Wisp of a Thing

95 points/100 (5/5 stars!)
Alert: Gushing Incoming

After losing his girlfriend in an accident, musician Rob Quillen comes to Cloud County in search of a song rumored to help his pain. Mistaken for a Tufa by most, and displaying some odd abilities to see Tufa magic, Rob is able to get closer to them than any human has in a long time, if ever. One of those secrets just happen to me a strange, feral child in the woods and a man who can steal a wife away.

This is just as good and interesting a story as the first! I enjoyed it just as much. I can't believe how much I'm enjoying reading these. I sit down, and I don't want to stop reading because as soon as it starts, I'm completely immersed. The ability Bledsoe has to write a world that complete show more encaptures me is amazing.

The big strength of Wisp of a Thing is that the main character for this, Rob, isn't actually Tufa. He doesn't have a single drop of the blood in him. Ever though he looks Tufa, he never actually is revealed to amazingly be Tufa after all, because he isn't. That means we can see them and learn about them from a completely outside perspective. Rob does end up with some abilities to see their magic, and as a consequence, to see them. He'll be forever changed by the experiences in this book.

We learn a lot more about the Tufa in this book. Secrets that were hinted at in The Hum and the Shiver are revealed more fully here. We learn they are stronger and more powerful than we thought, because the first made it seem that they were much more focused on themselves than they are, magically. We also see just how human and inhuman they are. I love these fae!

Once again, there are several plots that are all interwoven. We have Rob, who is looking to ease the guilt and pain of the death of a love one. We have Bliss, who is caught up in all this, and doesn't know what to do because she isn't actually the leader, she is the regent. We also have the cursed one, the feral almost child, who just happens to be Bliss's sister. Her story, Curnen's story, is the most horrifying, though. You couldn't wish that horror, that hell on anyone.

I was disappointed we didn't see more of the minister and the soldier from book one. I knew they weren't going to be the focus of this book. Yet, they were barely mentioned and barely showed up. They were acknowledged, at best. For a reader who craves to hear from the previous characters again every book, this was sad.

I really wish I were better at music. So much of the story is based in music. I just don't understand it. I have to read it three times just to get the words through my head. It frustrates me, and it is my own fault. I'm just venting now. I feel like if I could just figure out the music, it would open up an entire new world for me in this series.

I was a bit disappointed in the end, though. It wasn't as strong as The Hum and the Shiver's. I felt it left a lot undecided, though I feel like they will probably show up again by the end of the series. The lead up to the end was perfect, though. I was riveted.

For more reviews in this series and others, check out keikii eats books! show less

The Tufa, first brought to us in Alex Bledsoe’s terrific novel The Hum And The Shiver, are back in Wisp Of A Thing. Legend says that when the first white men made it to the Smoky Mountains the Tufa were already there. When the first tribes of nomads crossed from Asia into the Americans to become the native culture, the Tufa were there. In Wisp of a Thing we find out even more who the Tufa are and the clan war that is tearing them apart. Central to this tale is the wild young girl roaming the woods and how her history ties the two clans together and will also tear them asunder.

“I’m just tired of finding that girl in my Dumpster,” she snapped. “Get it stopped, or I’ll stop it for you.” In a drawl so slow, it seemed to show more suspend time, the old man said, “When the last leaf falls from the Widow’s Tree this year, she’ll be done for good. No coming back. No bothering anyone no more. Nobody’ll find her bones, and before next spring, nobody’ll even remember her. She’ll be a wisp of a thing.”

Rob Quillen comes to Cloud County in search of the Tufa, in search of a song to heal his grief. A minor celebrity known more for the tragedy of his life than the music he plays, he is searching for a promised song of the Tufa that will heal his broken heart. But the songs of the Tufa are only for the Tufa and not outsiders. Bliss Overbay is a first daughter of the Tufa and protector of her clan until the young clan leader can come of age. She sees Rob as an outsider but soon comes to realize that he may become central to healing the Tufa people and saving their race from its own self destruction. That Rob and the girl in the woods may tie the future of the Tufa together and save them all from the future she sees so clearly coming toward them. But can she help Rob find the song to sing. Can they do it before the last leaf falls? Before the Tufa are destroyed by a mad king? Before Rob losses himself completely. Before the lost girl just becomes a wisp of a thing. show less

I don't use star ratings, so please read my review!

(Description nicked from B&N.com.)

“Touched by a very public tragedy, musician Rob Quillen comes to Cloud County, Tennessee, in search of a song that might ease his aching heart. All he knows of the mysterious and reclusive Tufa is what he has read on the internet: they are an enigmatic clan of swarthy, black-haired mountain people whose historical roots are lost in myth and controversy. Some people say that when the first white settlers came to the Appalachians centuries ago, they found the Tufa already there. Others hint that Tufa blood brings special gifts.

