Tithe (Modern Faerie Tales, #1)

by Holly Black

[moraa]

You can break a thing, but you cannot always guide it afterward into the shape you want.

(Reading this to prepare myself for November 24th so gear up for my Cruel Prince series review coming soon at some point before then)

Anyway, Tithe, is a solid book by most standards. It's an easy story to follow with plenty of laughter and interesting faerie stuff mixed in (if you've read and loved the Wicked Lovely series by Melissa Marr then you'll enjoy this).

It's very different from Black's work today, not necessarily in a bad way but you can see her writing has grown even though she's still as just as fascinated with the fae.

The one thing I didn't like was the stakes. I know the (solitary and unseelie) fae are depicted as being very brutal and we get a close look at that and worse, Jane dies because of one of them, but for some reason I felt very... disconnected from it all. I don't know if it has more to do with Kaye's reaction to things or my own perception of the unfolding events but it just didn't cut it for me.

But in one word: a short, cute, fluffly but also angsty book that I enjoyed immensely.

(yes, that was more than one word)

Bonus points for:
-LGBTQ+ representation (guess what, the lgbt character didn't die!)