Tithe: A Modern Faerie Tale

Holly Black’s writing was my first introduction to fae fiction; as a kid, I was obsessed with all sorts of fae mythology, but typically was limited to nonfiction until the first time I saw Tithe on the “new” shelf at my library. I must have checked this book out and reread it four or five times within the first couple of years, but this was my first reread since I was a preteen, and I had no idea what to expect!

I had forgotten so much of the plot in this book, and the first thing that surprised me upon rereading it was actually how problematic some of the writing is! If you’re a newer fan of Holly’s and haven’t read her old work, here’s your warning: this book involves racist remarks, homophobic slurs, attempted sexual assault, and some potentially sleazy romance dynamics, most of this going entirely unchallenged as the story unfolds. After one character tries to assault the protagonist, there are even one or two instances in which she talks about feeling flattered by his refusal to take “no” for an answer.

On a more positive note, I had also forgotten how totally addicting the storyline is, how fun and gothic the aesthetic feels, and how lovable Roiben is. While I stand by the fact that the blossoming romance has potential to be problematic, it genuinely doesn’t feel as though Kaye is taking advantage of him with her power over his name. Everything comes across as fully consensual, albeit quite a bit rushed and insta-lovey.

More than anything, though, I just love the way Holly crafts her fae worlds. Unlike most of today’s popular fae writers, she stays true to the old folklore in many prominent fashions, and my favorite aspect of that is the way she weaves in different types of feyfolk (like sprites, pixies, kelpies, etc.). I have always said that I think Holly is almost singlehandedly responsible for the world of fae YA fiction that so many of us now know and love, and after reading Tithe, despite its imperfections, I adamantly stand by that belief.

Tithe mixes the magic and fantasy of fairy tales with the bleak reality of a life you typically try to escape. If you take the Grimm tales and mix them with a very realistic crappy childhood, you’ll have a good idea of what this book is. If this book were a fashion choice, it’d be grunge. If this book were a Disney movie, it’d be a trip down a rabbit hole.

Kaye has zero stability in her life. Her mom has a habit of deadbeat boyfriends, a desire to be a famous musician, and a belief that her daughter doesn’t need silly things like education to have a good life. Kaye can’t stay in school because they’re always on the move, so she works during the day and acts as her mom’s roadie by night. When her mom’s boyfriend attacks her, they decide to go stay with Kaye’s grandmother temporarily. Kaye of course doesn’t want this to be temporary, as she’s tired of moving around, even though they’ll be returning to her childhood home where she was a social outcast because of her “imaginary friends.” When Kaye was a child, she saw things that no one else could see. Eventually, she learned she was better off holding her tongue, but Kaye has still always been an outsider no matter where she goes.

It’s been a long time since a character came to life for me as much as Kaye did. I honestly don’t think we’d have much in common, but it didn’t matter because she felt so real. She was multifaceted — strong, weak, petty, selfless. She made reckless choices at times, realistic especially because of absent parenting. She’s a friend, but can be a fickle one. She has some heroic moments, but she also has moments where she’s cruel. She rescues a hottie faerie named Roiben, and is slowly pulled into the faerie realm, becoming a tool for motives that aren’t clear until the end. She lets herself become a tool, in a way, but she also has moments of defiance. She falls for Roiben as quickly as a teen does with a first love, so even though there’s not as much building as I would’ve liked in a romance, even this part of Kaye was realistic. Roiben is essentially as enticing as a shiny penny for Kaye, and with so much grime in her life, she can’t help her draw to him. If anyone is unrealistic, it’s Roiben. Not because of the faerie thing, but because his morality is a tad too good for his race. But he’s our love interest, so I’ll give him that allowance.

Typical of Holly Black, the world of faeries is an enticing but ruthless world, governed by the whims of creatures who lack the fragility of humanity. They’re capricious, they’re powerful, and they’re as likely to use you for entertainment as they are to kill you. Their world is anarchy, which actually suits Kaye pretty well. This book is a great read if you’ve read another one of her books (ahem, The Cruel Prince) and waiting for another to come out (ahem, ahem, The Wicked King). Some may object to the dark themes, but I’m a total fan of it.

Overall, not my favorite of Black’s novels, but it’s a good appetizer while waiting for the main course. *ahem, ahem, ahem*

[this review was originally posted to goodreads on 9/12/16] this is the 2nd holly black book that i've read. i read the darkest part of the forest and absolutely loved it and i heard she has another faerie book coming out next year that is set in the same universe as tdpotf and this series so i thought i would give it a try.

while i didn't enjoy this nearly as much as tdpotf i still thought it was an enjoyable book. i saw a lot of bad reviews saying it was rushed and poorly written and just a bunch of tropes thrown together and while i guess i can see where those people are coming from i still think it is a very enjoyable book if you enjoy modern faerie stories.

i also think it's important to remember that this was black's first published book and was written almost 15 years ago so you kind of need to take a minute and put things in perspective if you are judging this after reading her later books. all in all it was pretty enjoyable for what it was and i've already started on the 3rd book in the series [skipping #2 bc #3 is the direct sequel to this for some bizarre reason] so apparently it did something right.

As promised after my review of The Cruel Prince, I went way back in time and found Holly Black's 2002 faerie novel, Tithe. I'm not sure if my review of this story is fair, because The Cruel Prince is such a more developed book (as it should be since it was published 15 years later and writers should grow into their craft).

While the story of Kaye, a changeling girl who is just discovering who she really is, was engaging and I finished the book in record speed, I was left wanting ... more. More tension, more character development, more suspense.

For me, this was an exercise in discovering Holly Black's roots. I certainly will read more of her books. She is an absolute guru on everything faerie and her ability to transport the reader to the world of fae is masterful, even in her early work.

If you are curious as to the roots of Black's faerie world, or if you are like me and need more after reading The Cruel Prince, do check out Tithe. I will definitely be reading more of Black's work and seeing how she evolved as a writer into the Queen of all things Fae.

Sixteen year old Kaye Fierch is used to moving to different places at odd times with her mother, a musician in Stepping Razor. When her mother's boyfriend of the moment suddenly tries to stab her, they flee to Kaye's grandmother's house in New Jersey. Kaye reconnects with old friends from when she used to live there and can't shake the memory of her old imaginary friends, Lutie-Loo, Spike, and Gristle. She starts to believe they really were imaginary figments no matter how vivid until she runs into Roiben, an injured fairy knight who she helps in exchange for his full name. Her childhood friends in addition to a whole world of faeries are revealed to be true with Kaye playing a key role in the freedom or subjugation of many.

Kaye is used to a lot of things no sixteen year old should be used to: moving around, working instead of going to school in order to survive, taking care of her mother, and cleaning up her mother's messes (literally and figuratively). She is the authority in her family who makes sacrifices to provide for her family while her mother follows her dreams, a sad reversal of what should be happening. She is also used to strangers' fetishized or flat out racist assumptions about her with her Asian features and blond hair. I love this detail because it points out socially acceptable racism and shows how it hurts people first hand. Corny, her best friend's older brother, befriends her in an unlikely friendship because they have practically nothing in common. Both are outsiders in a way, Corny being gay and antisocial while Kaye is Asian and prone to repelling people with her stories and weirdness. Small things have always happened around Kaye that she couldn't explain, but she dismissed them time after time. Until one day, she makes something happen too big to dismiss and she runs into faerie knight Roiben which sinks her and Corny deep in the faerie world.

The faeries of this world can be good or evil, just like humans. However, the magic is in the shades of grey in between where most of the characters lie. Some are truly evil and some good, but most are stumbling through trying to do the best they can with huge obstacles and supernatural powers which puts them in between. At first, I thought the plot would be pretty straight forward. It's presented as Kaye saving the faeries outside of the Seelie and Unseelie courts from being enslaved by submitting to be the tithe or sacrifice. Unseelie is evil; Seelie and outsider faeries are good. About midway through the book, deceptions are revealed where the faeries inhumanity at a basic level is shown. Faeries are not human and don't hold human morals. Good is seen in the midst of the depravity of the Unseelie court and corruption is shown in the Seelie court despite its perfect facade. Kaye navigates this world imperfectly, but Corny finds himself lost in it, manipulated by a powerful faerie. The stakes are high as the human world hangs in the balance. Some of the most tragic, emotional scenes are when her human friends clash with the faerie world.

