The Modern Faerie Tales: Tithe; Valiant; Ironside
Holly Black
Rating: 3.5*
I got this book for my birthday after picking it up a few times in Waterstones. A collection of three books by Holly Black, I was hesitant to start after being disappointed by The Cruel Prince (see my review here). However, the blurb of this one enticed me more; it reminded me of Julie Kagawa's fae series (The Iron King) which I loved several years back.
I think the fact that I got the collection (all three books in one) was what caused me to finish all three. It felt like one book. The downside was that halfway through I got a bit disheartened at how long it was taking me to read, especially when I had such a long tbr list to follow. It also meant I was more closely comparing the three books, as I was reading them quite literally back to back.
Tithe:
This book follows Kaye as she discovers she's actually a pixie who was brought to the human world at birth and changed for her mum's real daughter. As she gets caught up in faerie politics, Kaye finds herself chosen as the sacrifice in a faerie ritual to guarantee the solitary faerie's loyalty to the King.
I was invested in this story. Kaye's character was authentic and I enjoyed following her as she worked out how the faerie world operated. Her human friend's brother, who soon becomes her confidant, has a real reaction to finding out her non-human nature. It doesn't follow the cliche route other books do.
I'd say this was a solid 4* read for me. It didn't blow me away but I enjoyed reading it. I found myself wanting to pick it up.
Roiben, the faerie knight unwillingly tasked with obeying the King's every cruel demand, was a good character. I understood his confliction between obedience and defiance and I rooted for him. After Cardan in The Cruel Prince, he was a breathe of fresh air. Upon finishing Tithe, I was waiting for his character development to continue but...
Valiant:
Valiant does not continue from Tithe. We are transported to the life of Val, a completely different girl who catches her boyfriend cheating with her mum and runs away, only to crash on the streets with three very human faerie accomplices. She gets caught up in the faerie drama that was caused in Tithe. References to Roiben are made, as well as the aftermath of Tithe's ending, but they were not actually key to the sequel's plot.
It was a jarring jump. I was suddenly faced with characters and a plot I was not as invested in. Val was not as fleshed out as Kaye was. Her main driving force was just not wanting to return home. That's all.
And her love interest, an exiled troll, is no comparison either. Their relationship was not developed in the same way; the first time she mentions wanting to kiss him, I was confused. There was no build up. And afterwards, a few sparring lessons that we are given a sneak peak of, does not qualify as development to me.
I also had a personal quarry with this book, and that was about the amount of needles. As someone who hates needles and even the thought of them, basically every single chapter involves one of the characters shooting themselves in the arm with faerie drugs.
So this is where my rating decreases, because this book decreased to a 3* rating at best.
Ironside:
This was the sequel I wanted. We are transported back to The Unseelie Kingdom with Roiben and Kaye. But it comes a little too late. I've just read a completely different story between this one and Tithe basically, so it takes me a while to reintroduce myself to the characters I liked.
A key thing I appreciated in this book was that they didn't make out the ending of the first book fixed everything; the faerie courts were still corrupt, and Kaye's relationship with Roiben was still unsure. Does he actually even like her?
However, towards the end of the book, there was one main thing I didn't like so much. It's a trope that happens often in fantasy books: someone does something bad (its usually a character you thought had redeemed themselves) and then it's revealed later they were just pretending, or he had a good motive and everything works out. But most times there is no hinting as to this secret spin until after everything happens. This was one of those times. And it made the ending seem like Holly Black had tried to add a final twist before neatly wrapping things up with a bow.
Overall:
So the series overall gets 3*. A promising, amazing start; a confusing and jarring middle; and an overly-anticipated slightly disappointing ending. There were certainly things I picked up on that irked me but despite that, Black created a pretty good fantasy world. I think it'll be the last of her works I'll try for a while though; I want to read the new authors on my ever-growing tbr that'll pull me in and force me to give all 5*s.
What did you think of this series, or Holly Black as a writer?
Happy Reading :)