4.75 stars

I feel enchanted. This was wonderful in every sense of the word!

I am filled to the brim with feelings. Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries was the right book at the right time. Absolutely magical, it felt like getting a warm hug. I'm so glad I picked this up because the hype was real for this one! My favourite thing about the book has to be Emily herself. Emily was SUCH a relatable character to me, I saw my own infuriating curiosity, my uneasiness in social situations, and my difficulty in opening up to others mirrored in her. She was very obviously neurodivergent and aroace spec coded (I think demisexual?). And it was rather brilliantly handled. Her brain was a delightful place to be in, and the epistolatory style of the novel really had us diving deep into her character which was multi-faceted and an all-around lovely place.

Going into the novel, I was expecting a cosy, cottage-core book with lots of fluff and a minimal plot. Encyclopaedia ended up being a bit more unsettling and plot-heavy than I was expecting it to be. The fairies in the book are a lot like faeries from old stories, malevolent and mischievous and sometimes pretty deadly. I was expecting the romance to play a bigger role as well, considering the biggest point of hype on social media about the book was about the pairing. I really liked that it was a slow burn, however. It was the perfect amount of romance, that didn't exactly distract from the main story but worked as a warm and fuzzy feeling threaded through the book. I liked the male lead, I appreciated that he wasn't presented as the typical fae, and the romance didn't feel cliched or trope-y. Though once again, Emily's character far outshone Wendell Bambleby's for me.

The writing is very dry and academic, and I like to believe that it grows warmer (tepid at best) by the end of the book, as Emily starts to open up, but I might just have gotten used to it lol. It's also rather formal, and though I had a hard time getting into it for the first 50 or so pages, it worked brilliantly in immersing the reader in the 20th-century setting. Too many historical fiction books sound so millennial that sometimes it's hard to remember that these people are living lives 100+ years before now. I appreciated that, and I also felt like the academic style suited Emily's character and led a distinctive voice to the character, which is something many experienced authors still fail to do. I adored the descriptive bits of writing though, got a lot of L. M. Montgomery vibes with the focus on nature and the wilderness. It contributed to the cosiness of the story and loved how atmospheric the story was because of it. The winter stuff and the winter fae king reminded me a lot of Naomi Novik's Spinning Silver, and if that isn't enough deterrent for you to immediately pick this up, idk what is.

Definitely, an author I will be trying more of, and a book I will for sure be rereading, Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries was a delightful story that reminded me of the fairytales I loved to read as a child. If you are looking for a lighthearted magical story with a heartwarming romance and loveable characters, this is the book for you.