This did not work for me. Even putting aside the terrible autism rep, the detached, emotionless writing style of the field journal format and the downright glacial pacing were the opposite of engaging for me. I can see how this could maybe be more appealing on a cold winter night with a mug of hot cocoa and absolutely nothing else going on, but it’s 90 degrees and sunny in Mamdani’s city where I am, so I have a lot of fun things currently competing for my attention (free zipline today!) and am unable to give this book the proper seasonal consideration.

This is also the kind of cozy fantasy where “cozy” is defined as having zero stakes and people are just, idk, existing and doing regular shit in a small town — the fantasy equivalent of a Hallmark holiday romcom where the heroine arrives in Bumfuck, Nowhere on a girlboss big city mission but instead mingles with the locals and learns about flannels and humility and the spirit of community or whatever. The titular faerie encyclopedia is barely involved, and primarily exists offscreen as a plot mechanic for her to arrive at this new location. Emily is bafflingly under-prepared and under-researched for a long stay in the wilderness considering she is supposed to be an experienced field scholar, so a lot of the story is her just clumsily stumbling around offending the townsfolk and trying not to starve, and then somehow getting handed a frankly absurd romantic subplot at the end. (Like, I’m so glad he somehow found the time to fall in love with her despite the parade of women coming in and out of his bed throughout the book.) I was constantly oscillating between utter boredom and irritation with her bumbling state of affairs. Girl literally would’ve died multiple times if not for the men consistently coming to her rescue.

I personally found Sylvie Cathrall’s Sunken Archive series a much more successful example of fantasy light academia with a romantic subplot, also written in a unique format (letters) and featuring neurodivergent characters (OCD, autism, and anxiety). I found it a much kinder and more well-rounded exploration of what it is like to seek love and career success in academia as someone who sees the world a little differently, perhaps because the author herself identifies as autistic and living with OCD. Heather Fawcett, in comparison, does not, and has noted that she did not write Emily as an intentionally autistic character, instead modeling her after the "socially inept genius” archetype 😬

Reading this felt like one long extended yawn, so I probably won’t be pursuing the rest of the series — I’ll tack on an extra star for the fae elements mostly concentrated to the last 25% to be extra generous, since they were the only mildly interesting thing about this book for me.

If The Great Gatsby had been set in Germany, none of this would’ve happened because Gatsby’s parties would’ve been shut down after the very first one due to Ruhestörung (disturbing the peace) after 10 p.m. and I honestly would’ve preferred that ending.

This re-read from my youth sadly continues to be painfully relevant today. The depressing thing is that, the majority of a century after this was published, despite this being taught in schools in many English speaking countries and beyond, we are still (as a species) missing the red flags, and falling into the traps of propaganda over, and over, and over again. That's what makes this such a desperately sorrow-filled read.

Animal Farm and dystopian books like it were intended to teach us to know the signs of authoritarianism before it was too late. We don't appear to have got the message.

I'm giving this 3 stars for my personal enjoyment, but 4 stars overall for its foundational impact on the genre, and its lasting impact on society - even if, heartbreakingly, it didn't fully achieve what it set out to do. It thankfully did help me (and many others) who do see the signs and who are actively fighting against the violence, hate, and control the powers-that-be use against us all in order to keep (and to build) their power and wealth. And that's a big something.

One thing that struck me on this read was that, as a child, I saw authoritarian governments being called out in this text. Reading it again in 2026, I very much saw the super rich behind those governments, pulling all the strings, and leaving the majority of society struggling with a dreadful quality of life, whilst they try to convince us that "trickle down economics" will save us, if we just let them have it all.

"Never listen when they tell you that Man and the animals have a common interest, that the prosperity of the one is the prosperity of the others. It is all lies. Man serves the interests of no creature except himself. And among us animals let there be perfect unity, perfect comradeship in the struggle. All men are enemies. All animals are comrades."

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• Note, audiobook rating refers to the Stephen Fry narration.

I raise a glass of chocolate milk to my first Chuck Tingle book. I love it, it is truly peak and no book will ever reach these new romance standards.

I do have to unfortunately remove a star due to anatomical errors. Morn's dick would have been severely injured by a handjob as sharks are covered in teeth-like structures called denticles. Rubbing against shark skin causes a painful and bloody carpet burn. Not ideal for a finjob. Additionally, I wish Tingle could be a little more creative with the penetrative sex. Male sharks have a reproductive structure called claspers. These are inserted into the oviduct of female sharks to transfer sperm. Yoko being a brain surgeon, should have been more anal about being scientifically corrected and referred to his organ as his clasper and not dick, but I guess love makes you open to more common terminology. Since this is my first Tingle book, I won't judge too much for not accurately naming Dr. Yoko's claspers.

The plot wasn't bad, though I wish we got more in Morn's and Cort's disagreement in the end. Perhaps Morn and Dr. Yoko could send Cort a holiday card as a big fuck you to Cort's negative views on romance. Cort only acts as the instigator that causes Morn to irresponsibly drink chocolate milk, but there is no resolution or arc for their opposing world views. Perhaps Cort will appear in a different story - perhaps a grumpy x sunshine romance. There is a small plot hole, who is the angry sailor man at the end? Was he watching the whole time? I feel like the shark jumping authorities should look into protecting sharks from perverts as well and banish this sailor perv. A positive for the pair, I appreciate the inclusion of brain surgeons in romance, it is such a hard field to get into, and Dr. Yoko is a MULTI SPECIES surgeon. Morn has found himself a very handsome and intelligent Megalodon and I'm jealous.

There were also some spelling and grammatical errors, so I do have to deduct stars in the quality section.

I cannot judge the sex as I have never had sex under water and then breached the surface at the exact time of a climax then blissfully stayed suspended in the air before diving back into the water. Will report back when I do.

EDIT: I CAN'T BELIEVE I FORGOT THE BLOWJOB! PSA: SHARK TEETH ARE SHARP AND THEY DO NOT HAVE 'LIPS' DO NOT ENGAGE IN SHARK BLOWJOB I REPEAT DO NOT ENGAGE!! NO MATTER HOW MUCH SEXUAL TENSION THERE IS BETWEEN YOU AND A SHARK

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