This novel came out when I was a teen and I've waited years to read it for some reason. I love every book I've ever read by Holly Black, but for some reason I always put off this series. Now, I wish I had read it when it came out because it would have introduced me to a more realistic, nuanced version of fantasy. Both the teen experience and the faerie world are illustrated realistically. The teens drink, curse, have attractions to each other, and aren't perfect. The faeries have their own sets of rules and laws based in mythology that feel alien to us. Tithe is still a wonderfully dark faerie novel that defies expectations at every turn and brought progressive elements to the teen genre.

I started reading this series as part of a challenge to read 1 fairy book or series a month in 2017. I was not expecting what I found. This is a dark series, the fairies are not your Tinkerbell fairies, they are conniving and vicious. The humans in the story are not much better. There is an angry grandparent and a mother who doesn't set much of an example for her child. There are very adult and mature themes in this book that I would definitely recommend some parental discretion when it comes to this series. Perhaps 17 and up would be a good age.

The story itself is very interesting. In this fairy book, we have a Changeling. I know about Changelings, but I don't know if I've read a fairy novel with a Changeling character before. It was a great way to go a different route than other books in the genre. I did find myself drawn into the story and the world. And there were twists along the way that I never saw coming, I always find that refreshing when an author can write something in that meshes perfectly with the story, but that you didn't see coming along the way.

There is some language, and as I stated before some adult themes and situations, so if you're ok with that and you love fairy books, you'll love this one.

This review was first published on Kurt's Frontier.

Synopsis:

Kaye is a sixteen-year-old vagabond. Forced to live a nomadic life with her mother’s rock band, she grows into a stereotypical rebellious teen. When they are attacked on the road, they are forced back to Kaye’s grandmother’s New Jersey town. Amid the blue-collar backdrop, Kaye’s life is turned upside down when she saves a Faerie Knight from death. Kaye finds that she is not who she thinks she is. Worse, she finds herself becoming a pawn in an ancient power struggle between the Unseelie Court, the Seelie Court, and unaffiliated Faeries. Each faction has their own agenda. Kaye’s life hangs in the balance.

Review:

A common theme in some of the other reviews on Goodreads is that people either love or hate this story. On the plus side, I am always intrigued by modern renditions of the tale of Tam Lin. The elements of the old Childe ballad were there. The characters seemed real, and I found them intriguing.

In the minus column, Holly Black tried to make Kaye and her human friends gritty. The effort was unbalanced and often seemed over the top. The rebellious teenager was overdone. While the characters seemed real, I still had a hard time finding them sympathetic until I was almost halfway through the story. All in all, it was decent urban fantasy, well worth a read.

Why I chose this book:
Originally, I read this book in high school and chose this book because of the pretty cover and my latest fascination with fairy lore and Amy Brown’s art. At the time, I loved it, but as I’ve matured, my opinions have altered ever so slightly.

3 things you need to know about this book:

1. The life of a high school drop out and all-around weirdo
So Kaye is a high school dropout from age 14, who cleans up after her mom’s own vomit more than her own. Being the daughter of a wannabe rocker who travels with the gig, Kaye picks up all of the stereotypical issues. She curses like a sailor (much like her mother). She drinks heavily and doesn’t mind getting drunk with people she doesn’t know. And sex is a commonality in her life as with her mother’s Black Widow tendencies with her past boyfriends.

Needless to say, this is not about a well cultured or sheltered high schooler. This is about a kid who grew up to be older than her age and acts like a 19 year-old instead of 16.

As a freshman in high school, I remember finding her character refreshing. She didn’t fit the mold everyone else did. She was half Asian; she said weird things; she had “imaginary” friends; she was the one your parents wouldn’t like you hanging out with; and she believed in a world that no one else could see. In my book, that was someone I wanted to be friends with. Now, I see most of her actions and logic as misplaced and irresponsible. I’ll chalk that up to growing up, but I grew to dislike her character more than I remembered have done in high school.

2. The life of a slightly disturbed gay man
When you are first introduced to Cornelius (or Corny as he is called throughout the bulk of the novel), you read about him driving in his car, acting as if he is doing various drive by shootings. To me, I found that disturbing along with the thoughts that accompanied his actions. Like, tell me, why would you even joke about that? I don’t get it.

What surprised me about this novel the most, is the fact that Holly Black created Corny to be a gay character. This book was published in 2002, just when people of the LGBTQ community were becoming more apparent and accepted in society (at least in the south). However, I find that it was interesting that this wasn’t filtered out by an editor because there was still a lot of upheaval about this kind of content being introduced to teens.

I will say, his coming out story with pretty epic and Trekkies would love it, but other than that, I found that he was just such an odd character. It added a side to the story, but he seemed to me like the guy Kaye constantly had to take care of and who got in the way of the actual progress of the plot.

3. The life of a girl with an ADD thought process
I found Kaye’s thought process extremely annoying. She jumped from one topic to the next, and the words that came out of her mouth did not follow any logical pattern. Some parts were realistic, but if she was ever caught in a sticky situation, she would say such odd things. It would take me out of the flow of the book and remind me that I was reading. I never got lost in this book. I was always trying to piece together what her line of thought was or what her next action would be because Black did such a poor job of conveying that to the reader.

Final Notes:
Overall, I remember absolutely loving this book, but upon further reflection and the enlightening that can happen upon rereading, I found that this book was lacking terribly. In my opinion, it was one of the more poorly written debut novels, but it still held a spark that I could see a publishing house taking a chance on. In the end, it apparently paid off because this series got named one of the best books for young adults by the ALA, and received the Andre Norton Award as well. Not that, I completely hate her writing, but I wonder if those awards were given just because of the sheer shock value that this book created on the school library shelves.

I gave this book 2.5 stars on my Goodreads.

Check out my other reviews at [...]

3.5 STARS

This book started a little slow because the main protagonist Kaye was a little hard to relate to with her careless teenager attitude, but I’m glad I stuck with it because as soon as the plot properly kicked in *cough*when Roiben entered the picture*cough* it was a lot easier to follow the story and a lot more enjoyable. I even started to like Kaye as her character developed.

The storyline itself caught my eye immediately because it reminded me slightly of The Mortal Instruments with the idea of a girl who doesn’t properly understand herself and her past who is then chucked head first into the modern world full of ancient legends. Now that I think about it, it sounds like almost every fantasy YA book I’ve read lately... Anyway, I loved its progression and the ending was the best of all. Nowhere near what I expected at the beginning it fit in perfectly with the characters.

There were a lot of surprise twists to do with the characters and thankfully Kaye is there to explain it all in one impressive speech at the end! The faeries had a lot more depth than the humans Kaye hangs out with who simply swore, drank and smoked; it’s realism to a fault here. Especially at the beginning where their scenes just seemed like filler. It’s what I meant by a slow start.

There also seemed to be a lot more blood and violence than I had expected when I decided to read a faerie story. I love this type of thing I’ll admit but a warning would have been nice! So this is my warning to you: there is violence, there is blood, there is gore; enjoy!

Overall, I did enjoy this book because it was easy to overlook the aspects I didn’t like so much when I was completely submerged in the story so I would recommend it, but only to a mature audience or people who won’t make a big deal about the occasional f-bomb.

Posted on: http://enchantedbyya.blogspot.co.uk

12/12 - I have been looking forward to reading my first Holly Black book for ages, more keenly since I saw it coming up in the queue of suspended holds at my local library. You see I have a system (I like systems, plans, self-imposed missions, that kind of thing) where I always have a library book ready to be picked up. I always have 10 books on hold (the library's limit), and I suspend them so that they don't arrive all at once meaning I wouldn't have time to read them all in my allotted three weeks. I stagger the suspension end dates so that I have about two weeks to read each book as it comes in (plus any others that catch my constantly roving eye). So, I could see the suspension end date for Tithe was coming up over the last few weeks (I'm at the library website, or the actual building as often as I am here) and I was getting excited, which lead to excited speed-reading (and a spontaneous, but not unexpected dumping) of all the books I had out leading up to today, when I borrowed Tithe. Just out of curiosity I had a quick peek at a few of the reviews for the book here and over at GR. They might be the anti-christ, but there are a few things they still do better (like collating ratings and reviews), so I will use them until their betrayal outweighs their usefulness (or I have no friends left there). From the top-listed reviews I see that Black is a contentious author and I'm either going to absolutely love Tithe, or throw it in the fire in disgust. I hope that I'm in the former camp, because I don't like to read books I don't think I'll like (or even think I'll hate). The only time I've done that was reading FSoG and the sequels (because I had to know what happened and I hated being the only person on GR, seemingly, who hadn't read them). Anyway, after staying up an hour past my self-imposed bedtime (which isn't strictly enforced) to get a head start on this review, I'm finally going to go to bed and get started on the actual book I've just written a long paragraph about, without having read a word. Night, night. To be continued...

