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  • Wisp of a Thing

  • A Novel of the Tufa, Book 2
  • By: Alex Bledsoe
  • Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
  • Length: 9 hrs and 14 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (98 ratings)
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Wisp of a Thing

By: Alex Bledsoe
Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
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Summary

Audie Award Winner, Fantasy, 2014

Alex Bledsoe’s The Hum and the Shiver was named one of the best fiction books of 2011 by Kirkus Reviews. Now Bledsoe returns to the isolated ridges and hollows of the Smoky Mountains to spin an equally enchanting tale of music and magic older than the hills.

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 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 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 at last be broken.

©2013 Alex Bledsoe; 2013 Blackstone Audio

What listeners say about Wisp of a Thing

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Excellent sequel to The Hum and the Shiver

Alex Bledsoe's novel The Hum And The Shiver first introduced the Tufa of Cloud County, not folksy, guitar strummin’ backwoods folk, but something altogether stranger, and potentially nastier. Wisp of a Thing builds on that introduction, exploring and exposing more. You could probably read this without reading The Human and the Shiver first and not find it a problem, but I’d recommend starting there for the background information and world building. The book is set in our ordinary world, just one that has Tufa in it. The Tufa are a race that seem to look like, and live as, humans, but who, rumour has it, were in North America long before anyone else.

Rob, a minor celebrity because of a very public tragedy, has come to Cloud County in search of a Tufa song he’s been told will heal his broken heart. As he arrives he almost mows down something careering across the road in front of him, and later he hears a howl in the night, that speaks in some way to the grief inside him. He comes to the attention of Bliss, a first daughter of the Tufa, who despite knowing he’s not Tufa in any way, finds herself compelled to connect with him. He can see things he shouldn’t be able to, and is determined to find that song - a song that happens to be of serious importance to the Tufa and not something a non-Tufa should know about.

That there’s trouble coming for the Tufa, with a curse due to fall “When the last leaf falls from the Widow's Tree this year,…”, a lost tourist, and old enmities among the different Tufa clans coming to a head - so all is set for a climax!

This grabs the interest from the off, and hangs onto it throughout. The end was mostly as I expected, and there are no hanging threads (the last, short chapter deals with the only one that bothered me), but at the same time I was surprised! I’m not sure I could say what happens to everyone after the book ends, but that’s not so important!

Well read - despite his wonderfully rich, deep voice, the narrator manages to distinguish his male and female characters just fine.

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wisp if a thing

Loved this book, well written and a great story really really enjoyed listening to it

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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PLEASANT MUSICAL SURPRISE

I FOUND THE NARRATOR'S ABILTY TO TWIST THE WORDS AND GIVE A MUSICAL FEEL WITHOUT FULLY VOICING THE NOTES AND YET NOT PULL YOU OUT OF THE WORDS RHYTHM. THE PAUSES BETWEEN CHAPTERS WERE WRITTEN AND NARRATED PERFECTLY. I WANT TO TAKE MY VIOLIN OUT AND TRY THIS FIDDLE STYLE !

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Keeping you guessing but never really knowing

The reader feels just like the main character trying to figure out what's going on. Very good and full of suspence.

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2 faa or 2 A... fair story

really enjoyed... interesting story with good knowledge well worth a listen to.... fair A fair e fair o...

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