Valiant: A Modern Tale of Faerie
by Holly Black
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Read in February, 2008
recommended to Jarrah by:
Sarah Rees BrennanThis review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
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Read in January, 2007
Valiant : A Modern Tale of Faerie, is an 2005 urban fantasy novel by Holly Black. It is a loose sequel/spin-off to her earlier book Tithe : A Modern Faerie Tale, but can also be read as a stand-alone novel.
The book follows the life of runaway Valerie Russell in New York. Valerie is the child of a single mother. At the start of the novel, Val attends high school, is a lacrosse player, and is best friends with the eccentric lesbian-identified Ruth.
Val discovers her boyfriend, Tom, and her mother are having an affair. Betrayed and not sure where to go, Val runs away to New York City. She meets up with a group of teen-squatters, including Lolli (as in lollipop), Dave, and Luis. Val earns the nickname "Prince Valiant" after she helps a drag queen locate her shoe. This may be a homage to Hal Foster's comic strip, Prince Valiant or Prince Valiant in the Days of King Arthur.
Though she earns the trust of the rest of the group, Luis remains wary of Val. She soon learns about the group's contact with a troll, Ravus. He lives beneath a bridge, a reference to the traditional fairy tale, The Three Billy Goats Gruff. Ravus also makes glamour that faeries in exile use so their bodies can be resistant towards iron. These exiles are dispersed through out the city, and Dave and Luis must deliver the glamour to them.
Glamour, according to the novel, can be used as a drug by humans. When used, humans are given magic for a short period of time. It's highly addictive; a comparison can be drawn between it and heroin. Lolli and Dave introduce Val to taking "Nevermore," as they refer to it. Val, like the other squatters, is soon hooked.
Ravus, despite Val's first impressions, is much kinder than he appears. He begins to teach her swordplay and the bond between them strengthens. Val's mounting problems and addiction take a nasty turn, and the trust Ravus has in her is threatened... ...more
The book follows the life of runaway Valerie Russell in New York. Valerie is the child of a single mother. At the start of the novel, Val attends high school, is a lacrosse player, and is best friends with the eccentric lesbian-identified Ruth.
Val discovers her boyfriend, Tom, and her mother are having an affair. Betrayed and not sure where to go, Val runs away to New York City. She meets up with a group of teen-squatters, including Lolli (as in lollipop), Dave, and Luis. Val earns the nickname "Prince Valiant" after she helps a drag queen locate her shoe. This may be a homage to Hal Foster's comic strip, Prince Valiant or Prince Valiant in the Days of King Arthur.
Though she earns the trust of the rest of the group, Luis remains wary of Val. She soon learns about the group's contact with a troll, Ravus. He lives beneath a bridge, a reference to the traditional fairy tale, The Three Billy Goats Gruff. Ravus also makes glamour that faeries in exile use so their bodies can be resistant towards iron. These exiles are dispersed through out the city, and Dave and Luis must deliver the glamour to them.
Glamour, according to the novel, can be used as a drug by humans. When used, humans are given magic for a short period of time. It's highly addictive; a comparison can be drawn between it and heroin. Lolli and Dave introduce Val to taking "Nevermore," as they refer to it. Val, like the other squatters, is soon hooked.
Ravus, despite Val's first impressions, is much kinder than he appears. He begins to teach her swordplay and the bond between them strengthens. Val's mounting problems and addiction take a nasty turn, and the trust Ravus has in her is threatened... ...more
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Read in June, 2008
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5 comments
Read in October, 2006
recommends it for:
ages 16+
Many people loved Tithe and the Spiderwick Chronicles (though I haven't read those, I've only read Tithe) and they're very highly recommended books.
I was a little more than dissapointed, though, when I read Tithe.
The language was very vulgar, and the characters not very lickable at all.
And there were numerous other things that bothered me about that book.
When Valiant came out, I delayed in reading it.
I decided it was time to read it last week.
And this is all I have to say about it- ...more
I was a little more than dissapointed, though, when I read Tithe.
The language was very vulgar, and the characters not very lickable at all.
And there were numerous other things that bothered me about that book.
