Module 8: Tithe

Summary
Kaye has spent her life traveling around with her mother's rock band. After her mother is attacked by a bandmate, the two of them move back to Kaye's grandmother's house, where Kaye lived as a child.  While there, Kaye reconnects with her friend Janet, as well as her not-so-imaginary faerie friends.

While out with Janet, Kaye comes across an injured faerie knight, Roiben. Since she helps him, he agrees to answer three questions--Kaye finds out that he killed one of her faerie friends, and tricks him in to telling her his full name, which can be used to control him.

Kaye's involvement with the faeries deepens, when she learns she is a changeling. Her faerie friends, solitary fey, want her to keep pretending to be human, and allow the Unseelie Court to use her as a sacrifice in the Tithe, a ritual to keep the solitaries bound to do the court's bidding.  Janet's brother Corny helps Kaye summon a kelpie to help her understand her magic. Eventually, she and Corny makes their way to the Unseelie Court, where she encounters Roiben again. They get out, individually, though Corny has had un unfortunate faerie encounter, and Kaye manages to re-glamour herself to look human.

Eventually, Kaye is taken underhill to be sacrificed, and saves herself at the last minute by commanding Roiben to help her. Somewhat unfortunately for everyone, the lack of a Tithe frees the solitary fey, who immediately start causing trouble.
Roiben and Kaye have to rescue Corny, Roiben becomes king of the Unseelie Court.

Citation
Black, H. (2002). Tithe. New York, NY: Simon Pulse.

Impression
Wow, talk about hard to gracefully summarize. This book gets off to a somewhat clunky start--lots of disjointed events and names all at once. Eventually though things smooth out, and the story is good, but some events seem kind of random--Kaye and Corny see some lights, and then they just decide to go underhill and hey, what next? Corny also makes some really stupid Faerie 101 mistakes--eating faerie food is a pretty basic no-no. Still, I liked that Black had proper faeries-scary and inhuman. I liked that Kaye's home life and friends weren't perfect, and there really aren't enough books with green protagonists.

Reviews
"Gr. 8^-12. With a hard-drinking rock singer for a mother and a band of faeries as childhood friends, 16-year-old Kaye's life has always been unconventional. But when she rescues a gorgeous knight, Roiben, from mysterious attackers, Kaye is thrown into a terrifying, otherworldly war between two faerie kingdoms. In this wildly imagined debut, Black tells a gothic fantasy that contrasts the faeire world's seductive horror against the gritty world of contemporary, industrial New Jersey. Black includes plenty of mysteries and some mature, sexy innuendo to keep the plot flying along: Is Kaye human? Which court is really in power? Who can be trusted? Does Roiben love Kaye, or is he under another's spell? What's become of Corny, Kaye's gay friend who has fallen for an abusive knight? But it's the riveting descriptions of the faerie world--a bacchanalian hell described in remarkable detail--that will most capture readers. Dark, edgy, beautifully written, and compulsively readable, this is sure to be a word-of-mouth hit with teens, even a few usually unmoved by magic and monsters."

Engberg, G. (2003, February 15). [Review of the book Tithe, by H. Black]. Booklist. Retrieved from http://www.booklistonline.com/

"Debauchery, despair, deceit, and grisly death-what more could you ask from a fairy tale? Sixteen-year-old Kaye has always felt like a freak; partly because she's spent half her life in seedy bars while her mother vainly pursued rock-star fame, but also from her memories of childhood fairy companions. Still, she's not prepared for what happens after she rescues Roiben, the gravely wounded and impossibly gorgeous elven knight. Her friendly sprites return to warn her that Roiben serves the Unseelie Court, the darker aspect of Faerie, and that she has been designated the mortal sacrifice in the ritual Tithe that binds the independent fey to their cruel and depraved rule. But what if that sacrifice weren't . . . quite . . . mortal? Black's stunning debut cleverly twists the Tam Lin tale. Though Kaye's home life seems almost comically sordid, when the action moves to the various Faerie Courts and their allies, their intrigues make an intricate tapestry, woven of dark threads of obsession, degradation, and horror, yet graced with bewitching beauty and a surprisingly tender romance. Once she drops her angst-ridden attitude, Kaye is a clever, courageous heroine with an appealingly wry voice, and Roiben is a gloriously damaged and darkly noble tragic hero. While most of the supporting cast has little to do beyond playing villains or victims, Black has an eye for the telling detail that brings the most minor character to life. A labyrinthine plot with Goth sensibility makes this a luscious treat for fans of urban fantasy and romantic horror."

(2002, September 1). [Review of the book Tithe, by H. Black]. Kirkus. Retrieved from http://www.kirkusreviews.com/

Uses
There is enough recent YA about fairies--Tithe and its companions, Melissa Marr's Wicked Lovely books, Julie Kagawa's Iron Fey series--to do a book club/costume contest like I suggested with dystopias. A month long promotion of these books culminating with a faerie ball and costume contest? Could be super fun...