Tithe: A Modern Faerie Tale
by Holly Black
List Price:
Our Price: $2.84
You Save: $6.15 (68%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Holly BlackEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2004-03-23
ISBN: 0689867042
Number of pages: 336
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books
Accessories:
- Ironside: A Modern Faery's Tale (Modern Faerie Tale)
- Valiant: A Modern Faerie Tale (Modern Faerie Tale)
Book Reviews of Tithe: A Modern Faerie Tale
Book Review: Ay at the end of seven years/ We pay a tithe to Hell
Summary: 5 Stars
Genuinely well written fantasy novels exist. Honest. After poring through the heaps of badly sketched and horribly plotted books that glut much of the marketplace, this may not seem to be the case. Then you read something like "Tithe". I consider myself somewhat of an expert on children and teen books that deal with fairies and fairy kin. After reading "Tithe" I think I've finally met the best of the best.
Kaye's life sucks. Her mom's a perpetually drunk rocker who's forever losing gigs and who shuttles her sixteen-year-old daughter from town to town constantly. After a run in with her mother's seemingly violent boyfriend, Kaye and her mum settle down with Kaye's grandmother in New Jersey. It was here that Kaye grew up until six years ago. Here that she would encounter fairies and their kin when a child. But now Kaye's grown up a lot and the fairies don't seem to be showing. That is, until she discovers and saves the life of a darkly handsome knight, wounded by an iron arrow. Suddenly Kaye discovers who she is and the price she must pay to secure her old friends' freedom. What becomes clear though is that though Kaye may think she knows what she is and who she loves, she may turn out to be very much mistaken.
Several books kept leaping out at me as I read this one. The idea of paying a tithe (the blood of a mortal) for the fairies? I just read that recently in Elizabeth Pope's, "The Perilous Gard". A rock and roll background mixed with fairies and the Seelie and Unseelie Court? Straight out of "The War of the Oaks" by Emma Bull (which this book has MORE than a passing resemblance to). Heck, a girl discovering that her real skin color is, in truth, green is vastly similar to, "Keeper of the Isis Light" by Monica Hughes. Yet despite all the other books that this one reminded me of, it remained breathtakingly original from page one to three hundred and ten. I appreciated how much Holly Black knew about fairies and their lives. I liked how she incorporated these old factors with a text so contemporary that I was shocked to find references to online surfing and "The Sandman" graphic novels in it. Yet when it all comes down to it, the thing that really blew me away was Black's writing itself. I've rarely read such magnificent descriptions in a young adult story before. Listen to this sentence, "He smiled a smile that was like sinking your teeth into cake". Short. Sweet (ha ha). Well written enough that you have to pause and think about it a while. Now imagine that every other sentence in this book is that intriguing and you have some sense of "Tithe" itself.
And now the obligatory note to all concerned parents. Yes, there is swearing in this book. Frankly, it works within the context of the story and isn't gratuitous in the least. Yes, there is more than one reference to sex. Even (gasp, faint) gay sex. Again, deal with it. I was amazed that Black had to guts to put it in. But then, Black constantly amazed me. And for you parents who are concerned with teen books that actually deal with, oh I dunno, violence rather than the less disturbing sex and swearing that some parents seem gung ho to ban at every other opportunity, it exists in this story but it's not bad. Nothing you couldn't see on network television. If you want my advice you'll read the book yourself and, if you have any taste, enjoy it so thoroughly that you attempt to FORCE your kids to read it. But then, that could just be me.
In the end, "Tithe" is screaming in your face that a sequel is getting ready to be written. And though I love the book, my heaping helpfuls of praise are merely meant to let you know that this book is amongst the best of its kind. "Tithe" isn't going to win any Pulitzer Prizes or walk away with scads of literary praise. But amongst the teen fantasy books out there, it's a standout. Don't go into it expecting a dull fairy outing. "Tithe" is probably more interesting than you bargained.
Summary of Tithe: A Modern Faerie Tale
Welcome to the realm of very scary faeries!Sixteen-year-old Kaye is a modern nomad. Fierce and independent, she travels from city to city with her mother's rock band until an ominous attack forces Kaye 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.