When Valiant came out, I delayed in reading it.
I decided it was time to read it last week.
And this is all I have to say about it- ...more
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Read in November, 2007
recommends it for:
posers, wanna-bes and those looking to flush their lives away
I hated this book from the first page.
Strong words, I know, but let's just have it out. I continued reading primarily because Black's agent was someone who I was interested in contacting to represent my own work.
Trite, lame and basically a waste of tree. The plot was blurg, the characters were frighteningly unenthralling, the writing was fair, but you can find decent writing on the back of a cereal box.
The one saving grace was a troll and though the idea was cool, it was hardly...more
Strong words, I know, but let's just have it out. I continued reading primarily because Black's agent was someone who I was interested in contacting to represent my own work.
Trite, lame and basically a waste of tree. The plot was blurg, the characters were frighteningly unenthralling, the writing was fair, but you can find decent writing on the back of a cereal box.
The one saving grace was a troll and though the idea was cool, it was hardly...more
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Has a copy to sell/swap
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Read in September, 2007
I have mixed feelings about this book. I found the idea of the story captivating. Faeries are real, and they walk among us, hidden by glamour from human eyes. And they aren't necessarily good faeries--like humans, some are good, and some are stealthy. 17 year old Val discovers this world when she runs away from home and lives under the New York subway tunnels. Through unforeseen circumstances, she ends up indebted to a troll, delivering potions to faeries. But faeries are being poisoned, a...more
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Read in March, 2006
recommends it for:
everyone
You know a book is going to be interesting when the very first thing that happens is the main character, 17 year old Val, comes home to find her Mom screwing her boyfriend. Things just get more interesting from there.
For anyone who has read Laurell K. Hamilton's Merry Gentry series, Valiant is in much the same vein, except it's for teenagers; book jacket says 14...more
For anyone who has read Laurell K. Hamilton's Merry Gentry series, Valiant is in much the same vein, except it's for teenagers; book jacket says 14...more
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Read in August, 2008
Val Russell, 17, leaves home after she catches her boyfriend, Tom in the arms of her mother. She is numb, but manages to take the train to New York. There she meets brothers Dave and Luis through Lollipop, a disoriented, fragile child of the streets. They all live in a train tunnel and slowly Val gets caught up in the world of faeries, monsters, and ogres. Val becomes indebted to Ravus, a troll and she begrudgingly agrees to make deliveries for him, as the faerie world is up in arms about myster...more
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Read in June, 2007
recommends it for:
Fans of faerie stories
Val Russell is at an okay spot in her life - she's got a relationship that's sketchy at the moment, but it's good enough for the time being. She's got her best friend, and she's got her mother. For the time being.
Until Val leaves for a date with her boyfriend one night, returns home to get something she forgot, and happens upon her boyfriend and her mother having sex. Her mother and boyfriend...together? And her best friend knew all along! So she does the only thing she thinks she can i...more
Until Val leaves for a date with her boyfriend one night, returns home to get something she forgot, and happens upon her boyfriend and her mother having sex. Her mother and boyfriend...together? And her best friend knew all along! So she does the only thing she thinks she can i...more
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Read in June, 2007
recommends it for:
anyone who likes Charles de Lint
I was a bit disappointed when Valiant didn't start up where Tithe ended. However, I quickly got over it.
This story follows 17-year-old Val Russell who runs away from her dysfunctional home within the first few chapters. In a moment of shedding her confusion, she embraces a new identity and shaves her head, leaving everything behind. She also finds herself in the company of three homeless teens--Lolli, Dave, and Luis who live on an abandoned subway platform.
Eerie and str...more
This story follows 17-year-old Val Russell who runs away from her dysfunctional home within the first few chapters. In a moment of shedding her confusion, she embraces a new identity and shaves her head, leaving everything behind. She also finds herself in the company of three homeless teens--Lolli, Dave, and Luis who live on an abandoned subway platform.
