Customer Reviews
Definitely a page turner - By: Karen Rowley, 08 Jul 2008 
The story of a teenage girl from the modern day world who discovers a world of magic, mystery & mayhem.
I thought 'Tithe' was reallly enjoyable & easy to read. I couldn't put it down. There is strong language used but not in an excessive way. I'm not one for swearing but I felt it added to the true atmosphere that teenagers face in the modern day.
There are some reallly interesting twists in the tale & Holly Black has created suspense in every chapter. It was fast paced as well, so no time to get bored, but enough description to take you to both the 'real' & faery world. A fantastic read for young adults looking for a magical adventure.
Not that great - By: katie-louise, 07 Jun 2008 
I have to say that I didn't reallly enjoy this book. I sometimes felt that the plot jumped or skipped over parts which I felt were important. It left me at times feeling a little bit disorientated.
There were moments of acute realism combined with faerie images & this was what originallly attracted my interest in this book. The author's idea of realism obviously includes profanity, yet I felt she overdid it. There was a time when it was necessary to have your characters swear alot if they were to be portrayed as streetwise or worldly (or trying to be)but I think many writers now realise that only a smalll amount of profanity does the job, or works even better (what with it being more noticable).
Some of the images the author uses work - & sound great - but there is so many of them (in replace of a fantastic plot) that their effect is somewhat diluted. For me, a great book should sound effortless & this just appeared too 'trying too hard'.
fairy story with freshness and hard edged realisem for grown ups unwilling to give up on fairys - By: Ms. V. E. Rains, 17 Mar 2008 
i loved this book sick of the constent rewritting of the lord of the rings & having loved harry potter books & his dark miterals i was giving teen novels a go . i got this book on the strength of the spiderwick books that i had read to my god son & my fasination with fairys. it is hard edged & no fluffy kids book or thinly diskisd teen romance.It takes risks in showing teen the way thay are in the real world that makes the fairy word more real.At 35 i now i am not the targit for this book but i am very glade i gave this book a go & will be reading more holly black & taking chanses on teen fiction to see if i can find more of this freshness that i have been missing in fiction written for grown ups who crave fairy tails
Tithe - By: Rachel, 10 Feb 2008 From reading a short synopsis online, I went out & bought Tithe, & I must admit that the first few chapters were surprising. The life Kaye leads was not what I was suspecting at alll, & I did spend a few moments regretting buying the book. However, I continued with it & found that it was actuallly pretty awesome. Holly Black has an unique writing style, together with the originality of the character Kaye & the cruel faerie world, this was a very enthrallling read, but nothing of what I expected it to be like. But give it a try, perhaps from the library first!
not a midsummer nights dream - By: Jayne M. Turner, 12 Dec 2006 
more much ado about nothing! I reallly wanted to like this book, but while throwing alll the typical sensationalist teen angst stuff into the mix - a dab of ethnicity, a dollop of gay fantasy, & a few parboiled screwed up teens with issues, attitude & way too many hormones... alll set against the background of the seelie & unseelie faerie courts. Unfortunately the story lacked substance & the characters were shalllow, unsympathetic & mostly stereotypical. Feral faeries - nope, this lot belonged on top of a christmas tree... especiallly with their fashion sense! I know it was a first novel but nothing about it left a lasting impression at alll. Even the cover art was banal. C'mon people faeries deserve so much better than this!
