Penny Smith’s Reviews > Emily Wilde's Compendium of Lost Tales > Status Update

I don’t want shadow to die please please don’t let it happen

I love Poe so much.

And here I finally find the thesis of this book. It’s an extent of the thesis of the series as a whole: belonging. Emily has never quite fit in in the world, and she has always found comfort in research of the fae, and prides herself in her ability to commune with them. But just like the mortal world, it’s not the right fit either. She may feel like she has no one true place to belong.

I feel like any misgivings about this book I had been having are melting away. This is the emotional core of the book we were working towards. I thought something like this was going to happen at the end of the book, but I’m barely over halfway done with the story, and now I have absolutely no idea where it’s going. But I have a feeling I’m going to like it.

This is so unbelievably gut wrenching, but Wendell’s death also gives us an amazing Emily autism moment, where she seems to think Wendell is sad about his stepmother. Sure maybe he pretends to be, but he seems to be sad because he knows what he has to do and doesn’t want Emily to catch on. And because it’s emotions based, she doesn’t guess, and therefore can’t prevent it.