Eerie and str...more
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Read in August, 2008
recommends it for:
readers of young adult and urban fantasy
17 year-old Val runs away from home when she catches her mother with her boyfriend. Val shaves her head and meets Luis, Lolli and Dave. They live in the subway tunnels of New York. Dave tells her that Luis has the "sight" and can see and speak with fairies. Lolli leads Val to the troll tunnels. Val doesn't believe them, but then she finds herself making a deal with a troll to serve him for a month, in any way that he so chooses. Val's new friends teach her to mainline magic fairy powde...more
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Read in July, 2007
I didn't like this one quite as much as Tithe. Though it seems more of a standalone, there are a few characters from Faery from the first one that are mentioned later on here. Apparently, Ironside, the third book in the series, is more of a direct sequel to Tithe.
When seventeen-year-old Val finds her mom and her boyfriend making out, she runs away from her home in...more
When seventeen-year-old Val finds her mom and her boyfriend making out, she runs away from her home in...more
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This is the book after Tithe, it takes place in about the same area and time because in this book it mentions the king of the unseelie court from the book before. In this book there are all new characters. The main character,whose also the point of view we see everything from is Val. Is all starts out when Val runs away from home and meet kids about her age who are living in the train tracks. This book like Tithe all takes place in a very shory amount of time. But because there is so much inform...more
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It's a very good book, but not a pleasant one. A teenage girl runs away from home, only to fall in with some street kids who are struggling with a lot more than your average drug addiction. These kids are shooting a drug intended to be medicine for the Faery folk, to prevent Iron Sickness. Any Faery exiled in the big city needs the powder to prevent the Iron Sickness, but humans who take it temporarily gain the supernatural powers of the Faeries. There's more going on though; the entire faer...more
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Read in January, 2005
Val is a pretty normal seventeen-year-old. She plays lacrosse on her high school team, which matches her short temper, and the relationship with her boyfriend Tom has been pretty steady.
But events turn, and when Val is utterly betrayed, she runs away to a life of living in New York's subway system with a new identity and a newly-shaved head. Things are not as they seem deep under the streets of New York, and the squatter friends she now lives with shoot drugs that "make the shadows danc...more
But events turn, and when Val is utterly betrayed, she runs away to a life of living in New York's subway system with a new identity and a newly-shaved head. Things are not as they seem deep under the streets of New York, and the squatter friends she now lives with shoot drugs that "make the shadows danc...more
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Read in April, 2008
student turned this book in and said I should read it. I'm not a big "fantasy" reader, but so far this one is pretty good. I keep wanting to get back to it to see what's going to happen.
Finally finished this book. It was just okay, not really my cup of tea. I kept thinking (hoping) toward the end she would wake up and discover she had been in a coma and all the things she had experienced was a dream based on a video game she had played. THAT would have been a good ending. Like...more
Finally finished this book. It was just okay, not really my cup of tea. I kept thinking (hoping) toward the end she would wake up and discover she had been in a coma and all the things she had experienced was a dream based on a video game she had played. THAT would have been a good ending. Like...more
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2 comments
Read in May, 2007
recommends it for:
not kids
After the first two pages, I was pretty shocked to find this book in the kids section. Ms Black certainly enjoys splashing graphic terms and descriptions in her works (there seems to be a lot at the beginning, though it is far more sparse later on).
Ms Black does not get caught up in overwhelming and petty descriptions, which is (I think) what made me go back and buy Tithe. Not only are you allowed to let your imagination do the talking, but the emphasis in the story is laid on the dialog...more
Ms Black does not get caught up in overwhelming and petty descriptions, which is (I think) what made me go back and buy Tithe. Not only are you allowed to let your imagination do the talking, but the emphasis in the story is laid on the dialog...more
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Read in May, 2008
recommends it for:
urban fantasy, young adult
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
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Valerie Russell runs away from home to New York after she finds her mother making out with her boyfriend. Heartbroken and lost, she wanders the city until she is found by three teenagers living on the street - Dave, Luis, and Lolli. Lolli takes Val under her abandoned underground. Valerie finds out that fairies exist and became friends with a troll named Ravus after she stood up for him even though she had to serve him for robing his properties.
I liked this book because it mixes trolls and cre...more
I liked this book because it mixes trolls and cre...more
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