This week we are discussing Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett, Pgs. 210-End.
Content Warning!!! This book contains situations and subjects related to: blood/gore, violence, kidnapping, self-harm, animal death, and confinement.
Spoiler Warning!!! This post is full of spoilers for Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett.
Discussion:
Michaela: Hello friends and welcome to our final discussion of Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett. This final section of the book picked up so much more than the rest of the book combined I think. It felt like constant action despite that not entirely being the case. I don’t know how I feel about the journal entry type of narrative. I really struggled to stay engaged with the text despite being very interested in the characters, the lore, and the plot. At times the narrative was beautiful and descriptive of the action, and then a lot of times it felt stiff. But I suppose that was how Emily would have been writing based on her personality.
Jac: Yeah, I think the pacing is a bit off, in my opinion. I really enjoyed the characters, but I do agree with Michaela in that the journal entry format kind of skews the way you experience the story. I think I would have enjoyed this story more in a different format, but on the other hand, I think we would miss out on experiencing Emily’s personality so intimately, too. I don’t think I would race to read the rest of the series, but I do enjoy Emily, Bambleby and Shadow enough to want to know what adventures they get up to next…. Eventually.
I thought the romance between Bambleby and Emily was really sweet, honestly. He’s been pining after Emily for awhile, but he’s been nothing but respectful to her. They both felt so comfortable being their true selves around each other that they found comfort in each other’s company - even Emily, who really prefers not to interact with people, finds herself missing his company. I was worried, as we were reading, that he would end up betraying her to get home, so I’m relieved that that didn’t happen. I really thought that he was off trying to find a way home, but the whole time he was looking for a way to get the enchantment off of her.
Michaela: The relief I felt when not only did Bambleby not betray her but came to her aid, no words. I really thought that’s where this was going, but that was probably heavily influenced by Emily’s thoughts too. She really thought no one was going to come for her. I absolutely loved how Bambleby and the village teamed up to save Emily, it just warmed my heart. This story has a weird hallmark channel undertone to it all that I really enjoyed, just with 200% more life and death involved in the story.
Once again I thought learning more about the faeries was the most interesting part of the section; with the changeling and seeing the faerie realm through the celebrations of the King’s engagement. Also, the shadow ring turning to a ring of ice was actually a little shocking, then Emily cuts off her own finger! Call me shook because I was not ready for that at all. Nor was I ready for how violent Bambleby became when he found Emily gone. Obviously faeries have a different temperament to mortals but I was quite taken aback by him ripping a hole between worlds. That made me a little uncomfortable because I was ready for the book to romanticize that violence but it really didn’t, Emily only saw it as fact rather than romantic really.
Emily freeing the King was a little…underwhelming, if I’m being honest. On one hand it was intriguing that such a simple command became so useful but then at the same time I felt like ‘really, that’s all it took? Hundreds of years imprisoned in a tree…freed by buttons’. This book really tows the line between being extremely intriguing while also being more simple than the story leads you to believe it should be.
Jac: Fully agreed on the freeing of the King - and the escape of the King, if I’m being honest - being underwhelming. I don’t know that buttons would be enough to get through bark, even if it wasn’t in the best of quality? I don’t really know why an ax wouldn’t have worked? I don’t know, everything seemed a bit too easy. And don’t get me wrong, I actually really enjoy low-stakes stories. Sometimes, that’s exactly what I’m in the mood for. But in this context it just left me feeling like we were missing something.
I was hoping we would get a bit more of a look into the conference itself. It felt like the very end was kind of rushed, and for the life of me I couldn’t figure out what the significance of the story at the end of the book was. I don’t know if it was just preparing us for the adventures in the next book, or what.
Michaela: I feel like the button thing did make sense to a degree but only 9 times was so not enough to make total sense of it. At times I felt like a lot of the story was avoided by the convenience of the “faerie culture doesn’t make sense to mortals” or Emily’s consciousness/time slipping while enchanted. I guess I just wish there had been more meat to this story, it has so much promise right there but it fell a little short while still being enjoyable and compelling.
I think that’s it for this book, friends! This one was a strange combination of loveable and difficult at the same time. Let us know what you thought of this one, I know it has been extremely popular lately. Until next time!
コメント