Rob finds both music and mystery in the mountains. Close-lipped locals guard their secrets, even as Rob gets caught up in a show more subtle power struggle he can’t begin to comprehend. A vacationing wife goes missing, raising suspicions of foul play, and a strange feral girl runs wild in the woods, howling in the night like a lost spirit.

Change is coming to Cloud County, and only the night wind knows what part Rob will play when the last leaf falls from the Widow’s Tree…and a timeless curse must be broken at last.”

My husband and I are in agreement on the following fact: we like Bledsoe’s Tufa novels as much as or more than Charles de Lint’s Newford novels, and that is saying something. De Lint is the god of urban fantasy, which means that Bledsoe must be inducted into the pantheon along with him, because wow. Just wow. Given that this is supposed to be a review, I suppose I should go beyond “wow” no matter how perfect and expressive that one word is.

The thing is, trying to describe what is so great about Wisp of a Thing is like trying to describe that really great song that is stuck in your head but that the person you’re talking to hasn’t heard. The novel is about music, so this is appropriate, but ultimately not helpful. It’s nigh unto impossible to convey with words what music makes you feel and think, and I have much the same problem with how I feel about this book.

I think what it boils down to is that this story feels very real, very down to earth. The characters are people—not ones that you know, because they’re too unusual for that, but people that you wish you could run into in real life. In a few instances, it’s more like “people you wouldn’t want to run into no matter what”, but the idea is the same. You believe in these characters, and you believe that they do exist somewhere just beyond your sight.

The setting is also heavily grounded in reality. I don’t know if Bledsoe based Needsville and its environs on an actual place, but it certainly feels like it. I think we’ve all had the experience of feeling that a location had a presence, something that speaks to us because it’s a place that we grew up or a place where something significant happened. Needsville, the mountains around it, the trees and the caves and the lakes, all have that kind of feel. It’s not that it will be familiar to you, more than likely; rather, it’s that you know somehow that these are places important to someone. If you’re like me, you’d like to explore them and find out what’s so important in person.

All that said, I haven’t been able to pin down exactly what it is about this series that draws me in so deeply and makes the story so engrossing. Perhaps the author is exercising a bit of benevolent magic of his own. For me, Wisp of a Thing casts a spell that I wanted to last long after I turned the final page. Mr. Bledsoe, please write more about the Tufa, and please write faster. This series is like fairy wine: one taste and you’re captured.

This review originally appeared on Owlcat Mountain on July 3, 2013.
http://www.owlcatmountain.com/wisp-of-a-thing/ show less

Very enjoyable. Interesting view of American Fae origins and Appalachian culture in general. Mystery was interesting enough to keep me going.

Alas.. I still love the premise of these stories, but I found this one unnecessarily violent, awash in not very believable machismo, and at times, it all felt contrived. Especially some of the sexual glamour.

The constant physical violence the protagonist endured tested my own endurance, both of us slogging through endless descriptions of pain, suffering, etc. Very annoying.

And I felt that the mysterious back story of who these people are, the magic of the songs and wind, why they are at odds with one another, etc. was increasingly convoluted.

I wanted SO much to like this as much as "The Hum and the Shiver," but I was, in the end, disappointed. Waiting for the next one in hopes of best 2 out of three.

Rob, running away from overwhelming grief and guilt, stumbles into a kind of back woods urban fantasy where very little makes sense. Physical and sexual violence bubble near the surface, hidden by fear and collusion. Ultimately, the good guy wins, though as many times as he gets bashed in the head, Rob should end up as a gibbering idiot rather than the hero riding off into the sunset.

Rating: 1 out of 5

If you’re in the market for a poorly plotted soap opera set in rural Tennessee with creepy sex scenes look no further! I present to you Wisp of a Thing! As a fair warning, both my patience and temper were hanging on by a wisp, and boy let me tell you, that wisp transformed into action as I threw my Kindle away in disgust as a supposedly heartbroken man goes down on a mentally ill woman with the cognitive ability of a child. The cherry on top being that she had already sexually assaulted him twice. Good grief where to start on this one? I have a tendency to rant and rave but sheesh, let’s not throw gas on the flames.

I really wanted to like these books, they had so much potential, and the author is truly a solid show more writer, their sentences and linguistic flow are great. Sadly, I cannot continue the book or the series. I’ve stopped at 51% and just skimmed the remainder. The plot is lacking, the characters are nauseatingly contradictory and flat, and the main ‘plot point’ is simply keeping the reader in the dark when dealing with all the world-building elements.

See my review of the first book for more specific aggravations, they continued in the second book unabated.

Plot: 1 out of 5

Setting: 1 out of 5

Characters: 1 out of 5 (if I could give a negative for this I would)

Writing style: 3 out of 5

Personal Enjoyment: 1 out of 5 show less