Wisp of a Thing

April 8, 2013
Rob Quillen, a folk singer whose girlfriend died in a plane crash, seeks out the mysterious Tufa people in search of the song he believes will mend his broken heart. Though the Tufa appear to be a racially ambiguous Appalachian subculture, they’re actually descendants of the Fae, capable of strange magics. Hunting his song, Rob becomes caught up in the fate of Curnen, a troubled girl under a terrible curse, and Stoney Hicks, a Tufa man who has been carelessly seducing and destroying women with his magical charms. Bledsoe brings a real warmth and a messy humanity to his modern-day fairy story, with strong characterization and a passionate love of music. Set in the same world as The Hum and the Shiver, this stand-alone novel feels more heartfelt and is written with a lighter touch, fulfilling all of the first book’s early promise and hitting the sweet spot between glossy and gritty.

Starred review from April 15, 2013
Another tale of Cloud County, Tenn., and its eldritch inhabitants: the dark-haired, dark-skinned Tufa (The Hum and the Shiver, 2011). When musician Rob Quillen made it to the final stages of a network talent show, the producers insisted on flying in his girlfriend, Anna, but she was killed when her plane crashed, leaving Rob devastated. Then a mysterious stranger advised him to look in Tufa country for a song carved in stone to ease his desolation. With his Hispanic heritage, Rob looks like one of the Tufa, although he has not a drop of Tufa blood. Still, one of the locals invites him to an evening of Tufa music, where he's astounded at the skill and power of their playing. Later, he tries to strike up a conversation with one of the players, Rockhouse Hicks, a supremely malevolent old man who occupies a chair outside the post office, and nearly gets beaten to a pulp for his pains. He's rescued from further assault by Bliss Overbay, a Tufa First Daughter and EMT technician. To Bliss' astonishment, after his head injury, Rob can now see the graveyards of the Tufa, which only Tufa should be able to do, and even read the inscriptions on the tombstones. Rob begins to grasp that there are undercurrents here beyond his comprehension--especially when he hears the eerie cries of a feral girl running in the woods. The girl, Curnen, has been cursed: When the last leaf falls from the Widow's Tree, she will lose the last of her humanity. Bliss is faced with a terrible dilemma: By Tufa law, she may disclose nothing to outsiders, yet clearly Rob was brought here for a purpose. This beautifully handled drama of Appalachian music and magic once again comes complete with fascinating characters, a persuasive setting and intriguing complications. Bledsoe's on a roll.

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Starred review from June 15, 2013

In an attempt to escape the pain and guilt of his girlfriend's sudden death, musician Rob Quillen travels to Cloud County, TN, where the mysterious black-haired Tufa clan--rumored to be indigenous to the region--may hold the key to a song that will bring him peace. Instead, he finds himself drawn further into a search for the origins of the Tufa even as he learns dangerous truths about the song he seeks. Set in the same world as The Hum and the Shiver, Bledsoe's latest fantasy captures the allure and the sometimes sinister beauty of the Appalachian backwoods, filled with myths, haunted by ghosts, and touched, always, by death. VERDICT The author of the Eddie LaCrosse urban fantasy series (The Sword-Edged Blonde) proves his versatility with a hauntingly beautiful tale of love lost and hope rediscovered.

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2013
One of the very good things about Bledsoe's latest novel is that we can't tell, until we're well into the book, whether it's a fantasy or offbeat mainstream. Musician Rob Quillen, a contestant on a TV singing competition, is devastated when his girlfriend, who was being flown to Hollywood to surprise him for the show's final episode, is killed when her plane crashes. Told about the Tufa, a mysterious group of people living in the Great Smoky Mountains, Rob heads off to Needsville, Tennessee, in search of a song that can heal a broken heart. At first, the small town feels a little isolated, its people a bit quirky to Rob's big-city eyes. But soon he begins to notice odd things: a graveyard that seems to have vanished when he returns to it; strange, humanlike, howling sounds from the woods. This is a very subtle book; like Graham Masterton, Bledsoe relies on the slow accumulation of tantalizing hints to give the reader a sense of something going on in the space between the words on the page. A chilling mix of fantasy, realism, and a touch of horror.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)