15/12 - Not particularly impressed with this. I really don't like Kaye. She seems to make such selfish and personally dangerous decisions without caring about the consequences. She's not stupid, she just doesn't care that her all-consuming desire to see what she really looks like could be dangerous for not only those around her - her friends Thistle and Spike - but herself, as well. Even if she's unbelievably selfish, you'd think that self-preservation would make her think twice before putting herself in danger. But no, she's determined that she must know what she looks like and damn the consequences. I hate needless cruelty, so reading the paragraphs describing Kaye's of tormenting of Kenny, using her knowledge of the accidental love spell she placed on him to make him grovel to her whim, just made her even more unlikable to me. She's selfish, reckless and now cruel to those she has power over - what's not to love?

What's with the little snippets of poems, or whatever they are, at the start of each chapter? Most of them seem to have absolutely no relation to what's happening in the plot of the proceeding attached chapter. And if they don't apply to the chapter why are they there? Even the few that do bear some resemblance to the following chapter seem pretty nonsensical. The lines that begin the prologue "And malt does more than Milton can/To justify God's ways to man." don't really apply to the first chapter. I'm probably taking it all too literally, and feel free to educate me on what Black might have been trying to get across, but while Kaye's mother does quite a bit of drinking in this chapter, there is no talk of religion or justifying why God makes the choices he does (letting this person die and not that one, etc).

I'm finding the reasons and rules that dictate the swapping of an Unseelie knight for a Seelie knight convoluted and confusing enough that I couldn't relate them to you here. I understand that Roiben whatchamacallit is actually a Seelie knight forced to work for the Unseelie Queen who makes him do the most depraved jobs in order to torture him, and that these deeds are changing him. But why did the two courts decide that swapping the knights would be a good idea in the first place? What precipitated that decision? I would probably get the gist of the whole swap idea if I went back and re-read the passage that described the motivating episode, but I'm of the opinion that a reader should be able to understand the plot of a book the first time around, it shouldn't be necessary to go back and read it again. Especially not for a YA of this calibre (this is hardly LotR, or anything like it). I mean if it's not clear to a pretty well-read (no horn tooting intended, just truth) adult, then how on earth is a 16-year-old, whose only reading experience has been the books they've been forced to read for English, ever going to get it? I'll keep reading to see what happens with Roiben whatshisname, but I don't know if I would be all that interested in reading any of the rest of the series. To be continued...

27/12 - Christmas preparations got in the way, so I'm dreadfully behind with my reviewing. I finished this around the 15th (I think) and I had a whole ton of things I wanted to say about it, but now I don't remember most of them, except to reiterate that I wasn't impressed with my first experience of Holly Black. I might try on of her other series on the recommendation of others who have enjoyed some of her other books, but I don't think I would bother with continuing the rest of this series - especially after reading the preview that's included at the back of the copy of Tithe that I read. From what was included (the first chapter, I think) it appeared to follow Stephenie Meyer's Midnight Sun formula of re-telling the same story but from another character's PoV - not a tactic that necessarily makes the story any better.

Summary: comfortably predictable storyline with some huge plot holes, but more than fun enough to read. Just make sure it doesn't put off Weetzie Bat or other masterpieces of the YA genre.

This book is marred by one major flaw that doesn't affect most of the YA set: bad things happen--both on- and off-stage--to sympathetic characters around our protagonist and no one cares. Several "best friend" character die, the two mothers are left bereft of their children, a small child is abandoned to the faeries, and the nearby world is beset by death and destruction, but it doesn't affect the main, teen-aged protagonist and we only follow her pursuit of a dangerous older man who doesn't want to use her naivety no matter how much she tries to make him. His self-recriminations--even while he's killing innocents--for making out with her while she was drunk make for a great character.

In addition, the important and interesting family drama with her wanna-be rocker mom and her controlling and narrow-minded grandmother is left not only unresolved, but probably unresolvable.

Fortunately, the faerie plotline is well handled, if 100% comfort-food, even for the YA crowd. Our protagonist is asked to play the role of the sacrifice victim in a faerie sacrifice taken straight from Tam Lin, with the promise that her good faerie friends will save her at the end and reveal thats the bad faeries had broken the rules. Of course, "good" and "bad" will intermingle and swap around throughout the course of the story (as is appropriate in a faerie tale) and she has to look after herself and mis-trust her lifelong faerie friends.

She does a passable job of wising up, if not growing up, and the action-y scenes are quite fun as her wanna-be beau fights off orders to kill her, she tries to rescue her almost-friend from a dangerous lover, and both the supposedly good and definitely bad faeries line up to use her for their political ends even if it means killing her.

So it's a fun read, but don't expect any of the usual YA moral or character growth. Pure entertaining fluff.

Summary: comfortably predictable storyline with some huge plot holes, but more than fun enough to read. Just make sure it doesn't put off Weetzie Bat or other masterpieces of the YA genre.

This book is marred by one major flaw that doesn't affect most of the YA set: bad things happen--both on- and off-stage--to sympathetic characters around our protagonist and no one cares. Several "best friend" character die, the two mothers are left bereft of their children, a small child is abandoned to the faeries, and the nearby world is beset by death and destruction, but it doesn't affect the main, teen-aged protagonist and we only follow her pursuit of a dangerous older man who doesn't want to use her naivety no matter how much she tries to make him. His self-recriminations--even while he's killing innocents--for making out with her while she was drunk make for a great character.

In addition, the important and interesting family drama with her wanna-be rocker mom and her controlling and narrow-minded grandmother is left not only unresolved, but probably unresolvable.

Fortunately, the faerie plotline is well handled, if 100% comfort-food, even for the YA crowd. Our protagonist is asked to play the role of the sacrifice victim in a faerie sacrifice taken straight from Tam Lin, with the promise that her good faerie friends will save her at the end and reveal thats the bad faeries had broken the rules. Of course, "good" and "bad" will intermingle and swap around throughout the course of the story (as is appropriate in a faerie tale) and she has to look after herself and mis-trust her lifelong faerie friends.

She does a passable job of wising up, if not growing up, and the action-y scenes are quite fun as her wanna-be beau fights off orders to kill her, she tries to rescue her almost-friend from a dangerous lover, and both the supposedly good and definitely bad faeries line up to use her for their political ends even if it means killing her.

So it's a fun read, but don't expect any of the usual YA moral or character growth. Pure entertaining fluff.

I struggled for the first one hundred or so pages with this book. I just couldn't seem to get into it and wasn't understanding what was happening due to that fact. I'm really glad I trekked on. I love faeries, so I thought this book would be right up my alley. I didn't really know much about the premise, though, but I was really interested as I kept reading on.

The plot was very interesting and heavy with lore, which I loved. I loved learning what a faery Tithe is and learning about the Seelie and Unseelie court. The plot had some unseen twists, which is always welcome, and they were handled quite well. I was frustrated at different times, but I cannot say anything really without giving away the plot (if you'd like to know, please look to the bottom of the review), sort of.

The writing was absolutely lovely. Everything is described beautifully, yet it leaves some details for the imagination, too. The writing is one of the things that made me keep reading the book to the end. Holly Black writes effortlessly and eloquently.

Kaye was an amazing main character because of the fact that she's strong and fearless most of the time. She has her moments of where she's completely naive and in a way scared, which balances her strong personality wonderfully. She was written incredibly well and I simply adored her character.

