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Tithe (The Modern Faerie Tales #1)

by Holly Black (Goodreads Author)

3.71 · rating details · 19,579 ratings · 1,661 reviews

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 the sixteen-year-old 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 s...more

Paperback, 331 pages

Published June 20th 2008 by Simon Pulse (first published October 1st 2002)

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Nov 14, 2011

Brigid *Flying Kick-a-pow!* rated it

*Hello, I am here to make this review less hostile and less trollish sounding. Yaaaay.*

Okay, so ... Obviously, I did not care for this book. People seem very split on this one; people seem to either love it or hate it, and I found myself more in the latter category.

I thought it had a good concept. I like a good faerie story, something that ties in old faerie mythology and whatnot. And I admit, I was drawn to the cover because––well, look at it. It's pretty neat. And I th...more

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Mar 06, 2008

Juushika rated it

Shelves: borrowed

As a child, Kaye had faery friends; throughout her life, she has always been unusual. Now, following an barfight, Kaye and her would-be-rock star mother return to Kaye's childhood home. There, Kaye meets another faery, and discovers that her childhood friends really do exist and that she is far more unusual than she ever suspected. She soon falls into the middle of the power struggle between two rival faery courts, a struggle which could easily spill into the human world. Tithe is a mix of wonde...moreAs a child, Kaye had faery friends; throughout her life, she has always been unusual. Now, following an barfight, Kaye and her would-be-rock star mother return to Kaye's childhood home. There, Kaye meets another faery, and discovers that her childhood friends really do exist and that she is far more unusual than she ever suspected. She soon falls into the middle of the power struggle between two rival faery courts, a struggle which could easily spill into the human world. Tithe is a mix of wonderful and horrible aspects: the characters are difficult to like or identify with, and the writing style is inconsistent and immature, but the plot is realistically complex (even though it ends abruptly) and the faeries are dark, enthralling, and vividly conceived (if overdrawn). I found this book at times both frustrating and wonderful, and though it has many faults, I still recommend it for its plot and atmosphere, as well as its great potential.

At the beginning of reading Tithe, the weaknesses far outweigh the strengths. Kaye, her mother, and her friends are neither likable nor identifiable—Kaye's mother is a struggling rock vocalist, Kaye is a high school drop out, Janet is a superficial teenager, Corny is an unattractive gas station attendant; everyone drinks too much and smokes too much. Maybe I just lived a sheltered life, but wouldn't have identified with any of these characters as a young adult, and I still don't now as an adult. They are not likable, nor are their flaws realistic—instead, they are exaggerated and simplistic. Along with difficult characterization, the writing style is inconsistent and immature, replete with adverbs, repeated gestures, and dull dialog and episodes. This is clearly a first novel, and accordingly it feels unfinished and unpolished. The book would have benefited from a rewrite, to tighten the language and unify the style.

But for all of these negative qualities, Tithe remains readable and exhibits some real jewels and true potential as it goes on. The plot moves just fast enough that it is not frustrating and slow enough that it is still intriguing. There are many points where the book could have ended prematurely, wrapping up the plot into a nice and neat package; Black, however, rejects these endings, instead introducing new complications to build a plot that is is political, complex, and ongoing. The unfortunate effect of the ongoing story is that the book has an indistinct ending—although not a cliffhanger, it seems arbitrary and incomplete. On the whole, however, the complex plot fits the book's wide political premise and makes for a satisfying read. The faeries are equally satisfying: they are otherworldly, diverse, and carefully imagined. Some of the dark faeries are overdrawn and excessively macabre, but on the whole the faeries are the highlight of the text. Black's imagination is lively and wide; her descriptions (in particular Kaye's transformation) shine off of the page in vivid language that is at once ethereal and tactile.

