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A review by ielerol
The Fairies of Sadieville by Alex Bledsoe
4.0
When I started this book I didn't realize it was intended to be the final one in the series. So when I saw that the initial POV characters weren't Tufa, I was worried I'd have similar problems as with Chapel of Ease. But no, after some initial setup, this book gets deep into Tufa business, fast, and I loved it.
The past couple of books had been hinting heavily that things would change for the Tufa. I was anticipating that they'd open up to more interaction with the wider world. While we don't see that explicitly happen in The Fairies of Sadieville, I can see how the ending sets up the possibility. The book answers a number of questions, but leaves lots of others open, and I like that. I don't want too neat a bow on everything.
Overall I think the Tufa series is possibly my favorite twist on several tropes I'm not otherwise fond of, European folklore transplanted to the Americas and secret magical beings living alongside humans undiscovered. Bledsoe has clearly thought a lot about how the Tufa could survive in secret, how they might change living in the mountains of Tennessee and how they might not. My small complaint about the series as a whole is the lack of Yunwi Tsunsdi. I was so excited when they showed up in The Two Weddings of Bronwyn Hyatt, since my number one question in all stories of European fairies in America is, what happened to the native folklore beings? Are only the European stories true? Was there a supernatural genocide alongside the human one and now the few that are left are on reservations too? Were you careless and mildly racist in your world-building and so the question never occurred to you?
...Anyway, it's a pet peeve, and I'm glad these books had answers, but I feel like flashbacks to the Tufa's original arrival in Cloud County were a real missed opportunity to bring them back in.
The past couple of books had been hinting heavily that things would change for the Tufa. I was anticipating that they'd open up to more interaction with the wider world. While we don't see that explicitly happen in The Fairies of Sadieville, I can see how the ending sets up the possibility. The book answers a number of questions, but leaves lots of others open, and I like that. I don't want too neat a bow on everything.
Overall I think the Tufa series is possibly my favorite twist on several tropes I'm not otherwise fond of, European folklore transplanted to the Americas and secret magical beings living alongside humans undiscovered. Bledsoe has clearly thought a lot about how the Tufa could survive in secret, how they might change living in the mountains of Tennessee and how they might not. My small complaint about the series as a whole is the lack of Yunwi Tsunsdi. I was so excited when they showed up in The Two Weddings of Bronwyn Hyatt, since my number one question in all stories of European fairies in America is, what happened to the native folklore beings? Are only the European stories true? Was there a supernatural genocide alongside the human one and now the few that are left are on reservations too? Were you careless and mildly racist in your world-building and so the question never occurred to you?
...Anyway, it's a pet peeve, and I'm glad these books had answers, but I feel like flashbacks to the Tufa's original arrival in Cloud County were a real missed opportunity to bring them back in.