Tithe by Holly Black

Tithe by Holly Black

Date Started: April 7, 2009 Date Finished: April 16,2009

Summary: Kaye has been able to see and interact with fairies for most of her life. Then she moved all over the East Coast, following her mother's dreams of being a Rock Star. Kaye is forced to drop out of high school and work full time to make money for her family. After a mysterious attack, Kaye and her mother move back to New Jersey and Kaye begins seeing the Fairies again. After seeing an injured man named Roiben on her way home, she realizes that helping him has thrown her into a world between two fairy courts and into the war that is brewing between them.

 

Likes: I like Roiben. The book was pretty good and a little strange, but in a good way. I really liked some of the description, especially when they were in the Unseelie Court. The author holds nothing back in terms of the bad things that happen in the book. The part a little bit before the end was my favorite and it was really a gruesome but wonderful part to read. It was pretty gorey for a young adults book.

Dislikes: Some of the language was a little overblown and the plot was a little farfetched (I know it was a fantasy, but still). At any rate, there was a lot of telling instead of showing. For some reason, I couldn't emotionally connect with Kaye, there was just something off about her. The plot twist was unexpected, but somewhat predictable. There was something that was bothering me about this book, but I couldn't place my finger on it. Probably because everything was solved so quickly. Kaye always knew the answer to everything, even though her problems got worse when she didn't use discretion. It was a little bit annoying that it kept happening almost all the time. And the part with Janet? I was totally confused and was wondering why it happened. As much as I liked the book, I wasn't about to read that part again because I really just wanted to be finished with it.

Overall: It was interesting. I wasn't exactly captivated with it, but it was a fun read. I just think that I may be getting to old for Young Adult Fantasy. This is something I might have liked when I was about 14 or 15. I still enjoyed it, but some of the things Kaye worried about were too trivial and I would have found them trivial as a 14/15 year old as well. Sometimes I wonder whether adults writing for children realize that children and teenagers can have deep thoughts too. I will be reading the other two, Valiant and Ironside. I kind of hope they get better as they get more in depth because I feel like this book barely skimmed the surface of what goes on in the Faerie realm.