I found this to be an alternately frustrating and delightful book. The characters disappointed me, the writing style annoyed me, but whenever I became too frustrated, another new aspect would shine: a banquet scene in a faery court, a new plot development, some measure of character growth. So while I can't rate this book very highly on account of its many faults, I do recommend it. Less critical readers may not find it so frustrating as I did; no matter the reader, the magic and imagination make this a book worth reading. There is great potential here, and where it is realized, Tithe is a truly enjoyable read. I look forward to reading more of Black's published work—I expect that as she matured as a writer, her books became more readable and less frustrating.(less)

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Nov 28, 2007

Mary-Beth rated it

Shelves: fiction, romance, fantasy

Kaye is obviously incredibly lovely and then it turns out she's a magical fairy. Sure her life is hard, but it's the fairies making it that way because she's so important that they're all out to get her. Look, what I'm saying is, it's like the author tried to think of all the coolest latest trends among teenagers and tried to mash them into a fairy story. Kaye is also not anyone's typical teenager. She has super special protagonist syndrome.

I found the Faerie described by the author ...more

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Nov 21, 2010

Thomas rated it

Shelves: glbt

"Tithe: A Modern Faerie Tale" is about sixteen year old Kaye Fierch, a girl who has been moving around with her single mother for her entire life. At a young age she has been able to see and interact with these things called faeries, although no one believed her. Then one day, she enchants a boy into falling in love with her and makes a broken, splintered horse move. Soon after that event she meets a young faerie night named Roiben, and that is just the start of her faerie adventure.
...more

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Apr 29, 2008

Rachael rated it

Kaye 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 w...more

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Dec 03, 2007

Seth rated it

Shelves: young-adult

Summary: comfortably predictable storyline with some huge plot holes, but more than fun enough to read. Just make sure it doesn't put off Weetzie Bat or other masterpieces of the YA genre.

This book is marred by one major flaw that doesn't affect most of the YA set: bad things happen--both on- and off-stage--to sympathetic characters around our protagonist and no one cares. Several "best friend" character die, the two mothers are left bereft of their children, a small child...moreSummary: comfortably predictable storyline with some huge plot holes, but more than fun enough to read. Just make sure it doesn't put off Weetzie Bat or other masterpieces of the YA genre.

This book is marred by one major flaw that doesn't affect most of the YA set: bad things happen--both on- and off-stage--to sympathetic characters around our protagonist and no one cares. Several "best friend" character die, the two mothers are left bereft of their children, a small child is abandoned to the faeries, and the nearby world is beset by death and destruction, but it doesn't affect the main, teen-aged protagonist and we only follow her pursuit of a dangerous older man who doesn't want to use her naivety no matter how much she tries to make him. His self-recriminations--even while he's killing innocents--for making out with her while she was drunk make for a great character.

In addition, the important and interesting family drama with her wanna-be rocker mom and her controlling and narrow-minded grandmother is left not only unresolved, but probably unresolvable.

Fortunately, the faerie plotline is well handled, if 100% comfort-food, even for the YA crowd. Our protagonist is asked to play the role of the sacrifice victim in a faerie sacrifice taken straight from Tam Lin, with the promise that her good faerie friends will save her at the end and reveal thats the bad faeries had broken the rules. Of course, "good" and "bad" will intermingle and swap around throughout the course of the story (as is appropriate in a faerie tale) and she has to look after herself and mis-trust her lifelong faerie friends.

She does a passable job of wising up, if not growing up, and the action-y scenes are quite fun as her wanna-be beau fights off orders to kill her, she tries to rescue her almost-friend from a dangerous lover, and both the supposedly good and definitely bad faeries line up to use her for their political ends even if it means killing her.

So it's a fun read, but don't expect any of the usual YA moral or character growth. Pure entertaining fluff. (less)

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Mar 05, 2009

Heather rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: ya, urban-fantasy

I find it rather hard to choose what type of review I would like to write, positive or negative. I suppose mine will be a bit of both.
One the one hand, I have to give Holly Black credit for attempting to write characters that do not fall within the norm. Not everyone is of a certain race, hair color, eye color, personality type, etc. and it is refreshing to read something other than a Mary Jane. I can also appreciate any author who is daring enough to include sex, cussing, and drugs into ...more

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Sep 10, 2007

Chrystal rated it

Romantic without being too soft and edgy without being too harsh, Holly Black's first entry effortlessly draws you into the alluring and alternately horrifying world of the fey.

