Kicking myself for not writing this review immediately after finishing this book. I was on such a book high and now it’s been two months, and my brain is useless. Because I really want to do this one justice! I want more people to read it and enjoy it like I did.
Emily Wilde is a scholar, and her field of study is faeries. She is aiming to write the first comprehensive encylopaedia of faeries that has ever been published. On a scholarly research trip to a remote northern town, she is set to do her last bit of research before publication. When she first arrives, she doesn’t make the best impression with the locals, but quickly makes inroads with the faeries. When her academic rival, who believes himself to be her friend, Bambleby arrives, she has to deal with him, as well as the fact that the locals prefer him vastly over her.
With that said, please feel free to ignore that synopsis. Everything I loved about this book was due to the writing and the atmosphere the author created. I loved Emily and Bambleby, too, but Fawcett has a way of portraying Emily’s explorations and thoughts, and the sometimes perilous results of human civilization living so close to Faerie, that I was captured immediately by the book and sucked inside its world. The cold, the casual cruelty of some fairies, and the sweet tricksiness of others, the dangers that lurk in Emily’s field, and even her research and writing itself all worked incredibly well for me. I can’t think of an aspect of this book I didn’t like, and I honestly wouldn’t mind re-reading it right this very minute.