😂)

As you can probably tell from the length and tone of this review, I’m dying to get my hands on book two; I placed a hold on it at the library when I was still only halfway through this book. I can’t wait to spend more time with these characters and in this world.

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j_davis0322's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny mysterious relaxing tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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chevelure's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging informative mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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