When I first began reading Tithe, I was afraid that Kaye's background/lifestyle would be too gimmicky, but Black gives her just enough depth to be likable (though I personally never felt intimately connected to her). Corny, on the other hand, is such an odd combination of qualities that I found him very believ...more

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Jun 24, 2008

Amber Baker rated it

Recommends it for: no one

Recommended to Amber by: list on Amazon

If I could have given it 0 stars I would have. To publish this as a young adult novel is horrifying. I wouldn't read past 30 pages it was too offensive and to think it was published as content for young adults is terrible. It would be R rated as a movie. Not only was the f word used liberally throughout the few pages I read, teens were drinking, smoking and hinting at being sexually active. NOT something I would want my kids to read, or myself. I normally wouldn't dream of rating a book wi...more

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Hannah I agree with your review. I found it an unenjoyable read and was deterred in the first 15 pages. There are many other books out there with inspiring a...more
Nov 14, 2011 09:21pm

Gaby 30 pages? That hardly allows you to write a quality or informed review. Life is tough, life is swearing, life is not always cotton balls and sunshine ...more
Jan 23, 2012 03:51am

Apr 22, 2008

Meep rated it

Recommends it for: fantasy fans, people looking for interesting female protagonists

Shelves: fantasy, young-adult

I really did not expect to enjoy this book. I thought it was going to be really lame, but I was pleasantly surprised. I checked it out from the library one afternoon and finished it that day. I found myself feeling like Kaye's friend, sympathizing with her while she lusted after Roiben (a trait I normally cannot stand in a female protagonist, but because she had a personality and Roiben was, well, very attractive, I found it really compelling).

My favorite part was when she mentioned ...more

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Aug 20, 2007

Andrea rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: read-young-adult

Call me conservative, but I just can't believe this was a young adult book! There was so much swearing in it (more than most adult books) that just wasn't needed that it distracted from the plot of the book. That doesn't generally bother me...but it did with this book.

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May 31, 2011

Holly rated it

Shelves: angst-a-plenty, ehh-it-was-okay, magical-supernatural-paranormal, not-a-fan, not-what-i-expected, sequels-and-series, faeries, young-adult-reads

I almost didn't make it through this one. It wasn't until I was halfway through that I really developed some sort of interest in this story, I'm sorry to say. I know it's a super popular book, or at least Holly Black is a very well-known author, but I really just didn't connect with Tithe.

I have to say, I did enjoy the main character, Kaye, a edgy, kick-butt changeling who's roamed around with her human "mother" for the last sixteen years. Kaye is freespirited but brave and...more

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Oct 26, 2011

Stephanie (Stepping out of the Page) rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2011, fantasy, young-adult, series-or-companions, no-longer-own, disliked, fae, too-much-hype, let-down, awful-cover, not-for-me

I thought this could have a little potential but the writing didn't impress me at all. I thought that the plot was interesting enough. It had some twists and turns that were interesting and I didn't get insanely bored. The characters are likeable - if they had been more developed, I think that they could have been great. What put me off this book was the writing - it was messy and it just didnt ever seem to flow for me. I felt as though the author was just jumping from point to point and I found...more

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Jun 19, 2009

Amanda rated it

Shelves: scifi-fantasy, young-adult, 2009

Kaye used to see fairies when she was little, but since she and her mother left her grandmother’s home in New Jersey, the fairies have disappeared out of her life. Several years later, Kaye’s back in New Jersey as a fifteen-year-old high school dropout, and she desparately wants her fairy friends back. Unfortunately, when they come, so does trouble, and Kaye ends up in the middle of a war between two sects of in fairy land.

