Tithe

This book split the readership down the middle, many hating it for its rather unpleasant teenagers, its strong language and sexual content, others like myself loving the depictions of the faerie world. I thought setting the book among blue collar workers ws a refreshing change to the usual middleclass rather pampered heroines we see who fall for the dashingly handsome and gallant prince. Here the human world was as grim and hard as the fae world. I have read a lot of books about the faerie world, and I thought Black did a fine job of presenting it vividly and in a fresh way. No sweet tender romance but a hard young man struggling against his unwilling enslavement to a cruel queen. I enjoyed Black's writing style, and even if her characters are not much developed, I thought the book was a very good first novel.

I read this for the Faerie Mythology challenge,and thought it really did present an excellent often frightening depiction of the faerie world and a nicely unconventional love story, plus an intricaate plot. 3.5 stars