7 Books Similar To Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries

Similar to Emily Wilde, Beth Pickering is somewhat at a loss when it comes to matters of the heart. She’d rather be left alone with a good book or with some rare birds that she can capture and document in her field notebook. Beth is therefore rather annoyed by Professor Devon Lockley, who seems to always be lurking at the wrong moment to thwart her success.

After all, this is the field of Ornithology. In a world where flesh-eating birds exist, you have to be cutthroat to get ahead. This is perfectly demonstrated when a competition is announced to find a rare bird and win Birder of the Year. Long-standing alliances are tossed aside and pistols are drawn as every ornithologist descends into the field to win the competition.

This book has a far more comical tone than Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries, but the core elements are similar. In this book magic meets academia, field research can turn deadly, and rivalry might turn into something sweeter.

Vasilisa has always been taught to respect the household spirits that protect the family homes. Every night, her nurse would tell the children stories of how these spirits protect the homes, especially during the long and grueling winters. Yet when Vasilisa's mother dies and her father remarries, her new, devout stepmother doesn't allow the house spirits to be honored. Worse still, her stepmother is determined to push Vasilisa into marriage or the convent.

Vasilisa is blessed with unique gifts and understands the risk of not honoring the house spirits better than anyone. As a series of setbacks falls on the village, Vasilisa knows she must step up and use her gifts before it’s too late.

I was fully immersed while reading this book - I felt like I was the one sitting at the fire being told a dark fairytale. 

Miryem’s father is a moneylender who cannot collect his debts. On the brink of starvation, Miryem finally decides that she must do what he cannot. She sets out to reclaim the debts owed to their family and takes on Wanda, a local, to help with the housework. For Wanda, this is an opportunity to escape her abusive father.

Once she sets her mind to it, it turns out that Miryem is an astonishingly good moneylender. So good that her abilities catch the attention of the Staryk king. Staryk are the icy, cold-hearted fey that are known for raiding human villages. The Staryk king asks Miryem to complete a series of tests to prove her claimed ability to be able to turn silver into gold, where failure means death.

In the meantime, Irina, the daughter of a local lord, is betrothed to the cruel Tsar Mirnatius of Lithvas. It’s a marriage that only becomes less appealing as she starts to uncover his deadly secrets…

Clover Hill earned her way into Camford, the magical university traditionally attended only by members of the Families. Known to her classmates as the “scholarship witch,” she's surrounded by privileged students with equal parts wealth and magic in their blood. Clover is considered an outsider until Alden takes her under his wing. Suddenly, she has friends and the stamp of approval required to mingle in spaces previously closed to her. Most importantly, Alden and his friends are interested in faeries and snooping around where they shouldn’t.

All mention of faeries has been completely removed from the syllabus after a faerie was inadvertently released on a battlefield during World War I. This is particularly vexing to Clover, who desperately wishes to find a cure for a curse that was inflicted upon her brother, Matthew, during this incident.

Tao tells small fortunes. Small fortunes don't attract unwanted attention or cause unnecessary trouble. Small fortunes aren't matters of life and death. Tao tries her best to blend in, but even her small fortunes tend to come uncannily true, and her appearance gives away her Shinn heritage. With tensions mounting between Shinara and Eshtera, she doesn’t always get a friendly reception, despite having spent most of her life in Eshtera.

When a small fortune turns out to have quite big implications, Tao suddenly finds herself with both company and a greater purpose to her travels.

The Teller of Small Fortunes is a very wholesome story about found family and is a warm cup of cozy fantasy. 

Tobias Finch is deeply rooted (pun intended) in Greenhollow forest. He spends his days in relative quiet, tending to the woods and the dryads that live there. All of that is about to be uprooted by Henry Silver. Henry (or Silver, as Tobias calls him) is a folklorist who purchases Greenhollow Hall.

When Tobias offers him shelter from the rain one night, he doesn’t realize just how much his life will change. As Silver pursues the local folk tales of the area, he finds himself seeking out Tobias, the Wild Man of Greenhollow. Their affection grows as the mysteries of Tobias’s past unravel, with dangerous consequences.

At just over a hundred pages , this novella manages to create a lush atmosphere, and parts of it reminded me of encounters with the Folk in Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries. A beautiful face might hide sharp teeth, and only your wits will get you out alive. However, do take note that this novella is more mood-driven than plot-driven —reading it feels a bit like taking a stroll in the forest.

Effy Sayre is an architecture student obsessed with stories. One story in particular, Angharad by Emrys Myrddin, has captured her attention for most of her life. So naturally, she leaps at the opportunity to enter a contest to redesign the Myrddin estate. When she arrives, however, she begins to realize that she has her work cut out for her. Especially when she runs into the aggravating Preston Héloury, a fellow student who is threatening to discredit her favorite author’s legacy.

A Study in Drowning is enchanting and moody, and I truly loved reading it. This was actually the first of the books in this article that I read after Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries, and it absolutely scratched the same itch. The line between reality and the impossible is blurred in sometimes chilling ways. We also get to hear a lot about Effy’s favorite story involving the Fairy King and his obsession with a mortal girl (which may remind you of some parallels with another encyclopaedia-writing mortal woman). Better still, you get to savor the academic rivalry of Effy and Preston.