Roiben was dreamy and so hard to read, I could never tell what his emotions were. I loved the chapters written in his point of view, because I gained some insight to his mind and how it worked. He was so sophisticated it seemed. Another well written character.

My favorite character though, hands down, was Lutie-loo. She was adorable and I found myself practically squealing everytime she came into the story, had dialogue, or did something. I loved her.

Again, I'm very glad that I finished Tithe. I loved Kaye's world and will certainly read Valiant in the near future and am now a fan of Holly Black. I would recommend Tithe to any faerie lovers or if you've never read a book about faeries, I'd recommend Tithe as your intro into the world of these sometimes devious creatures.

Spoiler Spoiler Spoiler Spoiler Spoiler!!!!
I didn't like that once she learned Roiben's real name, at a number of times she could have commanded him to ignore everyone else's commands and/or to change his name. I was practically screaming at Kaye to realize this :P.

Girl used to play with faeries, girl moves back to childhood home, girl meets handsome Faery Knight, girl gets entangled in Faery. Sounds like many books out there, right? Maybe so, but I absolutely adored Holly Black's take on it. The descriptions, the characters and the secrets are all so delicious. I started to write down my favorite quotes, but there were so many I had to stop. I think the writing is beautiful and the way Kaye sees this world as well as Faery is enchanting. It is poetry and song lyrics. I loved how the story shows how a taste of Faery can drive a human mad and how a taste of power can be intoxicating to anyone.

I finally found out why the Seelie and the Unseelie Courts are enemies. As one of the character's point out, the Courts require enemies to give them purpose, much like God gave angels the Devil. Well, even if I believe that you need both the Summer and the Winter court to keep the world in balance, I guess a little competition is just second nature to the Fey.

One thing is also for sure, popular culture always has the Fey making bargains and talking in riddles and Holly Black's Faery world is no different. Kaye has to be very careful and very clever. The bargains are imperative to the plot devices in this story. I really had to pay attention and not everything made sense at first, but by the end it all fell into place. And, to be honest, I liked that it wasn't crystal clear to me, because it kept my interest and often, when a story lays everything out it has no spark. Another thing that may be a little confusing is just when you thought the story should end, it really doesn't...but the reason also makes perfect sense.

Kaye is no ingénue. She is a dropout, shares cigarettes with her mother and has lived a life in seedy apartments. However, she does show a caring side and she learns in this book too, about Faeries and her perception of them and about herself. She is likeable and I connected with her right from the start. I love the romance in this story too! Roiben is the Faery Knight that Kaye meets and they are attracted to each other and have difficulty with one another. Roiben is struggling also as he tries to overcome his situation. He is the typical, perfect Faery Knight character. Mysterious, brooding and damaged in his own way. In the end, Kaye and Roiben have to help each other and by doing this become better for it.

If you don't like references to sex, harsh language and "naughty" band names, then I would find another book. But I loved the dark, dirty, grittiness of this story.

I'm going to leave you with this little tidbit. I remember reading it in legends, and I loved how Black put it in the story: If you think you are left with a Changeling and you want to get your real child back throw the Changeling into the fire or stick a hot poker down their throat.

While I think it's highly improbable that the Fair Folk would be caught dead in New Jersey, I really liked this book. A dear friend's teenage son recommended Tithe to me during a discussion of the Little People, and I'm glad that I took his recommendation seriously.

What I liked about this book is that the author, Ms. Black, doesn't mince words when it comes to showing the life of a teen who is living on the fringe. The characters encounter things (in the real world) that I encountered (many) years ago as a teenager, so I know these topics are relevant today. I also liked the way in which Ms. Black portrayed the Fair Folk as being, like humans, flawed - some of them redeemable and some just plain evil. If you read old folk tales, faerie certainly are not all happiness, rainbows, and light; some of them are but many of them are as scary as anything that could be imagined by Freddie Kreuger. And that's part of the fun in reading about the Fae.

I don't agree with some of the other reviewers who've said the characters are flat. I think some are more under-developed than others, but I found Faye to be a complex young woman: not totally good and not evil, but something more and in between.

I recommend this book heartily to anyone who likes dark faerie tales. I wouldn't let a 10 year old read it, but I think it's good for preteens and teens, especially if a parent reads it along with her kid and discusses it.

I'm looking forward to reading more by Ms. Black!

I have had Tithe recommended to me about five times (twice by the same person ;) ). I am a huge fan of Holly Black's Curse Workers series, and the short story about Roiben and Kaye in The Poison Eaters was my favorite story in the collection.
Now, I thus far this series isn't as high on my list as the Curse Workers, but that's like saying that I don't like amazing chocolate cake as much as incredible creme brûlée. It's a nit-picky distinction based on taste.
So what did I like? Kaye and Roiben don't succumb to insta-love. Yes, there's a lot of insta-attraction, but feelings develop and follow. I also loved how there was a definite conclusion to the end of the book. Yes, there are sequels, and I guess what the main conflict of the next books is going to be, but I was completely satisfied with the ending.
I enjoyed how the characterizations started in a fairly stereotypical place, but were complexly executed. Kaye starts with the characterization of a burn-out, rocker chick, but as we learn her secrets and her history, we begin to see why she reacts the way she does. Roiben is initially a brooding, Byronic type, but he isn't trapped in that role for the entire book. But my favorite character extension is the development of Corny. In the first chapter, Corny is portrayed like a potential candidate to commit the next Columbine. He's at least depressed enough to be thinking about it. By the end of the book we know why, and we're rooting for Corny to develop into the guy we got a glimpse of in The Poison Eaters.

And now for the con. The only thing about the writing that bugged me was the repeated emphasis on how hot Roiben is. It's not overly excessive, but by the time the romantic tension was seriously developed, I was a little over hearing about Roiben's chiseled face and how hot he looks in black. However, I fully accept that I may be overly sensitive to frequent thoughts about the main characters due to my issues with a particular Cullen.
And while it wasn't a con for me, I will note that there is a level of drugs, sex and alcohol that strikes me as being above the PG-13 level. I personally thought it was dealt with well and wasn't done for shock-value's sake. I thought it contributed to the progression of the story, but it might be off-putting to some people/parents.

Rating: 5 stars-- I'm excited to read the rest of the series. They're already on my shelf!

Other Tangential Thoughts: I'm really excited about reading the rest of the books in this series! Just from glancing the back of the books, the next one is about Roiben and Kaye still, and the third book has another main character.

From the back cover: Kaye used to see Faeries. They're still there. But Kaye is not a child anymore. Now sixteen, she's dragged into the thick of their dangerous, frightening world. A realm where black horses dwell beneath the sea, desperate to drown you...where the sinister Thistlewitch divines dark futures...and where beautiful Faerie knights are driven to perform acts of brutal depravity for the love of their uncaring queens. There, Kaye finds herself an unwilling pawn in an ancient power struggle between two rival faerie kingdoms - a struggle that could end in her death... In a sinister and chilling fantasy about ancient rivalries, menacing villains and beautiful dark heroes, Holly Black weaves an enchanted, yet challenging tale for older readers.

Review:
I was enjoying this book, reading along and then, bam, it happened. One of those reading moments where something jars me right out of the reading flow and makes it impossible for me to suspend my disbelief any further. I'm talking about the way Kaye changes. To avoid spoilers in case you haven't read this yet I won't talk about it any further. I don't know why this kind of thing sometimes ruins a book for me, but this one was a complete killer.My previous reading about the Faery world is from Melissa Marr and Cassandra Clare, two writers who IMO have done a great job of making the fantastical seem realistic, and in their books have blended the Faery and modern worlds seamlessly. In comparison, I found the depictions of the Fae in this book to be a bit childish and cartoonish. Kind of like the descriptions of Faery were written for much younger children, and given that the themes were for much older readers, this just didn't read well. There is reference to Neil Gaiman's work in the book, and I thought the Unseelie Court was described a lot like Hell in The Sandman, only for younger readers.

What I did like was the depiction of the characters. I thought they were well written, were distinct and had depth. I was interested in what they were doing, and I thought their personalities and motivations were explained well. It was a shame that these excellent characters were not given a better story to tell. Will I read on in the series? I'm not sure. I won't be going out of my way to hunt down the rest of the series, but if I saw a copy of Ironside in the second hand book shop I might buy a copy and keep reading.

