Tithe by Holly Black: Book Review


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Cover of Tithe by Holly Black

3 Stars

Kaye Fierch’s mom is a wannabe rocker. When her latest boyfriend attacks her, Kaye and her mom are left with no choice but to move back in with Kaye’s grandmother, who lives on the shore. When Kaye was younger and they lived there, she had a lot of faerie friends. Now she’s looking for them again and she can’t find them. Then she finds an injured knight of the Unseelie Court in the woods and assists him. Now it seems like everyone in faerie needs something from her. Some even want to put her in danger.

First of all, I am no longer a young adult, so I’m not exactly the target audience for this. I do usually enjoy YA books though. This one was just okay. For some reason, the underage drinking and partying that goes on in just a few scenes bothered me. Also, the characters and the story weren’t fleshed out all that well. I feel like the author was onto a good story, but she could have done more with it. I’m left trying to decide if she did it on purpose. This could be aimed at much younger readers than I think. And it is a faerie tale. Traditional faerie tales seem to be pretty simple, from what I remember. So that could be the case. But really, I was left a little dissatisfied that the book felt like it was lacking something. I won’t be reading the next one.

Reviewed November 17, 2008

Read an excerpt.

Find author Holly Black on her website, her blog, and Twitter.

Buy Tithe at

Friday Flashback Reviews, a feature at The Introverted Reader

Friday Flashback Reviews are a weekly feature here on The Introverted Reader. These are old reviews I wrote on GoodReads. Thanks to Angieville and her Retro Friday Reviews for the inspiration and encouragement!

I have an affiliate relationship with Malaprop’s, my local independent bookstore located in beautiful downtown Asheville, NC; and Better World Books. I will receive a small commission at no cost to you if you purchase books through links on my site.

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