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3.69 AVERAGE
3.69 AVERAGE
Disappointing. I won't be continuing with this series. I much prefer his sword fantasy series. This went off the rails because Bronwyn Hyatt makes no sense to me. She is a very strange character, starting with her killer instincts, her pride and love for family and they return the affection, yet she takes pleasure in the masochism of giving blow jobs to every man, literally, in town. She is First Daughter, pure blood, raised with respect, but she's a damaged teenaged soul giving blow jobs to whoever wants one. She's so rebellious, she will not obey her community's expectations or responsibilities, despite the damage that will cause. She would rather go to war and kill because despite her masochism and lack of self-respect for herself and her community, somehow she's also aggressive and patriotic, then when she comes back horribly damaged by war drama and trauma, she's powerful and strong enough to go to war to defend her brother from a local criminal, but too weak and scared and destroyed by war to defend her mother, who she loves as much as her brother. But maybe that's so because she came home and walked in on her parents making love on the couch after a date, and her mother sees her but continues on maliciously to have an orgasm while staring at her daughter. Otherwise they all adore and respect each other, and would kill for each other. Really? This make sense to you?
So far, this book has me enthralled and engaged! What will happen next? I like the idea of a genuine American low or urban fantasy. - now having finished it, I can say that it was a fun page turner. I will be looking for the next one.
I've had a rather poor track record when it comes to the majority of the fantasy left behind on my shelves from the pre-2013 era. The last stab I made was at a de Lint work that channeled far more US WASP anxiety than it did engaging fantasy, and I was more than pleased to close the final page and finally get it out of my life. Apparently de Lint praised this book as well, which probably should've tipped me off, but there's nothing more lasting than one's own experienced opinions on the subject. In any case, this book was some mawkish 'pull yourself up by your bootstraps' 'murica propaganda wrapped in a flimsy fantasy that was half glib descriptives, half 'a true Tufa does/is/incarnates' yadda yadda yadda. There were characters, but none were developed enough for me to care. There was some measure of sexy times, but it was all too choked up with flimsy heteronormativity and awkward hang ups. There was plot, but it was something out of Disney that one could see 300 pages away. All in all, I got this from a local library at long last, and now I will gladly send it back again, knowing what I know now and more than satisfied with leaving it behind.
There were aspects of this I really liked, and there were aspects that I didn't so much. Overall, it was an entertaining read, but it was mostly kind of "meh."
The book is set in Tennessee and tells of the Tufa people, mysterious brown skinned and dark haired people of an unidentifiable ethnic background, with their own very old culture. One of their young women, Bronwyn, comes back from war a hero, though I physically broken one. She comes home for comfort and healing only to find that ill omens suggest that her mother might be about to die. Meanwhile, a part-Tufa newspaper reporter from the next town tries to get an exclusive with Bronwyn and learns more about his Tufa heritage, a new Methodist minister in the next town becomes fascinated with the Tufa generally and Bronwyn specifically and Bronwyn's old boyfriend Duane is up to no good. I love the Bronwyn character, but I also related to the small-town reporter since I was a reporter and editor for a weekly in a small town for five and a half years. Loved this book, highly recommended. I'm looking forward to checking out the next in the series.
This wasn't what I'd expected; I think I expected less romance and more magic. Also, despite the title, I still don't really know what the hum or the shiver is. Added to that was the strange choice of readers; a man and a woman. Emily Janice Card read Bronwyn's chapters and Stefan Rudnicki read all the chapters that were voiced by male characters. It was odd and jarring since neither reader matched the other with voices or accents and the guy's voice was too deep and John Grisham Novelly to really work for these particular characters. There was no definition needed between the chapters so it was strange to have two readers.
The story was fine, just not really to my taste.
The story was fine, just not really to my taste.
Good, quick read. I would have liked a little more as some areas were just touched on. It would have been good to have a litte more development around Bronwyn's self discovery and to see more of Don's purpose to the story.
Overall neat idea though and I enjoyed it.
Overall neat idea though and I enjoyed it.
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The way every character was assessed via their fuck-ability (young, old, relative - you name it…) just sort left a weird taste in my brain the whole time.
This is the first book I've read by Alex Bledsoe, but it won't be the last. I have been super, super lucky in my reading of late. Everything I've read has been ridiculously good. Some of that, I think, is that I've been pushing myself to read outside of my usual sphere. I've listened to the recommendations on Twitter and in book blogs, and started reading some authors I hadn't taken a chance on before.
Bledsoe's book "The Hum and the Shiver" has been on my radar for a while. It kept getting pushed to the bottom of the TBR pile for a long time, but finally I dug it out, determined that I was going to get to it this time. And I am really, really glad that I did.
Anybody who knows me knows that I've got a thing for folklore. The Hum and the Shiver is full of folklore. It's a subtle little story, despite the rather brash nature of it's MC, and it has a kind of.. folklorish feel to the way the story ambles on. It doesn't yank you into the story full-tilt the way some of my recent reads have. Rather it pulls you into it, little by little, the world building itself up around you.
I particularly loved the way Bledsoe wove music into the story, and into the lives of the characters. It was an added layer of depth to an already richly layered story. I'm currently looking up a lot of the music mentioned in the story, and planning to put together a playlist for myself for a re-read in the future. Because this is a book that's meant for re-reads. I suspect I'll find more to it every time I take another look.
Reading other reviews, I've seen some folks who didn't like different aspects of the book - the kind of cruel sexuality, for instance, or the subtlety of the reveal for the Tufa's origins (what we've seen so far.) I think I probably had an edge here since the amount of reading I've done on the subject had me guessing early on - and made a lot of other little things make a lot more sense. Because of this background, I wasn't bothered by the sexuality or the rest - but I can understand why some might be. Really, the only criticism I can levy is that the end didn't really feel like it tied things up for me. There's a lot left dangling. On the other hand - there's more to the series, so I'll definitely keep reading to see how it all turns out.
Great read, and one that I will definitely recommend to my friends. Particularly those sharing my interest in folklore.
Bledsoe's book "The Hum and the Shiver" has been on my radar for a while. It kept getting pushed to the bottom of the TBR pile for a long time, but finally I dug it out, determined that I was going to get to it this time. And I am really, really glad that I did.
Anybody who knows me knows that I've got a thing for folklore. The Hum and the Shiver is full of folklore. It's a subtle little story, despite the rather brash nature of it's MC, and it has a kind of.. folklorish feel to the way the story ambles on. It doesn't yank you into the story full-tilt the way some of my recent reads have. Rather it pulls you into it, little by little, the world building itself up around you.
I particularly loved the way Bledsoe wove music into the story, and into the lives of the characters. It was an added layer of depth to an already richly layered story. I'm currently looking up a lot of the music mentioned in the story, and planning to put together a playlist for myself for a re-read in the future. Because this is a book that's meant for re-reads. I suspect I'll find more to it every time I take another look.
Reading other reviews, I've seen some folks who didn't like different aspects of the book - the kind of cruel sexuality, for instance, or the subtlety of the reveal for the Tufa's origins (what we've seen so far.) I think I probably had an edge here since the amount of reading I've done on the subject had me guessing early on - and made a lot of other little things make a lot more sense. Because of this background, I wasn't bothered by the sexuality or the rest - but I can understand why some might be. Really, the only criticism I can levy is that the end didn't really feel like it tied things up for me. There's a lot left dangling. On the other hand - there's more to the series, so I'll definitely keep reading to see how it all turns out.
Great read, and one that I will definitely recommend to my friends. Particularly those sharing my interest in folklore.