In a review of "Long Black Curl" in "The Magazine of Fantasy &amp; Science Fiction", Canadian fantasy writer Charles de Lint said that while many authors have worked with the myth of blues guitarist Robert Johnson's deal with the Devil at the crossroads, few have used the 1959 plane crash that killed American rock and roll musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and The Big Bopper. Bledsoe's take on The Day the Music Died in his novel has one of three fictitious musicians survive a plane crash in the Appalachian Mountains and wander into Tufa territory where all is not what it seems. de Lint praised the Tufa series for its "strong voice for real North American-based mythic fiction", and added that its "connection to an old and deep mystery is exquisite, while still remaining grounded in the real world".