I'm going to be up front... this series? You will either love it or hate it. Personally, I absolutely love gritty real-life/fantasy stories when they're written well, and I think Holly Black does the combination so much freaking justice. It doesn't try too hard to be overly badass. Kaye is such a great lead -- although I don't always see myself in her actions throughout the book, I still liked her because she was real. I never got the sense that Holly Black was trying to impress me; she was just writing about a real girl. And honestly, when I compare female leads in other books, I always think about Kaye and if they live up to her standards (which is not often enough for me).So many people cut down Tithe for its "objectionable" content, but I was actually able to find a lot of realism in the way most of the characters behaved. As I was growing up, the teenagers I knew cursed like sailors and were always trading stories about sex. Unfortunately or not, it's a way of life nowadays -- teenagers are naturally curious. I think in this case, Holly Black's choice to include these situations and words make her characters come alive. However, that's not all Tithe is about -- people want to focus on that, but it's only a small portion of the entire book. Tithe is different, and some people just don't enjoy or understand how YA can fit that profile. But that's the one thing I appreciate about Holly Black.: her ability to take YA to another level. She proves that the genre doesn't have to be a complete trope-fest with beginnings and ends that fit together perfectly.For me, Holly Black's writing in Tithe is really hard to pin down. It's like a combination of trippy and poetic. The way she describes things, you feel like you're reading poetry -- I love the detail she pours into Tithe. I think my favorite sections have to be when she describes the faeries and where they live -- she makes it all gothic-y and enchanting and it just makes me feel like I have a spell cast over me that forces me to be in this complete daze. I can't get out of it if I wanted to. I just keep reading every sentence she writes and loving them.

I ended up reading this book by accident. It was recommended to my 14 year old, Gini. She began the book and then brought it to me saying that she didn't feel it was appropriate for kids and that she, personally, had no interest in a heroine who consistently made such poor life choices. Well! I decided to read it to see what the deal was. This book was recommended for kids 14 and up and Gini has read books that were definitely adult reading level and she LOVES faery. The problem with this book for Gini (and I am proud of her for it) is that the girl, Kaye, who is the main character, as well as her friends, smoke, drink, sneak around, fool around, and generally make all the choices that parents hope their children will avoid. Gini loves books and movies with really strong female characters. Ultraviolet, Alias, Charmed, Dragonlance, Bones and Sarah Connor Chronicles are some of her favorites. She just really didn't like the idea that a 16 year old who was so "messed up" and misguided would be turned into a heroine of faery. She appreciates that the best heroines have flaws to overcome but this just didn't work for her.Now! All that that being said, I finished the book and for an adult with the grace of age and perspective, this book is a fun, light read. This poor kid who has pretty much raised herself and her mother could very well end up the same dead-end mess that her mother has but she doesn't. She discovers something very special within herself. She ends up showing a lot of character and courage. The teens dealt with in the book are not the teens that I have guided my girls to become or to identify with but those kids are out there and they have the same potential and beauty within them. It was really cool to talk to Gini about why she didn't like this character and how the character developed without requiring her to read something she objected to and without glorifying the type of kid portrayed in the book. This is just my opinion folks so take it for what it is worth to you! I would not have this book in the hands of anyone under 16 and even at 16, my girls would probably not read this type of material if for no other reason than the frequency of the "f" word which we don't appreciate in our home, hearts or heads and the underage drinking and sexuality. But if you do have a child who wants to read it and you don't like to censor your child's reading (and I do very little of that, believe it or not - I teach them the principles and let them apply them, which Gini did very well) then this book is a good opportunity to talk about the choices the kids in the book make. Why it may or may not be a good idea for an author to portray a young person with such poor judgement as a hero or heroine (I thought it was a great idea!) and how people can turn their lives around no matter how dismal and dead-end they seem to be.

If I could have given it 0 stars I would have. To publish this as a young adult novel is horrifying. I wouldn't read past 30 pages it was too offensive and to think it was published as content for young adults is terrible. It would be R rated as a movie. Not only was the f word used liberally throughout the few pages I read, teens were drinking, smoking and hinting at being sexually active. NOT something I would want my kids to read, or myself. I normally wouldn't dream of rating a book without reading more of it, but I was so appalled by what I read I couldn't go any further in the story. I just don't want to subject myself to that kind of trash posing as literature.

Kaye is obviously incredibly lovely and then it turns out she's a magical fairy. Sure her life is hard, but it's the fairies making it that way because she's so important that they're all out to get her. Look, what I'm saying is, it's like the author tried to think of all the coolest latest trends among teenagers and tried to mash them into a fairy story. Kaye is also not anyone's typical teenager. She has super special protagonist syndrome.I found the Faerie described by the author quite interesting and the details of that land were the one bright spot in the novel and along with my boredom probably the only thing that kept me reading.You name and it and it's not been done very well: the writing is messy, the characters are contrived and the romance has all of the warmth of a burned out match.

Series ReviewTithe: 3 starsValiant: 2 stars (barely)Ironside: 3 1/2 starsI am a huge fan of Holly Black, specifically her writing style. Both The Darkest Part of the Forest and The Coldest Girl in Coldtown were five star books for me, and this is coming from someone who typically gets bored by fantasy after a chapter or two.Theres something about Holly Blacks writing style that is so lovely and dark and perfectly fitting for the stories she tells.With the release of The Cruel Prince, which is getting a ridiculous amount of hype right now, I decided I wanted to read Blacks original fae trilogy, more out of curiosity than anything else.As someone used to reading more polished works from this author, going back to her debut was a bit underwhelming, though it makes sense. Theres going to be a gap in quality between a book published in 2002 and one published in 2018.Lets reflect on the fact that this series was first published in 2002. Damn, thats early for YA novels - pre-Twilight and pre-The Hunger Games. Holly Black wrote a paranormal romance before paranormal romances were even a thing.Heres a crazy part: this book is one of the more diverse fantasy series Ive read. AND IT WAS PUBLISHED IN 2002. I really dont want to hear excuses about how early YA series couldnt have diverse characters - this one (which is actually pretty popular and published by a major publishing house) had a main character who is mixed race (white and Japanese) and an explicitly gay main character who has a romantic plotline in the final book.The book itself has a lot of room to grow, which Black did as she continued to publish books. Its entertaining and has seeds of the lyrical prose I have come to expect from Black, but its just not...great.Tithe: I mean, I was expecting more of a dark fairytale, so Ill admit I was a bit disappointed when this ended up being more in the vein of paranormal romance. It has a lot of the hallmarks of the starts to early YA fantasy series, but the writing is bit better than those books usually are.Valiant: Why was this book even a thing? It was like this random companion novel that had no impact on the series. And it was boring. I wish Id skipped it.Ironside: Definitely the best of the three. The most entertaining, some cool plot stuff, character development, writing improvement. Almost made the whole series worth it!Overall, I probably wouldnt recommend this series. Holly Black has books that are so much better, and I wouldnt waste my time with these unless Im a really diehard fan. Im even more excited to tackle The Cruel Prince now - I cant wait to see how Holly Black writes faeries 16 years after her first faerie novel was published!