In a word: disappointment. I’d heard such wonderful things abou...moreKaye used to see fairies when she was little, but since she and her mother left her grandmother’s home in New Jersey, the fairies have disappeared out of her life. Several years later, Kaye’s back in New Jersey as a fifteen-year-old high school dropout, and she desparately wants her fairy friends back. Unfortunately, when they come, so does trouble, and Kaye ends up in the middle of a war between two sects of in fairy land.

In a word: disappointment. I’d heard such wonderful things about this book, and I expected much better from it. At the beginning of the book, I was a little bored. It picked up for awhile, then unraveled by the end. The writing mechanics were surprisingly not that great for such a widely acclaimed author – overuse of similes, periodic accidental talking to the reader, that sort of thing. Outside of mechanics, things were even worse. I’m just going to list and expand all the things that really bothered me.

1. Poor character development. No one was real. Black tried. She made teens that drank, smoked, got high, swore a lot, and did whatever they wanted contrary to any rules. Of course, not all teens are like that, but there are those who are and I applaud her, a tiny bit, for taking that on (see below why I don’t applaud a lot). However, these teens didn’t feel like real people. They were more like caricatures. Beyond the humans, the characterization was even worse. Fairies must be incredibly ADHD or second-by-second fickle or something, because they would say one thing and then do the opposite moments later, on multiple occasions. For example, one fairy yells at Kaye that she better not tell tales to the fairy queen, and immediately afterwards tells her where she can find the queen. Um…hello? Another example: Roidon (a fairy) tells Kaye to use his full name to help her escape from a particular situation, so she does, and he gets angry at her for doing so. What?? And that’s not even to mention the amount of flipflops in who-likes-who that goes on in ever-increasing intervals as the book nears its climax…sigh. No character – human or fairy – had any real emotions. Everything was transitory. That made it real difficult to care about anyone.

2. Beauty issues. Once again, all the fairies are inhumanly beautiful, or terribly hideous. Why can’t there be mythological creatures who just look plain? Oh I hate this so much!

3. Worn out symbolism. A hundred years ago in literature, authors used light and dark as deliberate symbols to help them get across notions of good and evil. Same with dull-colored things and brightly-colored things. I don’t mind that. I get a little tired of the same architypical symbol being used over and over, and personally I don’t associate light with good and dark with evil, but I understand. But I only understand when the author is doing it deliberately. In Tithe, light and dark, colored and dull – they don’t seem to be used deliberately enough to be actual symbols, but instead are just there “because that’s the way it should be.” Then, there’s the fairy lore that’s been ransacked, with bits and pieces chosen for use and others discarded, no actual individual fairy lore stuck to. I don’t mind if you want to make up your own fairy lore – actually, I’d love that – but all the borrowing this piece from this legend, and this from this legend, blah blah blah. It was so cobbled together, I couldn’t buy into it, especially since the characters were easily able to look up factual information about fairies no human knows about on the internet. Yeah.

4. Glorification of unhealthy living. Okay, I get that there are teens that drink smoke etc like mentioned above. I don’t mind books that want to address these issues. This book didn’t do that, though. It just had a lot of characters living burnt-out, dead-end lives, and then hailed them as little heroes. No one learned any lessons, no ones’ lives were going to get any better and it was obvious that it didn’t matter to the story. Again, books that discuss problems like this can be very good (even if no one learns anything and no one gets any better), but I don’t think glorifying this type of behavior, especially in a YA novel, is a good thing. It’s like all those movies 50 years ago that always had the cool people smoking – it made people think smoking was cool! I don’t like the idea of having a heroine who smokes, drinks, drops out of school by age 13, gets high, never comes home, and would be willing to sleep with whoever offers. And then who doesn’t learn that this behavior is going to destroy her. Who only learns that the fairies will show up and zip her away from all her little problems. No. It’s even scarier that this book was voted YALSA Best Book for Young Adults and is listed in YALSA’s teen top book list.

