Genre: Folklore

I will openly admit that I picked this up to read not because of the fantasy-flavored monster romance story, but out of gross curiosity as an env. science reader that enjoys reading about cryptozoology. While I do read romance novels, this is my first monster-themed romance novel and my first read by Lana Ferguson. Part spicy Scottish themed romance part magical realism fantasy tale, Under Loch and Key is an unusual novel that attempts to be a contemporary romance but also a more complex fantasy story involving curses, magic, Scottish folklore, and family secrets. I was pleasantly surprised at the amount of detail and effort put towards the latter elements, going far beyond what I was expecting and required for a straightforward monster romance. When I read Ferguson’s opening dedication “for granting me forgiveness for giving Nessie a penis”, I wasn’t expecting much given her past novels sat comfortably in standard romcom territory. Though I originally thought the Nessie premise would be a simple one-trick pony gimmick with light Scottish flourishes, I was pleasantly surprised by how far Ferguson took the concept and expanded it with proper detailed and compelling lore. Rather than simply giving Nessie Lachlan all the exciting…

Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries is a curious case of a lot of great ideas implemented in a slow and laborious manner. Incorporating aspects of historical fiction, fantasy, light romance and folklore, the elements were there for what many positive reviewers have describe as a cozy and enchanting read. Unfortunately the narrative and tone was not for me and I alternated between struggling to stay interested in the story and being baffled at seemingly random lurches in unexpected directions. The main highlight for me and the area Heather Fawcett was consistently strong in was the folklore aspect layered into the story. Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries is full of lengthy and detailed stories told by the villagers of Hrafnsvik, encounters with the Fair folk, and even recapped from Emily’s own research. These stories placed in self-contained chapters are often longer than non-folklore chapters given that the story is presented via Emily’s written journal, some entries being extremely short and uneventful. These stories all have some sort of theme that connects to whatever Emily is experiencing at the time, and the imaginative quality of these tales often surpasses the novel’s actual story itself (like modern Grimm fairy tales). The interest within…

My novella of choice for the obligatory spooky horror read for Halloween, this was an odd read that I have mixed feelings about. It really captures the gothic horror fairytale genre well and feels like a modern reimagining of Edgar Allen Poe’s literary style (in concept only unfortunately). The narrative themes of humanity and what constitutes being alive is interesting, if only the writing quality matched it. The writing is typically quite readable with great visuals but then Khaw forces complex and obscure vocabulary in randomly that derails the literary flow. It’s as if Khaw flipped open a thesaurus and actively tried to find the most obtuse and unheard of word to give the writing a more classical or educated flair (it doesn’t). You can deduce what the random words mean by using context clues and analyzing the sentence structure of the passage, but the fact that you’re able to do that just shows how out of the place the vocabulary is when the rest of the writing is straightforward and simplistic. Not only that, the writing itself suddenly drops the vague attempt at old English about 30-40 pages in which is also a welcome relief since it wasn’t ever…