Enter the world of the hidden folk – and discover the most whimsical, enchanting and heart-warming tale you’ll read this year, featuring the intrepid Emily Wilde. . .
Emily Wilde is good at many things: she is the foremost expert on the study of faeries; she is a genius scholar and a meticulous researcher who is writing the world’s first encylopaedia of faerie lore. But Emily Wilde is not good at people
So when she arrives in the hardscrabble village of Hrafnsvik, Emily has no intention of befriending the gruff townsfolk. Nor does she care to spend time with another new arrival: her dashing and insufferably handsome academic rival Wendell Bambleby
But as Emily gets closer to uncovering the secrets of the Hidden Ones – the most elusive of all faeries – she also finds herself on the trail of another mystery: who is Wendell Bambleby, and what does he really want? To find the answer, she’ll have to unlock the greatest mystery of all – her own heart.
Title : Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of Faeries
Author : Heather Fawcett
Format : Physical
Page Count : 336
Genre : Cosy Academia/Fantasy
Publisher : Orbit Books UK
Release Date : January 19, 2023
Reviewer : Micky
Rating : no rating
Micky’s important message about this book
Headline: cultural accuracy matters
This book is on semi-permanent hold. Why? Because the setting for this book is, I quote:
“an island situated off the wild seas off the Norwegian mainland”
and yet the author has used Icelandic alphabet (including letters that don’t exist in the Norwegian alphabet), Icelandic names and Icelandic naming conventions for second names. How can research go so wrong and no one notice all the way to publication?
I am a second generation Norwegian/English reader and have significant knowledge of the language. I have spent a fair amount of time in Iceland and have absorbed lots of their language rules and similarities.
I tried to keep reading but every single time (every page, pretty much) there was a name, a place and it drew me out of the book. I got as far as half way.
I emailed the publisher in a very respectful way and had an unsatisfactory reply that basically blew me off. I really hope that black, queer and other minority readers get better replies to their concerns about any book than I did, as they have enough BS to put up with in life.
A Take from Two Cities 