Why must mortals always be solving mysteries? What is the point of life if everything is pinned and labelled in some display case? You scholars should aim to discover more mysteries, not untangle them.
Taryn, 3rd January, Emily Wilde’s Compendium of Lost Tales by Heather Fawcett
Table of Contents
Preamble
I didn’t know Emily Wilde’s Compendium of Lost Tales had come out earlier this year (February 11, 2025) until April 2025 when a booktuber I regularly watch (Cindy) mentioned it in a video. I have enjoyed the previous two iterations in Heather Fawcett’s Emily Wilde series when I read them back to back in the beginning of 2024. You can find my reviews of the first book here and the second book here.
I added this book to my to-be-read pile in April but I was not interested in reading it as I had several other books in the queue that I wanted to get into – for example, I was reading Blue Sisters when this book was added to my TBR. I had originally planned to read Intermezzo by Sally Rooney this week, a copy of which I had borrowed from the library – but I really did not get along with Rooney’s writing style and ended up DNFing the book 56 pages in. My secondary choice was this book so here we are.
Let’s get into it.
The Book
Like with the first two books in this series, this book follows the adventures of the titular Emily Wilde and it is written in the form of journal entries complete with footnotes – all “written” by Emily. This particular style continues to be charming and amusing and I’ll give the author points for maintaining stylistic consistency throughout the series so far.
This book brings back several side characters from the previous books in the series. To be quite honest, since its been more than year since I’ve read those books I had trouble remembering who they were and their actions in the overarching narrative. This is not something I can fault the book for and it did not overly detract from my experience of reading it but it is something to keep in mind if you are jumping into this third book after a similar distance from the first two.
As for the narrative, this book follows Emily’s adventures in the faerie court of her now fiancé Wendell. The book portrays Emily as somewhat overwhelmed by all the various shenanigans that go down in a place as weird as a faerie realm. There is very much a fairy tale vibe to the whole narrative complete with an evil stepmother and a deadly curse. Definitely making use of the tropes of a fairy tale here.
I did not get invested into the story and I don’t know why. There is nothing particularly bad about the story, nor is it poorly written. The narrative arcs in the book just didn’t do much for me. I found myself more interested in the weird shit and strange creatures of Wendell’s faerie realm than in the main crisis with the evil stepmother and her deadly curse.
Conclusions
Emily Wilde’s Compendium of Lost Tales was yet another book that I found myself using the most boring of descriptors for – it was fine. The book is a competently written fantasy in a series I like with characters I like and a fun and unique writing style. What stops this book from being elevated into being “good” is that I did not find the narrative compelling.
It is possible that with the distance of time, some of the charm of series has worn off. Or perhaps that I am reading this at the wrong time. Or perhaps it is the art slump phenomenon continuing to affect my enjoyment of art. Or it is simply that this third book in the series is not as good as the other ones.
Whatever may be the case, if there are going to be more books in this series I will find myself returning to them. If nothing else it will be due to my familiarity with the series making any future iterations comfortable to get into and sometimes one desires the comfort of the familiar.
That is all from me, see y’all in the next one. Stay hydrated comrades.
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