This book was big for us early this year, I bought it when I was in the mood for something light and managed to ignore it ever since. It seemed like a good bit of holiday reading in that it probably wouldn't be a book I'd keep so I wouldn't have to carry it back with me once I'd read it.
It has been a nice bit of light reading, and I will leave it with my sister to read. Before this sounds too dismissive I'm looking forward to reading the sequel when it comes out in paperback; it's a thoroughly enjoyable bit of fantasy with some decent jokes and a welcome relief from the romantic fantasy which is everywhere.
Emily Wilde is a brilliant academic in the field of Dryadology engaged in a winters worth of fieldwork in a remote Scandinavian community. She's soon joined by her college, Wendell Bambleby who might be rather more than he seems, and her dog Shadow, who is definitely more than an ordinary dog. Emily and Wendell find a mildly cursed village where Emily, despite her lack of social skills starts to put things right with the reluctant aid of Wendell. Unfortunately, academic curiosity leads her to make a very silly decision.
In some ways very little happens, but it doesn't happen enjoyably. The footnotes are amusing and Heather Fawcett both understands and has fun with all the folk and fairy tale conventions. Emily is a spikey kind of character with just enough chaotic energy to balance her competence and make her decently 3 dimensional. Wendell becomes slowly less human but in an equally relatable way.
There isn't really much else to say about this one - if you like a bit of light fantasy I'd recommend it, if it sounds utterly unappealing it won't be for you. As a fan of Holly Black, Sylvia Townsend Warner's fairy tales, and Susan Stokes-Chapman darkly gothic novels I found enough to enjoy here, though Heather Fawcett is definitely more at the whimsical comedy end - with just a hint of a love interest. I'm not sure she's as good as Travis Baldree in the feel good stakes - but it's in that league.
I saw so many enthusiastic reviews of this book, and the sequel seems just as popular. I bought it on impulse, but I lost interest half-way through and never went back to it. I'm glad so many people have enjoyed it.
ReplyDeleteI don't think I'd have finished it if I wasn't on holiday - I liked it, but the stakes are consistently low, and there's no real sense of peril even at perilous times. The ending is abrupt and inconclusive too. On the other hand I'll probably get book 2 to listen to whilst I read. I find things like this, which don't demand much concentration perfect for that.
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