Kaye is not your average sixteen-year-old. Her mother is focused on her desire to be a rock musician and Kaye is left to work to make enough money to make ends meet and hasn't been to school in years. It's almost not surprising that she's always been the odd one out and was always made fun of and disbelieved when she mentioned the fairies she could see as a child. Nor is it that much weirder that she meets a wounded fairy-knight one night in the woods and that she ends up as part of a dangerous plot concerning the tithe the Unseelie Court pays with a human life to Hell.

Unsupervised teenagers and the dark and mysterious ways of faery is going to add up to some craziness, and not in a good way. But it all makes for a fascinating story. The fairies and the Courts here are actually pretty traditional, with tithes to hell and the solitary fairies caught between the rivalries of the Seelie and Unseelie Courts and their queens and fairy magic of glamor and the inability to lie while still being massively deceptive. The teens also are traditional, full of crushes on the cute boys, girls going to the mall, smoking and staying out all night, jealousy and best friends, and geeky older brothers. The story definitely focuses on the darker side of both fairies and teens.

I was interested enough in the story of Kaye's very strange life to read through this pretty quickly. I wasn't totally caught up in the story, though. I'm not sure why, perhaps I wished Kaye and the other characters were a bit more developed, and that I was a bit more moved by the events than I was. But it was still an enjoyable read.

Tithe is a dark and gritty YA urban fantasy where the difference between good and evil is a thin veil and not all things are what they seem.

This is an interesting story that moves along at a steady pace, pulling you along with it. Kaye can be a little clueless and annoying, but mostly she's an enjoyable character. My favorite character was Roiben, the darkly mysterious and dangerous fairy knight.

If you have a problem with strong language, you may want to steer clear of this book. But if that sort of thing doesn't bother you, and you like the genre, you might find this to be a good read. There are a few surprises and plenty of danger for Kaye and her friend Corny.

In a way, this book kind of reminds me of Twilight, but with fairies instead of vampires. Also, the romance isn't the main plot point, which is probably why I kind of liked this book but I didn't like Twilight at all.

Honestly, I was a bit disappointed in this book. So many people seem to have loved it, and I'm generally a big fan of Holly Black. I feel like the writing started out so raw and gritty, showing an honest and dirty world, ushering in a deep and real character. New Jersey and the lives of Also, the reveals were engaging and proved to be unique (spoiler alert). Rather than simply throwing the reader into the fantasy world, Black does an excellent job of opening pieces of it bit by bit and walking the line between what may be fantasy and what may be the imagination of a teenage girl suffering from fantastical delusions.

However, once that line between reality and fantasy is crossed, and it's clear that Kaye is actually a fairy and not a human, the story seems to fall apart in my opinion. People randomly die; there's some odd sexual stuff going on between some of the minor characters; much of the description of the story is a bit hard to follow because of the magic; and the end is way too easily and neatly packaged it's entirely unbelievable.

I feel like what possibly happened is that Black took her time to write the first half and then had to rush through the last half without giving it the time and love that it needed.

-Lindsey Miller,[...]

Curiousity got the better of me, and I decided to give this book a try. It was not what I had expected. I had heard mixed reviews about this book, and decided to try it out for myself. If you're looking for the classic faerie type book, all skipping and flowers and la la la . . . this is not the book for you. If you're looking for a dark, teen angst, raw novel then voila.
I enjoyed reading this book. I liked how there was swearing and drinking and drugs because it made the characters seem more real. You may not relate to them, but you could build a better picture of what was going on in the story. Black's writing style is honest. No sugar coating, or dancing around, she wrote passionately.
I loved how she described the world of the Fae. The oddity of the people in the court, and how she incorporated folklore about faeiries. And of course I liked Roiben. Edgy, sexy Roiben. I did swoon over him. I couldn't resist him!
This may not be a book for everybody, but you should definitely give it a try. It may open your eyes to whole different of genre.

I really enjoyed this book. The characters were fun and the story exciting. It's about a teen girl named Kaye who has always thought as herself as a little weird. That wasn't a bad thing.Matter of fact she embraced her weirdness. When her and her mom have to move back to where she grew up, odd things happen that don't make sense. As things get more weird in her life, Kaye finds out why she is so different. The story really picks up from here and it was hard to put down.
I gave it 4 stars instead of 5 because at times it seems like it was rambling and I would get a little lost and confused. Something would just happen and you were left wondering "where did that come from?". Would even go back and re-read to see if I understood it better but didn't. This didn't really take away from the story though. It would just happen in couple sentences and you could still move on from there.
Hope the next 2 books are just as good or even better!
Also, the book is a dark fairy tale. It can be disturbing at points in the book and has some themes (sex, alcohol, sadism, etc) that some readers will not be up for.

Tough main character.
Tough fairies.
Tough friends.

There is a lot of toughness in this book. For the main character Kaye, life has not been easy. Following her mother around as she sings with one rock band after another, mothering her mother so they can survive, and coming up with her own rules of shoplifting (with moral values of their own) so that she can live with herself as she gets through her nomadic life are all ways Kay has learned to cope. Finding out she's really a changling, a green pixie at that, didn't seem such a stretch.

The fairies of this book aren't cute little Disney creations. They are ruthless and violent, but they are not unfeeling. She discovers this through her old childhood fairy friends, who nobody believes are real. She also discovers another fairy, one who seems to reciprocate her feelings for him.

I listened to this book on CD and felt that Kate Rudd supplied the perfect teen voice to share Holly Black's book. Looking forward to reading/listening to more.

Sixteen year old Kaye Fierch has bounced around from place to place thanks to her Mom always chasing success in band. The only consistent home she had was when they lived with her Grandmother in New Jersey. Thanks to her Mom's boyfriend trying to stab her Mom, the are out of a place to live and have to move home to New Jersey. Kaye always knew she was different, and it was more than just her looks (she is half Asian)...she sees and talks to faeries. Kaye hooks up with old friends but ends up walking home after a party by herself and stumbles upon Roiben, an injured faerie knight who is the perfect person to start explaining some things, firstly, why she is suddenly so important to the faerie realm.

This book was dark and gothic, it was a pretty intense look at faeries and how they are not all nice. Kaye gets wrapped up in quite a web of faerie lore and isn't sure who to believe. This was actually my favorite book of the three. The author creates a dark and mysterious world with no shortage of people dying. Some of it a bit shocking. This was a good start to the trilogy.

Tithe is about Kaye, a faerie. With Halloween not more than a few weeks away, Kaye and her mother suddenly wind up "back home"--her grandmothers house. Her grandmother is definately NOT happy to see Kaye's smoking, dropout self, or her wannabe rockstar singer mother. Still she puts up with them, because they have no where else to go. For Kaye, its something of a homecoming. This is where she grew up, or at least went to grade school. She meets up with her then-best friend Janice, who is now with Kenny. Kenny is popular, and somewhat good looking. Kaye has the whole, im hott for my best friends boyfriend thing going, and she unknowingly casts a be-mine spell on him. But bigger reasons drew her back. Her other childhood friends-Spike and Lutie loo, faeries, need her help. The time for renewing the 7 year tithe is upon them...and they want to break it. The tithe keeps the solitary folk tied to the Unseelie court...something some of them would rather not be. Spike and Lutie enlist Kaye's help. Kaye is supposed to be normal and get chosen for the tithe-which is the sacrifice of one talented and special mortal. Some reward huh? Anyway, Kaye does get chosen, and the book is all about the tithe and the Unseelie and Seelie Courts. Along the way she meets Roiben Rath Rye(?) a siver haired faerie knight. Apparently The Queens of the Unseelie and Seelie Courts had to swap their best knights, and Roiben was the best Seelie. Lucky for him. Kaye kind of falls hard for Roiben, in more ways than one. Janices brother Cornelius also comes into play, they become friends and she trusts him with her faerieness once she finds out. When the time for the tithe rolls around...well, i wouldnt want to spoil the book would I? However I can tell you that this book had me spellbound as soon as I picked it up, and I didnt stop til I was done. It is a very cool book, one that everyone should read. Kaye is very real, not some pristene princess. In fact, most normal people would think she was wierd if they met her. That was one of the things I really liked. Also, it talks about how Kaye feels about the "normal" people, you know like how she feels about Kenny and why she cast the want-me-spell on him. All in all, i definately recomend you read this book.