5. Bad storytelling. Much of the book was very predictable. That which was not was incomprehensible. So incomprehensible, in fact, that one character has to get up at the end and make a 3-page monologue to explain to everyone who was good and who was bad, who was loyal and who were the people who caused all the problems in the first place. That clenched the 2-Star rating for me. Anytime you have to use a long monologue to explain things to people (think the Kings Cross chapter in Harry Potter #7), it means you haven’t done a great job explaining things in the rest of the book.

I’m sad, because I expected so much more from Tithe. Holly Black is supposed to be a brilliant author, this series is supposed to be the next best thing, but honestly, it just flopped. I won’t be reading the next book, and I certainly wouldn’t want my kids reading it until they were much, much older, like 16+.(less)

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Apr 22, 2007

Erin rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: Fans of fantasy/faerie books

Kaye Fierch has been taking care of her "rock-star" wannabe mother for as long as she can remember. Now sixteen, she's dropped out of school, is working for a Chinese restaurant as a delivery girl, and is getting into the swing of moving from city to city.

Until the night one of her mother's boyfriends attempts to kill her in a bar in Philadelphia. Kaye and her mother pack up and move back in with Kaye's grandmother in New Jersey.

Kaye looks back fondly on the t...more

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Mar 27, 2008

Meredith rated it

The best thing about this book was by far the poetic style; the phrasing and descriptions were beautifully atmospheric and generally readable. As a teenager, I must say I found the excessive swearing, violence, and sexual references a relief; the teen characters were all the more relatable for the omnipresent language and innuendo. Holly Black definitely remembers how teens think. I don't care if it was just there for the shock value; I rather enjoyed reading a book that wasn't (unintentionally)...more

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Aug 15, 2007

Evan rated it

Shelves: youngadult, fantasy

"A Modern Fairy Tale," says the cover. Apparently 'modern' means the teenagers drop out of school, drink and smoke. Not that I have a problem with this, but there is certainly no Stardust-esque innocence. Also, I think she got a little loose with the protagonist's character. At some point an interesting, troubled but imaginative and a bit crazy teen turns into your basic do-gooder female heroine. Where'd the crazy, creative girl go? Who knows? Then there was this huge moral issu...more

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Dec 19, 2007

Laura rated it

Recommends it for: pre-teen/teenagers

What I remember from Tithe are the characters and several extremely vivid scenes from the book. The sun "bleeding into the ocean as if it had cut its wrists", as Kaye described it, her friend Corny and his gay-fantasy fairy who wore the iron crown, his cape of thorns, and the fruit he had Corny eat that created a scene of pure humiliation for the boy. The carousel scene, where Kaye first accidentally enchanted a friend of hers into loving her, and made a broken carousel horse rise on n...more

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Apr 18, 2009

Natalie rated it

I ended up reading this book by accident. It was recommended to my 14 year old, Gini. She began the book and then brought it to me saying that she didn't feel it was appropriate for kids and that she, personally, had no interest in a heroine who consistently made such poor life choices. Well! I decided to read it to see what the deal was. This book was recommended for kids 14 and up and Gini has read books that were definitely adult reading level and she LOVES faery.

The proble...moreI ended up reading this book by accident. It was recommended to my 14 year old, Gini. She began the book and then brought it to me saying that she didn't feel it was appropriate for kids and that she, personally, had no interest in a heroine who consistently made such poor life choices. Well! I decided to read it to see what the deal was. This book was recommended for kids 14 and up and Gini has read books that were definitely adult reading level and she LOVES faery.

The problem with this book for Gini (and I am proud of her for it) is that the girl, Kaye, who is the main character, as well as her friends, smoke, drink, sneak around, fool around, and generally make all the choices that parents hope their children will avoid. Gini loves books and movies with really strong female characters. Ultraviolet, Alias, Charmed, Dragonlance, Bones and Sarah Connor Chronicles are some of her favorites. She just really didn't like the idea that a 16 year old who was so "messed up" and misguided would be turned into a heroine of faery. She appreciates that the best heroines have flaws to overcome but this just didn't work for her.

