The climax connects with the plot of Black's first novel, and fans of Tithe will probably stick with the long build-up to get to the exciting finish. The squatters' actions spiral inexorably toward a death, but the victim turns out to be a cop-in a horrifying incident that is never mentioned again. Val, though sympathetic, is not as memorable as Tithe's Kaye, and that book's fans may miss the trips into the enchanted faerie world. The first, Valiant (2005), won the inaugural Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy. There have been two sequels set in the same universe featuring different casts. The world of Tithe is related to the world of the Folk of the Air, and reading Tithe is a great chance to experience Faerie as the author first depicted it. Black draws on a grab bag of fairy and folk motifs to create a labyrinthine plot with a decidedly dark edge in a narrative rife with expletives. Black's first novel, Tithe: A Modern Faerie Tale, was published by Simon & Schuster in 2002. Holly Black is an incredibly gifted writer, and it’s interesting to see where she started. As Cassel begins to suspect he’s part of one huge con game, he must unravel his past and his memories. At least it is for Castle when he accidentally kills the girl he loves, or did her. When she finds one of the troll's customers (a mermaid) murdered, she gets caught in the internecine politics of rival faerie courts. Ironside eBook by Holly Black Official Publisher Page Simon & Schuster WATCH The Curse Workers Series The Curse Workers Series To Love is a Curse. But Val succumbs to addiction, siphoning Ravus's potion for personal thrills. Val joins her fellow squatters as a courier for the faerie healer Ravus, a troll who, in a Beauty-and-the-Beast-inspired twist, becomes Val's romantic interest while turning her skills with a lacrosse stick into prowess with a sword. It isn't until Val realizes that they're shooting up faerie drugs that this unevenly paced companion to Black's debut novel, Tithe, takes off. They survive by rooting through trash, and shoot up to take the edge off their urine-scented, rat-infested existence. When 17-year-old Valerie Russell finds her boyfriend having sex with her mother, she splits Jersey for Manhattan, takes in a Rangers game and falls in with some creepy homeless teens who live on an abandoned subway platform.

Holly black the modern faerie tales