''Chapel of Ease'' is an urban fantasy novel by American writer
Alex Bledsoe
Alex Bledsoe (born February 3, 1963) is an American author best known for his sword and sorcery and urban fantasy novels. Bledsoe's work is characterized by hard-boiled protagonists and classic noir themes.
Biography
Alex Bledsoe has been an ...
, first published in the United States in September 2016 by
Tor Books
Tor Books is the primary imprint of Tor Publishing Group (previously Tom Doherty Associates), a publishing company based in New York City. It primarily publishes science fiction and fantasy titles, and is the largest publisher of Chinese scien ...
. It is the fourth in a series of six books by Bledsoe about the Tufa living in a remote
Appalachia
Appalachia () is a cultural region in the Eastern United States that stretches from the Southern Tier of New York State to northern Alabama and Georgia. While the Appalachian Mountains stretch from Belle Isle in Newfoundland and Labrador, Ca ...
n valley in
East Tennessee
East Tennessee is one of the three Grand Divisions of Tennessee defined in state law. Geographically and socioculturally distinct, it comprises approximately the eastern third of the U.S. state of Tennessee. East Tennessee consists of 33 count ...
. The Tufa are descendants of Irish
fairies
A fairy (also fay, fae, fey, fair folk, or faerie) is a type of mythical being or legendary creature found in the folklore of multiple European cultures (including Celtic, Slavic, Germanic, English, and French folklore), a form of spirit, o ...
and were found in the area when the first European settlers arrived.
''Chapel of Ease'' generally received positive reviews from critics. The book's name was taken from the title of a song by South Carolina singer-songwriter Jennifer Goree.
Plot introduction
Matt Johansson is a gay New York City actor who lands a part in ''Chapel of Ease'', a musical written by playwright Ray Parrish. But Ray dies on the play's opening night, and Matt, who had befriended Ray, decides to visit the chapel on which the play is based in the dramatist's hometown in Cloud County. There Matt encounters the mysterious Tufa and becomes embroiled in Ray's Tufa heritage.
Critical reception
In a review in ''Fantasy Literature'', Kat Hooper called ''Chapel of Ease'' a "character-driven romance", and said Bledsoe's decision to feature homosexual relationships should please many readers. She remarked that the novel has the same "eerie atmosphere" as the previous books in the Tufa series, and its "run-down close-minded Appalachian town" has an air of "squalidness, despondency, and desperate menace". Hooper's only "minor quibble" about the story were inconsistencies in the Tufa's attitude to homosexuality: initially they appeared intolerant, yet later they came across as being more accepting. Hooper gave the novel three-and-a-half stars out of five.
Debbi Bachman wrote at ''Talk Nerdy with Us'' that the ''Chapel of Ease'' characters are "so well fleshed out" that "they ... feel like friends you’ve known for a lifetime". She said that this is a book to enjoy relaxing on your porch and imagining "that you too are in the hills". A review in ''
Publishers Weekly
''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of B ...
'' stated that ''Chapel of Ease'' "skillfully fuses music, legend, and regional atmosphere to create something that feels like an unexplored corner of American mythology." ''
Kirkus Reviews
''Kirkus Reviews'' (or ''Kirkus Media'') is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus (1893–1980). The magazine is headquartered in New York City. ''Kirkus Reviews'' confers the annual Kirkus Prize to authors of fic ...
'', however, complained that ''Chapel of Ease'' does not continue to explore the nature of the Tufa as Bledsoe did in the previous books in the series. The reviewer also felt that the author tended to overplay the mystery of chapel.