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tithe by Holly Black Summary
Sixteen-year-old Kaye is a modern nomad. Fierce and independent, she drifts from place to place with her mother’s rock band until an ominous attack forces them back to Kaye’s childhood home. But Kaye’s life takes another turn when she stumbles upon an injured faerie knight in the woods. Kaye has always been able to see faeries where others could not, and she chooses to save the strange young man instead of leaving him to die.
But this fateful choice will have more dire consequences than she could ever predict, as Kaye soon finds herself the unwilling pawn in an ancient and violent power struggle between two rival faerie kingdoms—a struggle that could very well mean her death.
tithe by holly black Review
Truthfully, I read Tithe by Holly Black ages ago, back in my early teens. In fact, I can still picture exactly where it lives on my shelves in my mother’s house. It was the first and only book of Black’s I had read for a long time, and I remember not really being into it – but not much else.
I suppose next to books like Shiver and The Hunger Games, this story about faeries with its uncomfortably visceral writing (compared to other YA, at least) just didn’t capture me in the ways I wanted at the time. Although technically a trilogy, I never got around to reading the sequel. But here we are, several Holly Black books down the line, and I decided to give Tithe another go, on a whim. This time, I really enjoyed it.
First off – this book is old. At least in terms of Young Adult as a category. Tithe is over twenty years old at this point, something I only realized when faced with a slightly jarring mention of cellular technology – or lack thereof. Which, I am a bit jealous of, because Young Adult contemporary fantasy had to be a lot more fun to write back then. Modern conveniences add far too many loopholes, don’t you think?
What a beautiful world Black created – the kind of thorny, sticky beauty that makes you a bit uncomfortable. Although later books, like those in the Folk of the Air, weave a slightly more complex blanket, Tithe is a self-contained story. Yes, this isn’t the end for Kaye, and we are left wanting more, but there are no cliffhangers, no unfinished business, which is such an underrated quality in YA, especially nowadays. It could very well be a standalone, making its designation as “A Modern Faerie Tale” very apt. This is a magical little book, one I’m so glad I got to experience a second time at a slightly older age.
For those wondering, Tithe is still very much a product of its time, meaning the language is strong and the thornier topics (domestic violence, sexual assault) aren’t softened like they might have been for 2025. This is a book that, although released in the early 2000s, still fits in with authors from the 90s and probably struggled with the “Young Adult” label rather than benefitted.
Nevertheless, Tithe is very much worth the read – especially if you are a Cassandra Clare fan. (No, of course that doesn’t go unnoticed here.) It is certainly NOT a companion to the Shadowhunter books — instead, think reading When the Wind Blows/The Lake House after loving Maximum Ride books. If you know, you know.
Love,
Tithe by Holly Black was released October 2002.Â
CW: Mental illness, suicide, abuse, death or dying, kidnapping and other events that might be consider traumatic, self-harm, domestic violence, sexual assault