I read through some of the reviews before composing my own. I am 21 years old and first read this book when I was in high school (maybe around 17 yrs old?). I loved it then and still enjoy it now.

Some reviewers wrote about not wanting to read about things they already experience: sex, drugs, shop-lifting, teen pregnancy etc. These are not things I experienced in high school or really heard about, maybe just because of where I grew up, so I found the read interesting. For me, it was escapism from boring suburbia. Sad, maybe, that some terrible things end up being entertaining for those of us who were naive outsiders in high school, but it's just a book after all.

The protagonist isn't perfect, I disagree with a lot of Kaye's actions, but I like her rebellious behavior because it's exactly how I would not act. I like to be able to slip into her strange mind and see what she does.

I would recommend it for 15+ yr olds, which I would consider to be a YA range.

Holly Black, Tithe (Simon Pulse, 2002)

I figured out long ago that I have no idea any more where the line between young adult and adult novels is drawn. Pretty much every "young adult" novel I read these days (at least, any of them published after about 1975) crosses over whatever line I thought was there back when I was actually a young adult. I'm not terribly convinced that line even exists any more. Of course, my generation is the one who read, pretty much en masse, V. C. Andrews in fifth grade; consider the source.

In any case, Tithe didn't feel terribly young-adult to me except in the ages of most of its main characters. (That said, cf. Graham Joyce's The Tooth Fairy, which deals with the same ages of protagonists, and yet is considered an adult novel.) The main of the main is Kaye, high-school-aged without being in high school (she dropped out to work full time in a Chinese restaurant at the age of fourteen). Kaye and her mother return to Kaye's grandmother's house after her mother is mysteriously attacked one night, and Kaye renews her old friendships, both with people and with faeries. Because, you know, the Jersey shore is crawling with faeries. (Having lived in Philly, and within a stone's throw of the Jersey shore, I'm not sure why the faerie contingent didn't simply pack up and move to the big city. But that's just me.) While fleeing a pre-party get together where things got a bit out of hand, Kaye meets Roiben, a member of the Unseelie Court, and aids him, unwittingly putting herself in the middle of a process that's on its way to coming to a close--and threatens to trap Kaye, along with her friends, within its clutches.

Most of the criticisms leveled at the book since its release have at least some validity to them (Publishers' Weekly amusingly pointed out the exact same description I was going to, and used exactly the same word for it), but none of them are showstoppers by any means. Black was a first-time novelist here, and it shows, that's all. It's what's going on under the hood that counts, and there's a lot going on under the hood. Black writes herself some good characters, and puts them into interesting situations. Those are the two main ingredients for any decent novel, as long as they're carried off correctly, and they are here. It's a quick, absorbing read, after the books finds its sense of pace, and an accurate assessment of Black's potential, since realized in the immensely popular Spiderwick Chronicles. I'll be reading the sequel soon. *** ½

Faeries, lest anyone be confused, are more than just tiny, sparkly creatures that live in meadows halfway around the world. They come in all shapes, sizes and colors, and are found amid railroad tracks and gravestones in New Jersey --- the land of French fries with gravy, abandoned boardwalks and petrochemical refineries. Here, they plan the Tithe, the sacrifice of a "beautiful, talented mortal" they must make once every seven years in order to keep the world more or less in order.
Kaye Fierch has come back to her home in New Jersey after years of traveling around the country with her rock musician mother. For years she has known that faeries, like her childhood friends Spike and Lutie, are real, though no one else believes her. When Kaye learns that there's a little more to her relations with faeries than just a willingness to believe, she finds herself at the center of a faerie power struggle. All the elements of a proper faerie tale are here, from the battle between good and evil to the knight in shining trench coat. Blended with an urban setting the reader can smell, hear and taste, they form a sexy, scary story.
This is fantasy for readers who hate the fantasy worlds of wizards and dragons, and romance for those who don't want their romance sappy and covered in flowers and chocolate. Though some of the descriptions are overwrought, TITHE is still a captivating, fast-paced tale of self-discovery with as much charm as the faeries themselves.
(...)

Holly Black's "Tithe" is based on Celtic folklore of faeries and changelings; faeries who were switched in place of human babies. The protagonist Kaye is a world-weary sixteen, tired of fishing her mother's head out of toilets and hauling her home from seedy dives after she's too drunk to stand up. Kaye dropped out of high school in order to work at a Chinese restaurant to earn money to support her mother in-between her mom's abusive boyfriends and succession of run-down apartments. Her friends Janet and Corny are also on similarly dead-end paths. Corny dreams of drive-bys and killing people and is full of suppressed rage. Kaye's mom sees nothing wrong with her daughter getting drunk enough to pass out, or to do drugs, or waking up in bed with a stranger; so much for a strong mother figure. This is not a book for sensitive readers; you have alcoholism, drugs, rape, violence, and torture.

As a child, Kaye imagined that she saw faeries, and when she concentrates, she can cause things to happen. This all comes to a head one night after a strange encounter with a mysterious wounded man in a forest; Roibin is a faerie prince of the Unseelie court, and associating with him brings Kaye and her magical friends into danger as they are swept into the brutal conflict between the two rival faerie kingdoms. Kaye learns that she's been leading a double life, and tries to wrap her head around the fact that her childhood memories of faeries and magic are in fact true.

The novel is briskly paced, alternating between Kaye's grim urban reality of poverty and violence and the magical world that she is now a part of. Black does a good job incorporating elements of faerie lore from classic literature and folklore; each chapter begins with a verse related to Kaye's predicament taken from poetry, including Shakespeare, Rilke and Teasdale. The ending is clearly set up for the sequel Ironside: A Modern Faery's Tale.

As a child, I was mesmerized by faeries, beginning with The Perilous Gard and Josepha Sherman's Child of Faerie, Child of Earth and Windleaf. Tithe is a fine heir to these tales of beautiful, otherworldly beings and the intricacies of their courts and rituals.

Written By: Holly Black
Cover Art By: Paul Zakris
Published: 2002
Published By: Simon & Schuster
Pages: 310
Extras: None
Summary:
Sixteen-year-old Kaye is a modern nomad. Fierce and independent, she travels from city to city with her mother's rock band until ominous attack forces the sixteen-year-old back to her childhood home. There, amid the industrial, blue-collar New Jersey backdrop, Kaye soon finds herself an unwilling pawn in an ancient power struggle between two rival faerie kingdoms - a struggle that could very well mean her death.
Cover Art Review:
I love covers that are actual drawings, not photographs. This is a great example of why I do. This cover is cool, eerily beautiful, and just a little scary. I can only identify two of the chacters on the cover, but that's alright because they are the main chacters. (Though the one underneath the silver faerie reminds me of Gollum from the animated Hobbit and Return of the King.) When I got to parts of the book where I thought, my God, this is bad, I looked at the cover and believed it would get better.
Overall: 10 (1-10) Its cool, beautiful, and scary all in one. It mirrors what the book is.
Book Review:
I liked this book, I really did. It's the type of book I'd read again. If the author wrote a sequel (she clearly left an opening to do so), I'd read it. However, this is by no means a "great" book. The author tended to jump into things, that it took me awhile to figure out what was going on in some scenes. The only developed chacter was Kaye. Robien seemed a bit sizo. He went from scary knight, to flirt, to nice guy, to acting like a teenager, then right back to scary knight. Corny was just a pot device and Janet didn't need to be around really. During parts of the book, I just wanted to stop reading. Kaye is pretty hard to like at points, but that's what people are like. I thought this book would be like Gingerbread, a book I hated. I don't want or need to read books about "punk" girls who are mean or weird or "bad" for no good reason. However, Tithe surprised me. Kaye is a likeable person. She doesn't come across as fake. Even though this is a "faerie tale," it comes across as more believable than books about "normal" teens in "normal" situations do.
Overall: 8 (1-10) This is the author's first book and it shows. However, Black has shown she has a good grasp at writing people. Tithe, despite its problems, is a good book. Read it, you'll probably enjoy it.
Reviewer's Note: The "F" word is pretty frequent. Don't read this book if you are uncomfortable with it.

