Fawcett Meeting

What we enjoyed about the book:

Wendell (controversial conversation starter!)
turn the book took when Wendell arrived (improved the story)
fairy world, storytelling
nice world-building
Irish folklore etc.
different fairies for different places –> regionality
scholarship / fairy academia great
institutionalisation of folklore, yet general population does not like the scholars
the ‘folk’ part of the story about the ‘Folk’ despite the academics meddling
Emily’s scientific mind fascinating, yet utter lack of awareness for danger, more scholarly interest than self preservation…
dog ❤
E.A. Poe references great, also a “Black Cat”
Emily learns the Fairy language, committed
Emily struggles to see fairies as subjects vs. objects
dehumanisation/humanisation…what’s human?
W.B. Yeats
Katherine Briggs
logic vs. chaos
Emily does not change much throughout the book?
morale of the story: everything works better when we solve problems together (as a community)
footnotes nice (for some)
overall enjoyable
lumberjack love story amazing, easy queer rep
really entertaining
Wendell as a fairy great: witty, cheeky, charismatic, annoying

What we discussed about the book:

we hated the love story (not all of us, but many)
Wendell as love interest meh
does not feel like a healthy relationship either
autism-coding of Emily very problematic and stereotypical
romance incredibly rushed
changelings also very weird
students are caricatures
academia part so underused: Wendell as professor about himself, could’ve used that much more, hilarious
Wendell lots of red flags
“it was revealed to me in a dream” type of academic that Wendell is –> could’ve been used more for comedy
language barrier solved too easily and quickly
weird pan-Scandinavian thing going on, felt like lazy research
bastard child of fairy king unimportant all of a sudden
vibe actually better than the story
meta parts great but underused
disliked the ending: too rushed, too damsel in distress, too many plotholes
pacing issues, partly boring passages
glaringly obvious plotholes
Emily frees herself from the curse (badass!!!) and then goes to the tree anyways???
dark side of Wendell could’ve been explored more
too much for one book
too convenient: coat as deus ex machina?
what happened to the changeling? kid needs therapy now? parents’s story also enigmatic?

Ratings:

Published by MSH