Tithe: A Modern Faerie Tale
First edition (US)
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| Author | Holly Black |
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| Cover artist | Greg Spalenka |
| Country | United States |
| Series | Modern Tale of Faerie |
| Genre | Young adult fantasy |
| Publisher | Simon & Schuster |
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Publication date
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October 2002 |
| Media type | Print (hardcover) |
| Pages | 310 pp (first ed.) |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 48140506 |
| LC Class | PZ7.B52878 Ti 2002 |
| Followed by | Valiant: A Modern Tale of Faerie |
Tithe: A Modern Faerie Tale is a young-adult fantasy novel written by Holly Black. It was published in 2002 by Simon & Schuster, who recommended it for "ages 12 up". Sequels--Valiant (2005) and Ironside (2007)--completed a trilogy that is sometimes called [A] Modern Tale of Faerie, the subtitle of volume two.
The novel is set on the Jersey Shore and Black calls it "suburban fantasy, as opposed to urban fantasy".
Tithe was one of five finalists for the annual Mythopoeic Fantasy Award in children's literature.
Tithe follows the story of sixteen-year-old American Kaye Fierch, a young nomad who tours the country with her mother's rock band. The book begins in Philadelphia, at a gig her mother's band Stepping Razor is playing in a seedy bar in Philadelphia. After her mother's boyfriend and guitarist, Lloyd, attempts to stab her mother under the enchantment of Nephamael (a knight of the Unseelie Court) her mother takes her back to Kaye's grandmother's house in New Jersey to stay.
Once at her grandmother's house, Kaye begins to look for her old "imaginary" friends she had during her childhood, faeries named Lutie-Loo, Spike, and Gristle. However, she fails to find them and, begins to suspect that they were simply figments of her imagination. Her suspicions dissolve when she finds and saves the life of Roiben, a faerie knight, by pulling an iron-tipped arrow from his chest. In return, he grants her three truthfully answered questions about anything she chooses, which she does not immediately use. Soon after this, Spike and Lutie-Loo contact her and warn her that Roiben is a murderer who has killed Gristle. As revenge, Kaye tricks Roiben into telling her his full name (she later learns that faeries can be controlled by their true names).
Later on, her friends tell her that she is a changeling and that she should keep her human appearance, because the Unseelie Court wishes to use her as a "Tithe" in order to bind the Solitary Fey to the Court's queen, Nicnevin. Since Kaye is not mortal, the ritual will be forfeit, and the fey whom the Unseelie Court wishes to bind will go free. Kaye attempts to control her newfound abilities by enlisting the help of a Kelpie to teach her how to use magic. She is soon kidnapped by a group of fairies, as planned and is taken to the Unseelie Court to go through the sacrificial ceremony. Before the ceremony, Roiben has a dress made for her and allowed her to stay with him that night, when they acknowledge each other's feelings. At the climax of the ceremony, Kaye uses Roiben's full name and orders him to free her from her bonds before she is killed, resulting in a bloodbath between Roiben and the court, and then fleeing to safety. He kills the queen of the Unseelie Court and many of her guards.
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