Emily Wilde Novels & Stories

Emily Wilde's journey into the Otherlands in 'Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries' is driven by a mix of academic curiosity and personal fascination. As a scholar deeply entrenched in the study of faeries, she isn’t content with just documenting the familiar; she craves the unknown, the untamed. The Otherlands represent the ultimate frontier for her research—a place where faerie lore isn’t just stories but living, breathing reality. Her motivation isn’t purely intellectual, though. There’s an undeniable thrill in uncovering secrets that others dismiss as myths, and Emily’s determination to map the unexplored corners of the fae world feels almost like an obsession. She’s the kind of researcher who’d risk frostbite or worse just to scribble notes about a previously unclassified creature, and that reckless dedication makes her journey compelling.

What really ties her to the Otherlands, though, is the way they challenge her perception of academia and humanity. The fae aren’t just subjects to be studied; they’re capricious, dangerous, and often indifferent to human logic. Emily’s encounters force her to confront the limitations of her Encyclopaedia-style approach—you can’t neatly categorize something that refuses to follow rules. Her exploration becomes a metaphor for the messy, unpredictable nature of knowledge itself. By the end, it’s clear she doesn’t just visit the Otherlands to write about them; she goes because they’ve become a part of her, a puzzle she can’t resist solving, even if it means getting tangled in their tricks and traps. Plus, let’s be real—there’s something irresistibly fun about a protagonist who’d rather argue with a faerie king than attend a stuffy university lecture.