Kaye has always been different. She's Japanese and a natural blond. She stopped going to school when she was fourteen because her musician mother kept them moving around. But what made the other kids really back away were the stories about her friends Gristle, Spike, and Lutie-loo. Everyone thought they were imaginary because no one besides Kaye could see these creatures. That's because Kaye's friends were part of the world of Faery.

Kaye is dragged farther into this dangerous world when she saves a dying faerie named Roiben. After this encounter, she meets up with her old friend Lutie and Spike only to find out that her other friend Gristle has been murdered by the faerie she saved earlier, Roiben. Her friend then bring her into the plot to let the solitary fey be free for seven years: Kaye has to break the tithe, a ritual in which a mortal is sacrificed for the Unseelie Court. And with that, she is in the middle of a war between that the two powerful faerie courts.

Holly Black presents a fantastical faerie world similar to the one in Melissa Marr's Wicked Lovely, yet it is difficult to compare the two. Both Kaye and Aislinn are strong-minded characters, but it is the setting and the rest of the faerie world that makes the stories so different; Kaye's is one filled with drinking and shoplifting. I appreciated how Kaye is unapologetic for who she is and found it amusing that Kaye didn't know her own cleverness. I also found Kaye and Roiben's relationship extremely romantic.

I highly recommend this exciting story, especially for fans of other faerie stories. I definitely look forward to reading more of Black's faerie novels.

reposted from [...]

I truly wanted to like this book. The story line was so intriguing to me, that I checked this book out, despite the negative reviews. I began reading the book and was immediately confused. I know that the author wanted to weave an interesting story without over explaining things, but honestly, by the time I figured out the whole Seelie/Unseeling/Solitary thing (which was near the end of the book), I didn't care anymore. The story was a jagged mess of foul language, nasty behavior, drinking, smoking, and sex.

The character development was atrocious. The main character, Kaye, was really annoying, as was Corny. I didn't care for any of the characters, really, except Roiben, and he wasn't very well developed either. At the end of the story, I just didn't care about what happened to any of them. Janet's death was needless and senseless--it didn't further the story at all--but really at this point, I didn't care what happened to Janet. I felt nothing for any of the characters. The story ended abruptly, paving the way for a sequel (Ironside), but I don't even want to get the sequel. I just don't care what happens to the characters.

I gave the book 2 stars because the story has potential. The underlying story is a good one, and could have been a great read. The author had some good moments, and could have really made this a great book. I loved the Spiderwick Chronicles, and really enjoy all things fantasy and faerie, so I know she could have done better. I just think she got caught up in making a dark, gothic read for teenagers, and it sort of backfired. Definitely check out the book before you buy.

What originaly atracted me to this book was the gorgeous Greg Spalenka arwork on the cover. It captures perfectly the strangeness and vivid colours of the story, as well as the inherent darkness.
The story centers on Kaye, a sixteen-year-old shoplifter and college drop-out, who has to move back to her childhood home when her drunken mothers boyfriend blows a fuse. Its seems like just another bad turn in a life thats going nowhere, but as Kaye runs into one strange incident after another, it becomes aparent that everything has in fact been staged. . . and that Kaye might not be entirely commonplace.
Dont be scared by the YA-classification. This one is great for anyone who likes good dark fantasy. The imagery is superb, the description of the Faery courts beyond belief. Beautiful and dark, the vividness and relaity of the feast under the hill a precious treat. If you're up to a new look at faeries, than go ahead. But dont tell anyone your name.

Mrr. This was recommended to me by a friend, since she said it was like a modern, teenage version of The Moorchild (which I loved). I didn't like this book near as much, though there were parts that were written well. Character motives were occasionally a bit fuzzy (though sometimes that was on purpose), the writing style and flow was a bit confusing sometimes, and it had one of my pet peeves, one of those endings where all is revealed to the plot in a few paragraphs near the end. I do like the whole modern enchanted thing she had going on though.

"Tithe" is the first novel of faerie-author Holly Black targeted toward young adults, that centres around teenager Kaye Fierch, the blonde-Asian daughter of a rocker mother who takes her back home to New Jersey and her grandmother after her own boyfriend attacks her. There Kaye's past swiftly catches up to her: as a child she was on familiar terms with the faery creatures of the woods and rivers, and now she finds her life tangled up in their magic as ever before. After rescuing a handsome knight Roiben, and meeting once more with her tiny faery friends Spike and Lutie, Kaye herself finds that she has a part to play in the rivalry between the two faery courts: the Seelie and the Unseelie Court. Caught directly between the two, Kaye realises that her heritage is certainly not what she thought it was, and that due to the circumstances of her birth she is the perfect candidate for the "tithe" of the title - the sacrifice planned to subdue the Seelie court into submission.
Caught between the dark, magical world of the faeries, and the equally dark and dangerous realm of teenage angst, Kaye's story is packed full of interesting ideas, vivid imagery, traditional faerie lore and an intriguing modern edge to all the proceedings.
In terms of heroines, Kaye does not quite measure up - sure she's spunky, determined and energetic, but she also smokes, swears, shoplifts and already initiated to the faery world when we first meet her, making her rather foreign most of the teenagers that bother to read books - its difficult to relate to her let alone *like* her very much. In fact, most of the characters in the novel are rather two-dimensional: Roiben is your typical dangerous, tortured-soul black knight, Lutie and Spike are undeveloped and hardly present, Janet is the typical best-friend that falls to the "best-friend cliche" of all suspense novels, and Kaye's mother Ellen is neglectful to the point of abuse: most of Kaye's thoughts on her mother involve how much she throws up, and she barely blinks an eye when she discovers her daughter shared her room with a strange boy all night.

Likewise there is some just plain sloppy writing used in areas - for instance Roiben gives Kaye some vital information in order to save her life...but instead of just telling her what she needs to do, he tells her in the form of a riddle - why?! And as mentioned by the editorial reviewer, some of the descriptions are bad, unnecessary, or both: "Corny got up, scratching his balls through once-white briefs." Eww[...] Did we really need to know that?

But ultimately, what's good about this book compensates for the bad - the atmosphere and descriptions of the faery world are great, and Black creates its inhabitants with zest and imagination: "a long nosed woman with freckles and ears like a jackal's juggled pinecones", "a goat-footed poetess", and "a huge creature with bat wings and limbs like stilts sat atop a table and lapped at a beaten copper bowl of cream." Each one of these tiny portraits paints a vivid world - there is a story lurking behind each one, just begging to be explored!
A huge plus for me was the portrayal of the faeries as tricky, malevolent, dangerous creatures. Since the Victorian interest in fairies, the beings have since then retained little of their former potency, instead being portrayed as cute, petticoated, rainbow-winged little girls with sparkly wands. But now it seems the darker side is returning thanks to the efforts of Brian Froud, Terri Windling, and now Holly Black. I hope the trend continues and that eventually all memories of Enid Blyton's fairies are forgotten. Black puts ancient faery lore to good use: the raths and hollow hills, the kelpie, the intoxicating faery food, the use of glamour, the changelings, and of course the sinister Tithe itself.
A nice touch was that Roiben used 'ye olde language-talke' whilst Kaye spoke like a modern day teen, and the comparison made between the faery realms and the world of the adolescence was great - is the wild and exciting faeryland really that different from the pulsating, neon world of teenage raves and parties? The faeries infiltration of the Halloween party is particularly inspired. A worthwhile read and a good effort for a new novelist, but I am much prefering Holly Black's "Spiderwick Chronicles," despite the fact they are written for a younger audience.

The adult themes and profanity in this book may be off-putting to some, but I think it's unfair to rate this book badly solely because of these issues. The fast-paced, intricate and clever plot, well-rounded, realistic characters and deliciously dark tone make this book a gem in the YA fantasy genre.

Holly Black's writing is vivid and lush. I wanted to sink into her faerie world and stay there. Black stays true to Celtic faery lore, drawing many themes from the original myths such as the faery courts, the Unseelie brugh and the fey's dislike of giving away their names. I wanted to ride with Kaye and Roiben on their journey navigating through the faerie world -- it was so beautiful and enchanting. I also loved the focus on riddles, and the play on words and their double meanings.

