Tithe : A Modern Faerie Tale
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| Author | Holly Black |
|---|---|
| Cover Artist | Sammy Yuen, Jr. |
| Genre(s) | Fantasy |
| Publisher | Simon & Schuster |
| Released | 2002 |
| Media Type | Hardcover, Paperback |
| Pages | 336 pages (paperback) |
| Size and Weight | 7.2 x 5.0 x 0.9 inches; 8.48 ounces (Paperback edition) |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-68-986704-2 (Paperback edition) |
| Followed by | 'Valiant: A Modern Tale of Faerie' |
Tithe: A Modern Faerie Tale is a novel by Holly Black, first published in 2002 by Simon & Schuster. It is in the genre of young adult fantasy fiction.
Contents |
[edit] Plot Introduction
From Simon & Shuster's website:[1]
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.
[edit] Plot Summary
Tithe is about sixteen-year-old Kaye Fierch. She has learned to be independent as a result of constantly traveling around with her rockstar-wannabe mother, Ellen. The book starts in Philedelphia at one of her mother's concerts. There, Kaye notices a strange man, clothed in a cloak of thorns. Soon after Ellen's live-in boyfriend, Lloyd, attempts to kill Ellen, he is arrested. Ellen, with no one to turn to, takes Kaye back to Kaye's grandmother's house to stay for awhile.
Once there Kaye tries to look for her old "imaginary" friends: Lutie-Loo, Spike, and Gristle, but can't find them and begins to suspect that the faeries of her childhood might have been a figment of her imagination after all.
Her suspicions dissolve when Kaye saves the life of Roiben, a faerie knight, by pulling a magicked arrow out of his chest. In return, he grants her three questions, which she saves for later. Soon after this, her old friends contact her and inform her that the knight she saved killed Gristle. Kaye tricks Roiben into telling her his full name, as revenge for murdering her friend. At the time, she is oblivious to the control she possesses over him and only wished to upset him; she later learns that by knowing his name, he will obey whatever she tells him to do.
She is again contacted by her childhood faerie companions, Spike and Lutie-Loo, and from them learns that she is actually a pixie disguised as a human. Kaye learns about magic, death, control, and about the fine line between the evils of the Seelie and the Unseelie courts. She gets drawn into an ancient power struggle between the two courts and the Solitary Faye, involving the use of human sacrifice. Roiben saves Kaye from becoming a victim of the sacrifice, despite being a slave to the Unseelie Queen. The Tithe not being completed, the Solitary Faye are set free for seven years, causing chaos in the world of mortals.
Once again, Kaye is oblivious to the goings of the two courts, and happily celebrates Halloween at a nearby club. She is alarmed to discover that she can suddenly see faeries blending in with the humans at the club. They woo the humans with their fae charms into doing their bidding.
Kaye arrives home late at night and falls asleep with Roiben at her side. She awakes to find that the mortal world is falling apart (i.e., a "bear" has apparently mauled a man to death at a nearby park), and that her best friend Janet has been killed by a Kelpie. Kaye, Roiben and Lutie-loo set out to rescue Janet's brother Corny, whom Kaye has a friendship with, when Kaye realizes that she left Corny in the Unseelie Court. Just recently, Kaye has learned who the thorn-cloaked man is. He is Nephamael, the self-proclaimed king of the Unseelie Court. Nephamael has an unclear attraction to Corny, who shares the same feelings.
Roiben and Kaye go to the Seelie Court to get help, but Kaye gets upset because she thinks that Roiben loves the Seelie Queen, but as they walk to the car, he tells her that he doesn't love the Seelie Queen. He loves Kaye. They go to the Unseelie Court to save Corny, but the new king has learned of Roiben's name and is using it to make him kill Kaye. Kaye poisons the new king, but it is Corny who stabs him to death.
As the queen on the Seelie court storms in, Roiben decides to become the new Unseelie King. He forms a new pact with the solitary fae.
Back in the mortal world, after Janet's funeral, Kaye sees Roiben while waiting for her mother. He has come to kiss her, and to tell her that he is under her control.
[edit] Important Characters/Magical Entities
- Seelie
- Unseelie
[edit] Characters In "Tithe: A Modern Faerie Tale"
- Kaye Fierch
- Ellen - Kaye's mother
- Lloyd
- Roiben
- Corny
- Janet
- Lutie-Loo
- Gristle
- Spike
- Nephameal
- Silarial - Seelie Queen
- Nicnevin - Unseelie Queen
[edit] Major Themes
Domestic violence, power,
[edit] Sources, References, External Links, Quotations
Quote from the book (Chapter 4):
"All day and all night my desire for you unwinds like a poisonous snake." - Samar Sen, "Love"
