[Transcript of an interview between Natalie Muglia (NM) and Miranda Miller (MM) recorded on 6/15/2023, 10:10 am CST.]
NM: I think we both know why we’re here today.
MM: Indeed.
NM: Okay then. Let’s get to it.
[Incomprehensible talking over each other, excited.]
MM: Okay, first things first—I read the book! Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries. A very good recommendation. Dear reader, read this book.
NM: On January 10th, 2023, the world was blessed with the best book ever: Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries. I also read it—I think maybe I convinced you to read it, Miranda?
MM: You did! And you received a variety of enthusiastic texts from me about it!
NM: It was probably the highlight of my finals week, to be quite honest.
MM: I should probably not have read it during finals week 😬 —I was a distraction to myself. But worth it!
NM: And now, dear listener, we’re going to tell you why being a distraction to yourself is never a bad thing, and why you should pick up Emily Wilde’s Encylopaedia of Faeries immediately! Miranda, why don’t you give us your elevator pitch?
MM: Have you ever wished that “professional faerie tale expert” was a career path? Read this book. Natalie, what’s your pitch?
NM: If you like whimsical yet adventurous, romantic but “it’s complicated,” and/or slower paced yet “I couldn’t stop reading it lest my real life get in the way” reads, then, hello wyd, go find Emily Wilde’s Encylopaedia of Faeries right now.
MM: Have we convinced you yet? No? Then sit back and enjoy our six-part presentation on why you should read Emily Wilde’s Encylopaedia of Faeries.
[Miranda pulls a slide projector out of nowhere. It’s not following the laws of physics at all, and shouldn’t be possible. Don’t question it.]
[After ooh-ing and aw-ing at their mastery and giggling about what's to come, Miranda clicks to the next slide.]
MM: Fawcett makes faeries interesting. She pays homage to traditional faerie rules and rituals—names have power, bargains, sensitivity to metal—but she also isn’t afraid to set her own rules. One of the most interesting choices that she made in this novel is to get rid of the seelie/unseelie divide as an outdated mode of faerie classification. All faeries are capricious, and have the capacity for kindness and cruelty—just like people. This serves to give the faerie characters both more depth and more mystery, since you can’t just rely on their classification to know how they’ll react to something.
NM: I like what you say about the lack of divide between seelie/unseelie. In most other books I read about faeries, I always get confused by that divide, why it exists, why I should care, etc. But here, I feel grounded in what faeries are and have the capacity to be because of the lack of convoluted politics, for lack of a better term. Also, viewing faeries from a scholar’s point of view helps readers learn about this world and what everyone is capable of, so I think it’s very easy to feel immersed right away.
MM: Yes, I like what you’re saying about the lack of convoluted politics! Without the seelie/unseelie divide, the politics become focused on the individual. Faeries could love to torment mortals but have strong standards of faerie behavior, or they could be kind to mortals but thoughtless in all other actions. We focus on the specific person behind the actions, rather than some sort of arbitrary faerie category.
[More incomprehensible excited noises ensue. Miranda calmly hands Natalie the projection clicker, and Natalie clicks to the next slide.]
NM: So, this book isn’t romantic, really. The romance is both the center of the story and not even remotely close to the focus at any point. That’s because the romance is balanced by Emily’s academic intrigue, her frustration/friendship/feelings for Bambleby, and the adventure that overwhelms Emily’s research. But, because Bambleby is such an essential character, the feelings between the two are always simmering just beneath the surface, and it’s guaranteed to make you have to put the book down at certain points (iykyk)
MM: As a general rule, I’m not a romance connoisseur. That being said, the romance in this book made me have a lot of very strong feelings and I wanted to scream.
[Both scream.]
NM: Heather Fawcett just knew exactly what she was doing, and I’m not sure I could say more on this subject without spoiling so….
[Natalie attempts to toss Miranda the clicker. The clicker drops and shatters into a dozen pieces. Recording pauses as the pair searches for the pieces. After about five minutes and forty two seconds, recording starts again, as Miranda uses the taped-together clicker to move to the next slide.]
MM: I cannot start this section without talking about my favorite side character: The dog. The dog!! The dog!!! Natalie can confirm this, but I spent the ENTIRE book watching this dog like a hawk because he is an Interesting Boy. If you like dogs, read this book. If you like cats, read this book. The main couple are a cat person and a dog person, and if you think you know which is which you are wrong.
NM: Wait, wait, let me just show you, dear reader, how invested she was in this dog. I have text messages from Miranda all about him.
[Screenshots of a series of text messages show up on the screen. Spoilers are blurred out. Below are some of the highlights:]
NM: When I’m telling you it was so hard to keep my mouth shut, it literally was. I could kind of tell that there was a mystery behind Shadow but I knew that Emily would share eventually so I just focused on some of the other things, but you were INVESTED in finding out what Shadow was and I wanted you to find out so bad.
MM: And I did! It was very satisfying to read the reveal. Read the book—it’s worth it for the dog.
NM: Or, if you like ensemble casts, I think this one definitely has a strong one. There’s a whole set of villagers, and at first, Emily really struggles to connect with them. They’re the ones who can help her with her research, but she has a hard time figuring out how to ask for help, which is just too relatable. But once she’s able to connect with them (with Bambleby’s help, of course), there’s no turning back. The found family trope is strong with this one, in an unexpected and beautiful way. No spoilers of course, but one of the final scenes had me tearing up a bit!
