[6] Bledsoe stated that he began working on Wisp of a Thing in the early 2000s, and that the initial drafts were written before the first book in the Tufa series, The Hum and the Shiver.

[9] de Lint compared the Tufa books to Manly Wade Wellman's Silver John series, saying that they share a "thematic lineage ... music and the mountains – and the magic in both".

[10] A review in Publishers Weekly stated that Bledsoe's novel has "strong characterization and a passionate love of music" and "brings a real warmth ... to [this] modern-day fairy story".

[12] Reviewing Wisp of a Thing in Knox News, Emily Choate wrote that the novel has some "very dark moments", including some "ugly caricature[s]" of a few of the female characters.

[13] However, she stated that Bledsoe is careful to balance bleakness with uplifting moments, and avoids being overly sentimental by "continually offering up surprises, imbuing even the most violent passages with empathy and, sometimes, whimsy".

"[13] In a review published in Locus, Faren Miller wrote that Wisp of a Thing has the same "hybrid mystery/fantasy" elements that Bledsoe used successfully in his Eddie LaCrosse series.