The dialogue is incredibly realistic, possibly the best I've ever read in a teen book. Yes, this is how many teens speak! Obviously, not all of them, but a lot of the ones I know curse often. However, this is really not a book for younger kids, and parents should know that.

As a truly dark fantasy though, this book is one of the best, if not *the* best I've ever read. I highly recommend it if you prefer books that do not sugarcoat the grim realities of life. If you like your fairy tales with a distinct edge and eery tone, you will devour this book!

There aren't too many fiction books out there about faeries, so I was really happy when Tithe came out. I was spinning fresh off of A Caress of Twilight by Laurell K Hamilton when I read this book. And let me say, this book is GREAT!
Kaye is a teen who travels around with her mom from rock band to rock band, kind of acting the adult (She doesn't go to school and works at a Chinese place to support her and her mom). When her mom's boyfriend tries to kill her in Philadelphia, they're forced to go and live with Kaye's grandmother in New Jersey.
We find out that when Kaye was a child, kids teased her because she had "imaginary" friends. It turns out they're not imaginary, and that these friends are faeries!!! When Kaye rescues a Seelie Knight, Roiben, who is serving in the Unseelie Court, she falls in love. Although her faerie friends Spike and Lutie-loo warn her to stay away from him, Kaye is thrown into a series of encounters with him that leave her yearning for more.
Kaye later finds out from Spike, Lutie-loo, and the Thistlewitch that she's a changeling, and is really a Pixie. She and her friend Corny visit the Unseelie Court, and start to find themselves in trouble. The Unseelie Court later tries to sacrifice Kaye, but Roiben and Lutie-loo come to the rescue.
Of course, the book ends with lots of kisses between Kaye and Roiben *sigh, he's so cute!* I really hope there's a sequel to this. Even though Tithe is set in contemporary New Jersey, it has so much fantasical stuff as to make it its own world. And the romance between Kaye and Roiben is so masterfully written, it's not like the typical teen romance [stuff] you're used to getting.
Tithe is the perfect blend of love, faerie, and horror *that Unseelie Knight that Corny hooks up with freaks me out, with all those thorns! LoL* and will encapture the hearts of fantasy fans everywhere.

Tithe was a book stuffed full of unique ideas and colorful characters. Unfortunately, you have to get at least halfway through to realize this.

The character had a personality, but there was nothing particularly engaging about her. She was missing some key traits to make her realistic. Kaye seems to be a flat, plain, ordinary girl, even after she discovers she isn't quite that. Until the last 1/4 of the book, you don't really care one way or another about her.

Corny, for having as many pages as he did, also lacked roundness. Even until the end, I could not find myself caring what happened to him.

The only interesting character was Roiben. He's really the character who fascinates the reader, draws them into the wondrous, terrible world of magic and faeries. His struggle to somehow keep his dignity while being forced to do things against his will (depending on who wields his full name) is entertaining yet sad to watch. Had he been the narrator or in Kaye's place, perhaps the story would have been more of a pleasure to read, rather than something for me to pick up whenever I got bored.

Well, in my usual fashion, here are the reasons that this book did not receive 5 stars:

1) Too 'fake'

Yes, one reason--and that is essentially all I can come up with. This novel, simply put, was fake sometimes. It was astounding up until it began to transform into a dark, gritty chic lit. (I just called something dark 'chick lit'. That's new.)

This book does turn rather chick lit-ish by its last page. The romance is too fast and again, fake. Not fake as in the sense it never happened but fake in the sense that it didn't seem like real could-happen-to-me.)

On the other hand, this book was dark fantasy. There is not a more perfect word to describe it. The novel had humor, wit, and some mind-churning ideas. Sadly, what could have been a 5 star book had a few moments that were so fake they actually made me put the book down and gag over what had become helpless chick lit.

If you are a 14/15+ teenage girl who doesn't mind intense language and some gore, this may be the book for you. However, if you despise chick lit and 'fake love' then don't expect to be floored. Nevertheless, I do not see why anyone should pass this novel by. It's one wickedly good book and I look forward to getting my hands on a copy of Valiant.

I actually wasn't expecting to enjoy this novel as much as I did. As a 24 year old who grew up in a small town, I can never relate well to teenagers running around a city drinking, smoking, dropping out of high school, shoplifting, etc. And, in the beginning of this novel, I found myself drudging through it and hoping that it would get better. It does.

There is more to Kaye than just the grungy lifestyle that she appears to lead. Her wild and vivid imagination make her completely endearing and childlike. The foul language and lack of depth in the secondary human characters takes a backseat to the fairy world and Black's rich, dark, and often shimmering descriptions of their world. Towards the middle of this book, I barely noticed the mortals and, like Kaye, was itching for the times when she would descend further into that world.

I loved that these fairies were like traditional Celtic beings with a penchant for riddles, mythology, wars, and trickery. I had a book of Celtic fairy legends when I was little about fairies stealing young maidens from the woods, taking them into their fairy mounds, and having them gorge themselves on sugary food and wine so that they could not leave. These are the fairies that make deals with mortals for trinkets and baubles over riddles. These are the fairies that will sour your milk, rot your food, and drive you mad with curses should you slight them. These are the fairies that steal sleeping infants from cribs and leave changelings in their stead. These are the fairies that will force brave young men to dance around mushroom circles with them until their feet bleed at the promise of riches and undying love.

When young Kaye moves back to New Jersey, she is longing to see her childhood imaginary fairy friends. When they do not show, she goes on drinking and partying until she happens upon a fairy knight who consumes her thoughts. Roiben is a traditional Byronic hero and their encounters are reminiscent of Pride and Prejudice. Kaye finds out who and what she is and what her part is in this magical and frightening world where power is won through bloodshed and deception; where peace is achieved through centuries old rituals; where there is no black and white over what is good and what is evil; where safety means great sacrifice.

This is a YA novel with very adult themes, so parents should take caution. It is probably best saved for the over 13 crowd. But I found it to be enchanting as well as full of angst. If you overlook the dirty grit of the first half, it becomes something much more magical.

After having read some reviews, such as those who depict "Disney cute fairies" and what fairies "really" are, I think it is best left to the imagination. I didn't know there was a what fairies "really"are. I do agree with another review, that this most certainly describes teenage youth today without sugar coating anything. It was a quick read, but not comparable to other fantasy, fictions I have read. Yes I was interested, but I'm not going to read it again. Furthermore, I will suggest reading it to pass the time away, but nothing more. In other words, if there is something else more intriguing, then I wouldn't put that on the back burner to this.

Anyway, to summarize, Kaye was a troubled teen (or was she?). There were a lot of misfortunes in her life, but nothing worse (or better) than what she soon finds out when her mother and her move home to New Jersey with grandmother. Kaye finds out merely days after her return to her childhood town, that her life is merely a lie and only covered up by "glamour". There are tough choices she has to make, and at one point when you think it is over, she realizes what a mess she has made. Is it too late? Or can she fix what has already been done? Take a journey with Holly Black, and discover more of Kaye's "real" life.

Tithe is a story about sixteen year old Kaye, who has to move back to her childhood home after a puzzling attack by her mother's boyfriend on her mother. After helping a mysterious knight, Kaye is visited by some faerie friends from her childhood. What she learns about faeries and herself sends her on a daring deadly mission.
Exciting and suspenseful, I personally liked Tithe. Though being a book about faeries, it is an extremely dark novel, which includes smoking, drinking, sexual themes, and death, which makes it only appropriate for high school age and above.
I haven't read any other books by Holly Black, but this book was suggested to me by a friend, and is a great fantasy novel.
Some reasons I liked the book was that there was a blend of fantasy and action, along with romance and real life issues. The entire book was very descriptive, with good visual words, allowing you to picture the scenes perfectly. The book was exciting and there never was a lull in the action.
On the other hand, without a lull, the plot almost moved too fast. Also, the book is actually pretty depressing, so if you're looking for a happy read, this is not your book.
All in all, I recommend this book. It's the first book in the series of three. Tithe is good, though dark, and full of action, so if that is what you're looking for, I suggest this book.