Sixteen-year-old Kaye Fierch is not human, but she doesn't know it. Sure, she knows she's interacted with faeries since she was little--but she never imagined she was one of them, her blond Asian human appearance only a magically crafted cover-up for her true, green-skinned pixie self. First-time author Holly Black explores Kaye's self-discovery and dual worlds in her riveting, suspenseful novel Tithe: A Modern Faerie Tale. The book has its faults: it slips into shock-value mode; the descriptions are often overwritten (sunset on the water looks like the sun slit his wrists in a bathtub); the language is overly, unnecessarily explicit; and the writing often unpolished. Still, the story's pull is undeniable, and readers under its spell will be hard-pressed to put the book down.
The novel begins in a bar in Philly, where Kaye's alcoholic rock-singer mother's boyfriend tries to kill her. For their own safety, mother and daughter quickly move back to grandma's on the New Jersey shore where Kaye grew up. This ugly turn of events was all rigged by the Faerie world, as it turns out, a world Black describes in deliciously vivid, if rather overblown, detail. Kaye, a drinking, smoking, foul-mouthed high school dropout in the land of mortals, soon finds herself embroiled--as a human sacrifice, no less--in a battle between Faerieland's Seelie and more malevolent Unseelie courts. The beautiful, mysterious knight Roiben, torn between worlds himself, falls in love with Kaye--the brave, clever changeling--against his better judgment. Throughout the electrifying journey to the horrific underworld of this modern faerie fantasy, teen readers will relate to a hard-luck tough girl who feels alienated, discovers her best qualities in the worst of circumstances, and finally finds a place between worlds where she can feel at home. (Ages 13 and older) --Karin Snelson
Fantasy Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Fantasy Books
Lirael (Abhorsen Trilogy)by Garth Nix
HarperTeen; Published: 2008-04-22; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.98
Price in other shops:
The Coffin Club (Vampire Kisses, Book 5)by Ellen Schreiber
Katherine Tegen Books; Published: 2008-06-24; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $2.99
Price in other shops:
Prom Nights from Hellby Stephenie Meyer, Kim Harrison, Meg Cabot, Lauren Myracle, Michele Jaffe
HarperTeen; Published: 2007-04-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.16
Price in other shops:
As You Wishby Jackson Pearce
HarperTeen; Published: 2009-08-25; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $3.51
Price in other shops:
Wintersmith (Discworld)by Terry Pratchett
HarperCollins; Published: 2007-10-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.41
Price in other shops:
Wintersmith (Discworld)by Terry Pratchett
HarperTeen; Published: 2006-10-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $7.28
Price in other shops:
Missing You (1-800-Where-R-You, Book 5)by Meg Cabot
HarperTeen; Published: 2006-12-26; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.08
Price in other shops:
Abaratby Clive Barker
HarperCollins; Published: 2002-10-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $25.00
Abhorsen (adult) (The Abhorsen Trilogy)by Garth Nix
HarperCollins; Published: 2004-09-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.37
Price in other shops:
Two Princesses of Bamarre, Theby Gail Carson Levine
Eos; Published: 2004-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.47
Price in other shops:
Similar Books and other products
Darkest Mercy (Wicked Lovely)by Melissa Marr
HarperCollins; Published: 2011-02-22; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $8.49
Price in other shops:
Silence (Hush, Hush Saga)by Becca Fitzpatrick
Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers; Published: 2011-10-04; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $6.92
Price in other shops:
The Iron King (Harlequin Teen)by Julie Kagawa
Harlequin; Harlequin Teen; Published: 2010-02-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.75
Price in other shops:
Wicked Lovely (Wicked Lovely (Quality))by Melissa Marr
HarperCollins; Published: 2008-04-29; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.50
Price in other shops:
Ink Exchange (Wicked Lovely (Quality))by Melissa Marr
HarperCollins; Published: 2009-03-31; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.98
Price in other shops:
Crescendo (Hush, Hush)by Becca Fitzpatrick
Books; Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers; Published: 2010-10-19; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $3.96
Price in other shops:
White Cat (Curse Workers)by Holly Black
Margaret K. McElderry Books; Published: 2011-02-08; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.87
Price in other shops:
Beautiful City of the Deadby Leander Watts
Graphia; Published: 2007-09-10; Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.19
Price in other shops:
Valiant: A Modern Faerie Tale (Modern Faerie Tale)by Holly Black
Margaret K. McElderry Books; Published: 2006-09-26; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.99
Price in other shops:
Ironside: A Modern Faery's Tale (Modern Faerie Tale)by Holly Black
Simon Pulse; Published: 2008-07-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.29
Price in other shops: