Tithe

A fast, loose read, Tithe, Holly Black's debut novel, mixes magic with the modern as she introduces us to Kaye, a 16 year old free spirit, who was teased as a kid for telling stories about her faerie friends. But when she meets a beautiful mystery man on the side of a dark forest road and tends to his wounds, everything that she thought she knew gets thrown into chaos. She soon finds herself between two rival faerie factions as she tries to save herself and her friends from certain death. I enjoyed the contrast between the Seelie and Unseelie Courts. Together they represent a type of Yin/Yang dichotomy, neither wholly light nor dark. There is a ubiquitous romance going on, with some teenage, hormonal hijinks on the side, and even a gay male friend, but none of this it is the main feature of the book which is nice. The biggest problem I have with a lot of the YA out there is the melodrama. I know it appeals to the target audience but for me it is one thing I can do without. Fortunately, there's not too much of it here. In fact, the angsty, teenage boy/girl stuff could almost have been thrown in as an afterthought.