MM: Found family is all I want.
NM: Me too, me too.
[Natalie presses the button on the clicker four times before the slide transitions. Incomprehensible noises, most likely giggling, ensues between the pair. They are unable to stop laughing for four minutes and thirty seven seconds. Recording resumes.]
MM: Okay, so there’s lots of funny bits all over this novel, but a guaranteed way to make yourself laugh is to just take a moment and imagine what any given scene looks like to anyone who is not Emily or Bambleby. There’s a scene when they attempt to chop wood, and it still cracks me up when I picture it: two deeply academic nerds failing to swing an axe because they can’t bribe a grad student into doing it.
NM: Omfg I laughed so hard at that scene! But I probably shouldn’t have because I, like Emily, probably couldn’t chop wood to save my life…
[The pair adopts faux British accents that sometimes sound vaguely Russian for the next few
minutes.]
NM: I will say that I think the comedy is so strong because you believe in the relationship Emily and Bambleby have, and in their voices. They both have such strong personalities, and a lot of the humor relies on how their actions or voices conflict with one another, creating some truly hilarious scenarios, even by fae standards.
MM: Yes! And how they respond to those scenarios—one of the funniest things in the world is when characters use understatement or focus on the wrong thing in a tense scene, and Fawcett uses that technique brilliantly.
[Some parts of the conversation have been removed due to spoilers. Recording resumes after three minutes of cut content. It’s mostly just static and snatches of audio—they’re not great at audio editing.]
NM: Okay, so maybe we should talk about the theme now? Don’t people like to know about themes?
[Miranda clicks the clicker five times before the slide changes. The words on the screen have been blurred because they are all spoilers.]
MM: Yes! I have so much to say about themes and the way the recurring motifs change throughout, like—wait, that’s a spoiler. Oh, how about—that’s also a spoiler. Actually, hmmm.
NM: Couldn’t we talk about how—? Oh, I guess not. Hmmm.
MM: I feel like I texted you a lot about themes and symbolism…
NM: No, you did, but you had like screenshots of the book with it, and you kept going back to things that had already happened, so I guess…we can’t talk about the theme without spoiling it?
MM: Okay, suffice it to say that there are GOOD THEMES and COOL SYMBOLISM in this book, and just watch the use of objects and acts of service and you’ll see them.
NM: Publisher buzzwords include: [redacted], [redacted], [redacted], [redacted], and [redacted].
MM: Onto the next section!
[Natalie clicks the clicker seven times before the slide changes. A look of frustration is clear on her face while aggressively smashing the clicker to the table. In this act of frustration, a water glass is upturned, and recording pauses for twenty five minutes and fifty three seconds as the pair rush to save their copies of Emily Wilde from peril, and embark on the subsequent paper towel hunt in a building infamous for its lack of cleaning supplies. They reluctantly decide to clean up the water with their sweatshirt sleeves. Recording resumes.]
MM: History time! If, like me, you simply couldn’t get enough of women researching faeries and faerie tales in an academic setting, go to your local library! There’s plenty of real-world books of faerie lore and stories to read. Interestingly, there’s actually a historical precedent of women analyzing and collecting faerie tales, and they’re fascinating. A few key women to look out for: Katherine Mary Briggs actually wrote a book called “An Encyclopedia of Fairies” in 1976, and there’s an Irish folklorist named Lady Francesca Wilde. An accident? Perhaps…but perhaps not.
NM: The world feels so built here to me because of all the footnotes that support Emily’s research, the way the footnotes add to the story, the fun little folklore interjections (which I feel like they must be important later…). This world exists because Fawcett knew how to research in her local library to build up Emily’s world with details. Never underestimate the power of your libraries, dear listeners!
[Miranda takes the clicker, clicks it, clicks it again, smacks it into the palm of her hand and shakes it, clicks it thrice more, and the slide changes.]
MM: Now that we’ve hopefully convinced you to read Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries, we must solemnly inform you that this is not the end of our dear Emily Wilde. It’s a trilogy!
NM: The second book, Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands, releases on January 11th, 2024.
MM: That’s so far away :(
NM: I agree :( But the cover is super awesome!!!
MM: There isn’t a confirmed title for the third book in the series, and won’t be for some time, but my money is on it being Emily Wilde’s History of [Redacted].
NM: Or Emily Wilde’s Atlas of the [Redacted].
MM: Or Emily Wilde’s Dictionary of [Redacted].
NM: Or Emily Wilde’s Chart of the [Redacted].
[The verbal basketball ensues for several minutes, but has been cut for time.]
MM: Emily Wilde’s Portal to—hey, that reminds me! I actually think I found a portal to faerieland in my backyard. There’s this little wooden door set in a big rock that definitely wasn’t there yesterday. You want to check it out?
NM: Omg, yes???
MM: Great, grab the recorder and let’s go! Come on, dear listener, as we go on what is possibly the first real magic adventure—
[Recording crackles and ends.]
Do not try to enter a faerie portal at home, but if you do, enter at your own risk.
You can pick up a copy of Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett wherever books are sold.