Now! All that that being said, I finished the book and for an adult with the grace of age and perspective, this book is a fun, light read. This poor kid who has pretty much raised herself and her mother could very well end up the same dead-end mess that her mother has but she doesn't. She discovers something very special within herself. She ends up showing a lot of character and courage. The teens dealt with in the book are not the teens that I have guided my girls to become or to identify with but those kids are out there and they have the same potential and beauty within them. It was really cool to talk to Gini about why she didn't like this character and how the character developed without requiring her to read something she objected to and without glorifying the type of kid portrayed in the book.

This is just my opinion folks so take it for what it is worth to you! I would not have this book in the hands of anyone under 16 and even at 16, my girls would probably not read this type of material if for no other reason than the frequency of the "f" word which we don't appreciate in our home, hearts or heads and the underage drinking and sexuality. But if you do have a child who wants to read it and you don't like to censor your child's reading (and I do very little of that, believe it or not - I teach them the principles and let them apply them, which Gini did very well) then this book is a good opportunity to talk about the choices the kids in the book make. Why it may or may not be a good idea for an author to portray a young person with such poor judgement as a hero or heroine (I thought it was a great idea!) and how people can turn their lives around no matter how dismal and dead-end they seem to be.(less)

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Jul 21, 2009

DarkHeart "Vehngeance" rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: young-adult, 2009, fae

I was really looking forward to this book, despite the mixed reviews, and I wasn't disappointed. Black created a wonderful and gritty world. I know some reviewers have complained that Kaye and her life were unrelatable - but that's okay. Not everyone's life is perfect, and some teens do cuss and drink and dabble in drugs. (It's got the same dark quality as Melissa Marr's books - more favorites of mine.) I actually think that made her more interesting and realistic.

Kaye's transfo...more

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Jul 26, 2008

Kat rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: young-adult

I got this book from the library as I generally like fantasy and fairy tales. This author, Holly Black, also co-authored the Spiderwick Chronicles, which I did enjoy.

As for Tithe, I think the idea for the plot is good- the teenage misfit who discovers that she is, after all, a faery. However, I felt the teenage characters were all a little too unbelievable- all they did was smoke and drink and Kaye had't attended school for several years. Perhaps the problem is that the reader n...more

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Aug 08, 2011

Tiff rated it

Shelves: favorites, own, have-reread

I admit I might be a little biased because it was one of my first books when I started into books of the super natural. I originally read this book years ago because I wanted to read something different. I absolutely loved it right away. I loved the way it potrayed everything in fey compared to the happy, cute, little faeries people traditionally think of. And the fact that it is set in modern times makes it more relateable as opposed to reading something set in a time that I haven't experienced...more

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Aug 13, 2011

Paula rated it

I wanted to read Holly Black's first book because it dealt with mixing faerie myth with a modern teenager's world. I see some other reviewers had some trouble with this combination. I expected some suspension of disbelief after all it is a faerie tale; however, I really enjoyed the hard edged reality she created. Yes, both the real world and the faerie world has dark characters. The disinterest and decay was intentional. It set a realistic mood to the real world. The disconnect with the h...more

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Feb 22, 2008

Shasta rated it

Being a huge fan of the Spiderwick Chronicles, I was rather delighted to find that Holly Black had put out some books of her own. I decided to devour Tithe first--and let's just say I got food poisoning.

The story is hardly inviting, even from the beginning. I continued to read on, still slightly interested to see where it was going. I kept praying for it to get better. Unfortunately, it never did.

What I ended up reading felt like the outline for an R-rated Barbie Fairy Pr...more

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May 19, 2010

Mamasoo Reichert rated it

I liked the idea of this book- another fairy world coinciding with ours. BUT I can't help think the idea was "influenced" by Eoin Colfer's Artemis Fowl (which is a MUCH better book) much like the Stephanie Meyer/Charlaine Harris vampire book debate. I felt like Holly Black was trying to be the "hip" fairy book, when Colfer has already explored the fairy world and succeeded. And when I say hip, it's not in a good way. As a Young Adult classification, I would NOT let my tee...more

