A review by noisydeadlines
Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett

slow-paced

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

2.0

The faerie lore in this book is interesting, it has a whimsical feel to it but with a more verbose prose. The beginning was interesting: a scholar, Emily Wilde,  spends some time in this small wintery village doing research.  She is portrayed as an introvert neuro-divergent scientist, so I kinda liked that part of her personality at the beginning. The winter ambience was nice, it felt atmospheric.  The narrative style starts interesting, with her journal entries. But I thought it lacked a personal touch. At times it seems like she's writing an academic journal, but she also uses it to write about her day to day, and the language does not seem to be intimate enough for a personal journal. I found the pacing of the book very uneven, and it seemed nothing was happening to move the plot for a long time. None of the main characters were likeable to me. I really didn't care about them at all. But I cared about the magical dog, Shadow. 

I couldn't understand Emily's love-hate relationship with Wendell. It this is supposed to be a romance, I couldn't see any of it. Some places classify this book as cozy. I don't agree. There are gruesome scenes, and did Emily just tortured a fairy child? Poking steel into it? Also she cuts her finger off. The mystery about Wendell's origin was not a mystery at all, since she already suspected it. It was something resolved within a paragraph, there was no tension or built-up to this plot line.