Black, Holly. Tithe: A modern faerie tale.
Simon Pulse. 2002.
ISBN 0689867042
$8.99. Paperback. 336 pages.
Readers Annotation
16-year-old Kaye has always seen faeries. She just didn’t know she was one.
Plot Summary
After Kaye, a foul-mouthed teen, is almost murdered by her mother’s boyfriend, she and her mother escape to Grandmother’s house at the Jersey shore. A high school dropout, Kaye rekindles and old friendship with her friend Janet. Strange incidents keep occurring around Kaye. She makes a broken merry go ground pony come to life, and she enchants Janet’s love interest into falling for her unknowingly. When she meets the dark knight Rath Roiben Rye, she is drawn into the politics of faery. She discovers that she is a changling. Her blond asian looks are a glamour to hide her true green skinned, black eyed pixie nature. She has been hidden away from faery for 16 years to hide her real nature so that she will become the next human sacrifice (or tithe) in the Unseelie Court. Corny (Cornelius), Janet’s younger gay brother becomes besotted with Nephamael, a knight of the Seelie Court, who attempts to subvert the current Unseeling Queen. Kaye finds she must also rescue her friend while trying to save herself. Because she is not human the plot is foiled and all the wild denizens of faery begin to roam the town. It is only when Roiben claims the empty throne of the Unseelie Court that Kaye is free again. Kaye and Roiben declare their feelings for each other even though he is now the king, and she remains a disguised pixie.
Critical Evaluation
Holly Black has earned her living writing modern stories of a beautiful, but brutal faery kingdom. Her novels brim with beauty and horror as the two faery courts meet and battle for dominance. In the three novels about modern faery, her characters are deeply flawed but fighting to overcome supernatural odds. While it is difficult to understand the protagonist’s point of view at times, Black makes her characters believably sympathetic but quirky. Kaye is a sarcastic chain smoker who is her mother’s keeper. She is independent and thinks nothing of behaving badly. She is difficult to like. Her love interest Roiben has been spell bound to obey any who use his full name as a command. He is violent and murderous. It is difficult to understand what he finds so alluring in Kaye. There is a great deal of violence in this book – mostly all supernatural. Still, the novel has an original viewpoint, and many will find themselves cheering for a positive outcome for the changeling and her kingly boyfriend. The novel is gritty and dark, and difficult to put down.
Information about the author
Holly Black lives in New Jersey with her husband and her secret library. You can find out more about her on her website at http://www.blackholly.com/index.html
Genre
Fantasy
Curriculum ties
None
Challenge Issues
Drinking, smoking, homosexuality, violence
Challenge defense ideas
· Become familiar with the book and its content.
· Refer to the collection development policy of the library.
· Refer to reviews from Booklist, School Library Journal, and Publisher’s Weekly available for viewing on Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/Tithe-Modern-Faerie-Holly-Black/dp/0689867042/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1259128853&sr=8-1
· Try to get reviews of the book from teens that have read it.
Booktalking Ideas
1. Discuss how Kaye meets Roiben
2. Discuss how Kaye discovers she is really a pixie
Reading Level/Age
Young adult. Ages 14 and up.
Why I included this title
This book is included on both the ALA Best Books for Young Adults and YALSA Teen’s Top Teen Booklist.
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