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Apr 18, 2009

Shannon rated it

Shelves: favorites, reviews

I really love gritty real-life/fantasy stories. And, man, is Holly Black's writing trippy. It's really cool the way she describes things, and I love the detail she pours into her books, but sometimes I don't exactly understand what she's trying to say... that can be annoying because then I have to read the sentence a thousand times to figure it out. But her writing is disturbingly beautiful. I love it when she describes the faeries and where they live -- she makes it all gothic-y and enchanting ...more

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Dec 13, 2008

Kimberlayy º rated it

Shelves: horrible, sci-fi

i couldn't finish this book and i WON'T finish it. it is horribly stupid and swears like 10 times a page. it is all about cigarettes, drinking, and freakky people in dark alleys. WHAT THE HECK?! i couldn't believe what was happening in the book; it was disgusting!! ew! ew! i learned a lesson from this book: DON'T JUDGE A BOOK BY ITS COVER!

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Oct 07, 2010

Amelia, the pragmatic idealist rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: ya-kids-teen, disappointing, simon-schuster

I read this awhile ago, after WL. It wasn't as bad as WL, but I didn't like it much either.
Characters were too flawed for my taste and I really didn't care what happened to them...it's kind of like, I know enough weirdos and dysfunctional people in real life, I don't want to have to read about them. Flawed characters are great, but I still have to be able to relate to them. And from what I've seen of her other books, Holly Black definitely likes 'weird.' It was okay, but nothing more. Blac...more

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Feb 14, 2010

WilowRaven added it

Shelves: own

This book has been out for a while but for some reason I avoided it. When I first discovered it (years after it was written) I'm pretty sure I had had my fill of fairies at the time - having read Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr. I had also heard people say how if you read Wicked Lovely first - you wouldn't like Tithe and vice-versa. So! I figured it would be a dud for me and I forgot about it for a while. And then! Well...I don't know why I thought about it again but the point is I did! And I'm gl...more

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Dec 30, 2011

Arren rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: yours

Kaye used to see fairies. When she goes back with her Mom to live with her grandmother, she discovers they're still there. But after helping a fairy knight, things start to go down hill. The freedom of the fairies she was friends with as a child is in jeapordy, and only she can help them. But helping them isn't a walk in the park and puts her life at risk, and brings Kaye a revealation. Finding out the truth about who she is will change her life forever - if she survives.

Ok, so I'm a f...more

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Genres

Fantasy

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Young Adult

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Fantasy > Urban Fantasy

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Paranormal > Fairies

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Romance

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Fantasy > Paranormal

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Young Adult > Teen

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Fantasy > Supernatural

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Young Adult > Young Adult Fantasy

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Fantasy > Magic

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About Holly Black

Holly Black is a best-selling author of contemporary fantasy novels for kids, teens, and adults. She is the author of the Modern Faerie Tale series (Tithe, Valiant, and Ironside), The Spiderwick Chronicles (with Tony DiTerlizzi), and The Good Neighbors graphic novels (with Ted Naifeh). She is also the co-editor of three anthologies, Geektastic (with Cecil Castellucci), Zombies vs. Unicorns (with J...more

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Books by Holly Black

The Field Guide (The Spiderwick Chronicles, #1)

The Seeing Stone (The Spiderwick Chronicles, #2)

The Wrath of Mulgarath (The Spiderwick Chronicles, #5)

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Quotes from Tithe

“Yeah, the whole family knows. It's no big deal. One night at dinner I said, 'Mom, you know the forbidden love that Spock has for Kirk? Well, me too.' It was easier for her to understand that way.” — 125 people liked it

“Kaye: You know what the sun looks like?
Janet: No, What?
Kaye: Like he slit his wrists in a bathtub and the blood is all over the water.
Janet: That's gross, Kaye.
Kaye: And the moon is just watching. She's just watching him die. She must have driven him to it.” — 64 people liked it

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avg rating	preview: Tithe Goodreads rating: 3.71 (19579 ratings)
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Tithe (The Modern Faerie Tales #1)

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