A review by bloomingrose92
Emily Wilde's Map of the Otherlands by Heather Fawcett

adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I loved this book, though it fell several inches short of the first in the series (mostly for the small amount of true surprises, which makes sense, for surprises cannot be neverending). Much of the books seemed to rely on the pattern set by the first, with differentiation set by making a few key element the opposite.
Where the villagers were cautious of the folk in the first book, in this they are protective. Where Wendall os helpful, this one he predisposed. Even De Grey and Eichorn's relationship seemed to be a gender swap of Wendall and Emily. I did like, however, that solution to save Wendall was in his cat, and that due to his ensorcellment, he could not say it directly, but just bind time together to remind Emily of how much he brags about his cat.
That being said, the world building is amazing. Every time I read on of these books, I'm amazed at how real the world and characters seem. It is like stepping into painting and being able to feel the dirt underneath your toes.
And thank Fawcett for not setting us into a cliffhanger. I've found that I believe her books to be in a perfect place for a cliffhanger with only 50 pages to go, just for Emily to find a way to solve all their problems by the end. Given the place of this book as the second of three, it was the perfect place to drop readers off the long side of cliff, but pleasantly wrapped everything up quite nicely. I sincerely thought Emily was going to be trapped in Fairie until book 3, where Wendall must save her, and I was happily surprised. And she killed off his stepmother too. How wonderful cordial. And I did rather like the idea of common fae being more helpful than they first appear sprouting at the end of this book. It had been building for a while, and I'm glad to see a pay-off for it (hopefully we will also see a reconstruction of fae terminology by Emily.
So grateful for this series, and now will be mourning the loss of it until next year by nursing some of my tried and true classics, all while bemoaning that nothing is as good as Emily, our Autistic Queen.
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