Long Black Curl

Hauntingly beautiful

There’s no way my review will ever do this book justice. There are no words good enough to describe the beauty of it but I will try. Just like how the music in the story comes alive and is magical, so is this book. All books touch the heart in ways but rarely do they touch the soul. This author has the ability to do just that. The faeries in this book aren’t shiny like the pretty baubles in my favorite genre of Urban Fantasy. No, this is more like an urban legend. This is a tale of a people in the mountains of the Appalachia in Tennessee. The Tufa are a shy secretive people. It’s been said that they were here before the Indians. They mind their own business and stay untouched by the outside world for the most. You won’t find them on any map, and if you hear stories of them and try to find their town, you won’t be able to. Only if the night winds allow it. One would think they were just another bunch of rednecks growing up in the mountains. But there’s magic and power in them. Power for the good mostly. But sometimes people start out selfish and greedy. Thinking only of themselves. This is what happens with one young lady from Needsville, Tennessee. She was born Tufa. At a young age her and her boyfriend were like poison to the town. They did unspeakable things and were banished for good, never to find their way back. Or so they thought. As time went on, the young lady only grew more bitter and filled with more rage. Always longing for the place she was from and the magic. One day she shows back up, back to take what she believes is rightfully hers. She is back to be the leader. What she leaves in her wake is nothing but tragedy, one after another. I cried during sone of it because it felt so real. This author’s characters are so real from the first chapter. This is a tale of how the Tufa set out to stop the woman. I rooted for them all the way. This series is so epic! It should be part of literature for college. Right up there with The Iliad. It’s a classic. It puts me in the mind of Neil Gaiman but still the most original work. A masterpiece. I loved how the band from Tutha Da Danaan (spelling)Pigeon Forge, Tennessee was in the book at the end. They wrote and perform the songs that go with these books. That’s something to experience. It sends the shivers up my arms, just like the title of the first book. I read this book second. I had the second one and was going to read it but needed an audiobook so I got the third. It makes sense reading it that way but there is so much I missed that happened to characters in the second. Throughout the series, the same characters will be in it. It appears that characters from the outside world are introduced and the affect the Tufa leave on them. They are never the same.

If you never listen to but one audiobook in life, this series should be the one. I could see a movie of it playing in my head. The narrator was perfect! I really wish this series and author were advertised more. But it appears the author is a humble man who is as aloof as Rockhouse Hicks in his books. Hope you guys read this series. You won’t regret it.