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young adult book reviews & more

Tithe by Holly Black

Tithe: A Modern Faerie TaleKaye 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.

Rating: 5.0

Review copy from personal collection

12 munch(es) :

Madison said...

I've had this for a while, but I still haven't gotten around to reading it.

Anonymous said...

I read this a while back and really liked it. ^^

Liviania said...

Should be 'Both Kaye and Aislinn.' ^_^

Wait 'til you see Kaye's cleverness in IRONSIDE.

Steph said...

Oo I've been meaning to read this for a while! It sounds great.

Anonymous said...
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Tasha said...

This has been in my tbr pile for a long time and your review has made me want to pull it out and read it right away!

And whoever is going around all the good book blogs and posting nasty comments need to stop.

The Whirlwinds said...

Ironside was fantastic! I just finished it and may have enjoyed it even more than Tithe, which didn't seem possible. Great review!

Your blog is brilliant, Book Muncher. Never let anyone tell you different.

*Aella*

Dominique said...

my friend loved this book! she just finished it the other day during lunch and she couldn't stop raving it about it to us XD lol

I was wondering if you wanted to do a link exchange??
http://the-book-vault.blogspot.com/
thx :)

paperxxflowers said...

Yeah, you'd definitely like Ironside.

Theopinionedreader said...

I can't wait to read this book, it looks great! would you mind linking my blog to your site?

Theopinionedreader said...

my url is http://theopinionedreader.blogspot.com/

UK said...

I wasn't really expecting anything when I started reading this book. I was kind of surprised that the author just jumped right in there with the story. Not really a lead up to it all she just jumps right in and gets on with the story. At times things were happening a little too fast and for no apparent reason. I guess you could say some parts seemed rushed just so that she could get to the next big thing and then other times she focused too much on the little things that had no real significance to the story...or to me they didn't.

As far as the story line and characters are concerned, I was interested. I was kind of taken aback by Kaye's friend not seeming too concerned about the situations she kept finding her boyfriend and Kaye in...but oh well. For some reason I had a hard time picturing the charachters descibed in my head so i just started making up my own images of what they might look like.

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