Customer Reviews

Tithe

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Not sure why this book is being sold for $70 and more on this site, when it is still readily available at any book store. Don't get me wrong, it's a wonderful book, and worth it, but this seems a little dishonest to customers. The book can be bought for less than $10 pretty much anywhere.

I am 61 years old and I picked this book up for my niece but the cover intrigued me soo I started to read it. I have read it 6 times icluding the sequel Ironside. I assumed Holly Black was a writer just for kids. Boy was I wrong. She is like J K Rowlings her books are soo well written the are for all generations. Bravo! Ms. Black . I am now reading YA authors that I would have never read before your books and for that I thank you.

this book follows Kaye who finds out she is a changeling( which is a faerie that was made to look like a human child and the faeries took the human child). This book makes makes Faeries non-perfect, cause both the "good" and "bad" sides are pretty much trying to kill her. Kinad like the book WAR OF THE OAKS but much better. Holly Black is writting a sequel to tithe called valiant due out in summer 05 i cant wait. I read this book 3 times in a row and it gets better every time. The perfect urban fantasy.

I thought this book was a great book. I would recommend it to any fantasy lover in sixth grade or older. This book gave me goosebumps and gave some great ideas for a new story. I hope that when I grow up I write a book as good as this one.

Okay. I really like the whole dark look on fairy tales and what-not. But this book went beyond dark and dirty, I literally felt dirty while reading this- if that makes sense.
Holly Black does a great job at making you see the world as a grungy, filthy, dirty, nasty place to even live. Everything she explained was dirty. All the characters clothes, themselves (Never once did the character was up or ANYTHING during the duration of this book, which is about a week.) I know it's weird to say, but when the author is purposefully bringing it to your attention and shoving it in your face that the character just rolled around in mud before crawling into bed, and then went to a rave, went into the ocean and then did the same... I would hate to have to smell these characters in person.

I understand that the author wanted it to be realistic. But I don't think having everyone in the world be a coffee addict chain smoker is realistic.

The characters themselves fell flat. I honestly did not care at all what happened. I only continued reading to see how the story line would play out with these dead characters.
**Spoiler**
I mean... I didn't even CARE, not even a blink, when the main character's 'best friend' died. It really had no effect on me at all. Even the best friend's brother being kidnapped and abused didn't flicker my heart strings- and I guess it didn't really matter to Kaye since she didn't seem to care until muuuuuch later.
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The romance felt so incredibly dry, I didn't even think of it as existing. She saved this fairy knight's life. And for some reason, hates him? Gets his name just to 'piss him off'. And while she thinks of ways to make him even more angry, she's thinking of how attractive he is until she suddenly loves him, and vise versa? I feel no connection at all.

The way the book flows, or lack of flowing knocked me off at times. I would be reading and then the scene would suddenly change over to something in the future or a different scene all together which was very jarring. I guess you could blame lack of editing for that? I'm not sure. It was just annoying.

I felt like I was making myself read through this just to get it done and over and hope that something interesting would happen or maybe the character would grow up? But no.
I don't like giving such negative reviews, but this book just made me feel like I was wasting my time and money. I don't NEED happily ever after, fun happy pixie fairy tales. I just want deep understandable characters and worlds that are imaginative.

I read this book when I was 16 and am now re-reading it... but I think it's a really good book.

Faeries, faeries, faeries! I love reading about them. I thoroughly enjoyed Holly Black's fae. They were dark and mysterious revealing more and more of who they were and their motivations as the plot progressed. There was a thin line between dark and light that was constantly blurred and there was ever a sinister otherworldly feel to both the Seelie and Unseelie courts. I hope that in the next books I learn even more about the Solitary fae, the glimpse I got of them in Tithe was fascinating.

The heroine, Kaye, is a quirky and sometimes eccentric teen. She portrays such a tough girl image, but her actions also show that she has some baggage from the unusual lifestyle she's lead. Tithe left me with many unanswered questions about Kaye but not in a way that left me frustrated with the story. I feel like Kaye is a heroine that I'm going to enjoy watching grow from book to book in this series. As she comes to understand more about herself and who she really is, I think that she will only become stronger and more confident. I'm not sold on the romance yet, but I'm sure that will come.

Another stand out character for me was Corny. While I loathe his character name, he was probably the most intriguing character to read. He has many issues, and a tendency toward violence, yet the kind of loyalty only those with a sensitive heart can possess. I enjoy the way he and Kaye interract and hope that their friendship continues throughout the series.

I was lost in this dark and gritty, sometimes even savage world. Somehow this author managed to combine the darker elements of faerie magic and stark reality to create something unique and incredible. I don't know why I waited so long to read Tithe, but I know I won't put off picking up Valiant.

I enjoyed the story and the characters, there was humor and fantasy, both good and bad. However, parts of the book read as if the story was written for a teen, and than other parts were for a more mature audiance - this was a little annoying for me, I am 50 so I would have prefered the book being written for more of the a mature audiance. If there was a second book with the same characters, I would read it, however it appears that the other books are totally different stories and characters.

I would recommend the book, but not give it the 5 stars the other reviewers did.

Stories about a girl who finds out she's part/all faerie and becomes enmeshed in that world are a dime a dozen now. But Holly Black first started this trend, with the darkly glittering "Modern Faerie Tales: Tithe" -- a clever, entrancing story that brings a bit of urban grime to the faerie world without sacrificing any of its beauty.

Kaye Fierch has spent years traveling with her mother's rock band, until one night when her mom's boyfriend/guitarist tries to stab her. So with the band broken up, her mom whisks her back to her grandmother's New Jersey house, where Kaye reminisces about some "imaginary faerie friends she had as a child.

But then she encounters Roiben, a wounded faerie knight whose life she saves -- and soon she learns that she is a changeling, who is targeted by the Unseelie Court as a sacrifice ("the sacrifice of a beautiful and talented mortal"). Now on the run with Roiben, she must deal with the faerie world's attacks on the mortal one... including her human friends.

Holly Black is one of the best urban fantasy authors writing today, mainly because her stories truly are urban fantasies -- they combine faerie glitter and ethereality with the grime, wire and subway tunnels of New York and New Jersey. She truly makes you feel as if both the faerie realm and the mortal cities are jumping out at you.

Her writing has a dark, raw beauty, studded with moments of poetry ("Moss and mud slid from its dripping flanks as the thing turned its head to regard Kaye with luminous white eyes"). And she never turns away from the uglier facets of her world -- there are hints of cruelty, madness and heartbreak, as well as the love and persistence in Kaye.

And she writes really, really good characters who run all across the board. Kaye is a very likable, heartfelt heroine -- she's initially a little fey and odd, and she has some painful growing up to do. Roiben is a rather alluring character, being all mystery, bad reputation and unearthly beauty, and you really want to see him get together with Kaye.

"Modern Faerie Tales: Tithe" is the vibrant, haunting story that spawned a thousand "I'm a faerie girl who never knew it!" knockoffs, and like many originals, it's one of the best. Delicious.

I love this book!! I've read it 5X already and can't get enough of it. I hope Holly Black writes more about the Unseelie King, Roiben and his love.