Review of Emily Wilde's Encycolpaedia of Faeries

Cozy fantasy is a popular genre these days, and since I love cozy books it was only a matter of time before I ventured into the cozy fantasy genre. I chose a middling book to start with, but I guess that means I can only find better ones as I continue to explore this genre!

Don't get me wrong, this is not a bad book! It flows really well, is very thoroughly thought-out, and the characters were fun and engaging. Unfortunately, I found it a bit unoriginal, and trope-y.

Understand that I am not against using tropes. There are lots of tropes that I cannot get enough of! However, utilizing a trope in a book requires that it be done extremely well, otherwise it feels cheap and lazy. I am not saying that Hannah Fawcett is a lazy writer, but I do think she leaned too heavily on popular tropes and ultimately that took her book from "good" to "just OK." (At least, for me).

The primary example is the love story that couldn't land on whether it was a subtle enemies-to-lovers that hits you out of nowhere, or an obvious I-saw-this-coming-a-mile-away friends-to-lovers story. Emily spends the entire book perpetually irritated with Wendell, and even when he is helpful and kind she finds a way to write it off. This character is supposed to be around 30 years old, but she acts like a petulant teenager. Now, of course, anyone of any age can be petty, but Emily's constant irritation never evolves. We get one reason for her irritation, and then suddenly, she likes him? I wanted more depth to Emily's inner monologue, particularly when it comes to why she is kind of generally a grump.

That being said, I loved the flipped script. The sunshine MC being male, and the grumpy MC being female. But whereas your quintessential MMC's of the grumpy variety are given tons of depth (think Mr. Darcy, Mr. Rochester, etc.), Emily Wilde felt far more one-dimensional in comparison.

That aside, however, and truly the book's greatest strength, is that this story isn't ONLY a love story. In fact, the surrounding plot is far stronger than the romantic elements. The townsfolk Emily interacts with, her awkwardness in knowing how to socialize, her research of the Faerie realm, and her growth toward learning to care about the people around her and not just hide behind her research-- all of this kept me reading and helped me overlook the surface level romantic plotline.

The Faerie realm also fell into some tropes and felt pretty unoriginal. But that doesn't mean it wasn't well done, or doesn't work. It does! But when you use basically the same set up for how Faeries operate as Susanna Clarke, it pales in comparison. However, this is only a very minor failing in my opinion. After all, tons of fantasy writers have practically ripped off Tolkien, so one can hardly fault one writer for being inspired by another. I guess I just find originality, particularly in fantasy, a major value for me as a reader.

So read this book for exactly what it is: a cozy book that will not ask too much of you; with a strong female lead (who isn't 19 years old, thank God), a strong cast of colorful characters, a gentle plot twist, a shallow romantic subplot that is vaguely enemies-to-lovers, and some beautiful descriptions of nature-- both earthly and faerie!