Review : Tithe

Posted by on May 27, 2009 2:08 am in 2 stars reads | 4 comments

Tithe by Holly Black
Pages : 310
Genre : YA, Urban Fantasy
My Rating : 

When I flipped open Tithe’s cover for the first time, I was convinced that I would absolutely love it. A dark fantasy YA novel with bad fairies is exactly my kind of read – plus, most reviews presented it as a must-read. Sadly, it didn’t fulfill my expectations; I started reading it twice before I could finally go through it, and even then, I was easily distracted from the story.

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 Kaye 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 struggle that could very well mean her death.

Black’s universe is incredibly fascinating; her main character, Kaye, is interesting too. She drinks, she smokes, she’s out all night; not what I’d call a model of virtue. She lives with her mother, an unsuccessful musician, and her grand-mother, who mostly criticizes but never takes action to help her daughter and grand-dauther in any way. There isn’t much good in her life, and it only makes sense to her when she discovers that she is not a human girl, but a pixie (don’t worry, I’m not spoiling it for you! You discover it before the 100th page.)

What made it so unsatisfactory to me was the writing, combine to the pace of the story.  I felt the scenes switched too quickly from one to another. The writing is short, quick, and many descriptions suffered from it. I think I would have loved that novel if it had been written more lengthly, with full descriptions of the characters and the universe. Instead, Black often describes in a manner that felt superficial to me. When I read, I love to hear about the little details; I don’t really care about the character’s long blond hair, but I love hearing about that one strand of it that always curls up despite all the product she puts on it. (Granted, not the best exemple I could have gotten out of my head, but I think you catch my drift!)

This lack of description sometimes creates confusion; at the beginning of the books, Kaye’s mother is attacked by her boyfriend who tries to kill her with a knife. Why? Who knows. It happens, out of the blue, and that’s mostly it. Did I miss something? Maybe. But this kind of things happened a few times along the story; I often had to go back on my reading when I felt like I missed something. It made me feel even more distracted that I really was.

I’m not saying it was a bad book; rating is subjective, and I really think it just wasn’t my thing. Hence my rating of 2/5 which, if you look at my rating-system in the sidebar, is  “Don’t buy it, borrow it”. There are two sequels to Tithe; for now I’m not planning on reading them but maybe if I see them at the library, I’ll borrow them, out of curiosity.

4 Comments

  1. I LOVE LOVE LOVE Tithe! It was one of my first books about the fae, and I immediately fell in love. The characters, the darkness, the way Kaye thinks, I could easily let myself be put in her place. I will not lie and say that I didn’t fall in love with Roiben. He is now one of the models to which I compare all other male fae characters. I have read Tithe so many times the pages are beginning to fall out. I lost count at how many times I had read it at about twelve. It is the book I have loaned to friends the most. I could go on and on, but the point is, Tithe is an amazing book with an amazing story and characters, and the lovely darkness and cruelty of Holly Black’s Unseelie Court has led to some of my best artwork. If a book could be a muse, this is it.

    • This is what I love about books : though Tithe wasn’t really my thing, it was a muse for you. That a book can speak so much to you that it inspires your art is a fantastic thing!

      Since you are such a fan of the book – and, I imagine, the series, I will ask : how would you compare the following books to this first one? My library didn’t have them at the time but I saw them recently, and wondered if I should give it another try. Not only because Black is such a loved author in the YA community, but also because since then I have read one of her short stories and absolutely adored it (it wasn’t about the fae, though, but I am thinking maybe my preferences have changed?)

  2. By the way, in case you couldn’t tell, I highly disagree with the first review of Tithe given on this page. >.> This book is not hard to follow or understand. ‘Tis teh awesomest.

    • Haha, I could tell, yes, and of course I don’t mind at all! As I said in my reply to your first comment, I think it’s great that a book can inspire such different reactions! 🙂

      To be honest I have to say that I don’t remember much of the book now! I read it in 2009 and this was one of my first reviews on the blog. I don’t remember Tithe as a book being difficult to follow as a whole, but I felt that some parts were a bit unclear, and could have used some precision. But like I said, it was a while ago. I know plenty of readers don’t feel the same, and that’s okay. 🙂

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