I do realize that some Twilight fans may well come after me with pitchforks — but Holly Black’s Roiben from the Ironside series … let’s just say i’ve switched from Team Vamp to Team Faerie!
Anyway, about Tithe: A Modern Faerie Tale by Holly Black
Moving from city to city while her mother pursues an unsuccessful music career, an ominous and nearly fatal incident sends them back to Kaye’s grandmother’s New Jersey home. Kaye has been playing with faeries ever since she was a young child, but the playmates of her memories are much darker than they appeared. There Kaye discovers she is a changeling and a faerie, and becomes slowly drawn into a vicious rivalry between the two Faerie courts.
Kaye is gritty and angst ridden to the extreme, but still ultimately likable as she falls harder and harder for Roiben, an exiled knight of the Bright Court. While occasionally Kaye is self-absorbed and selfish, it adds to her believability.
Holly Black’s faeries are capricious, feral, and through all their wild barbarism, haughty and courtly at the same time. Despite the liberal use of strong language, so much it actually distracted from the story, Tithe is an extremely well written modern day fantasy. I’m a sucker for urban faeries, and Holly Black certainly delivered a complex and suspenseful ride. Definitely on the darker side of things, it was a wild ride of suspense, angst, and betrayal. With twists and turns, Tithe was an adventure as unpredictable as the faeries mood swings, and a thoroughly enjoyable read.
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