Back in 2018, I introduced myself to Holly Black by reading The Cruel Prince, the first book in the “Folk of the Air” series. At the time, I disliked it. However, I decided to give it a second chance after a few months and the rest is history. I’ve loved all books in this series ever since, the one more than the other. The Dutch publisher decided to translate this series as well. However, I’ve read them all in English. It was fall 2021 when they published a much older series by this author in Dutch, “Modern Faerie Tales”. This series has originally been rleased in the early 2000s. So, a Dutch translation was 21 years late. However, I wanted to support the Dutch publisher and therefore got myself the Dutch version of Tithe. I have to admit that I really was hesitant to pick it up, it turnt out that was not without reason.

Title: Tithe
Author: Holly Black
Series: Modern Faerie Tales #1
Publication date: October 1, 2002
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books
ISBN: 9780689849244
Number of pages: 310
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy

Welcome to the realm of very scary faeries!
Sixteen-year-old Kaye is a modern nomad. Fierce and independent, she travels from city to city with her mother’s rock band until an ominous attack forces the sixteen-year-old back to her childhood home. There, amid the industrial, blue-collar New Jersey backdrop, Kaye soon finds herself an unwilling pawn in an ancient power struggle between two rival faerie kingdoms — a struggle that could very well mean her death.
Newcomer Holly Black’s enormously powerful voice weaves teen angst, riveting romance, and capriciously diabolical faerie folk into an enthralling, engaging, altogether original reading experience.

Beforehand, I was, allbeit a little hesitant, excited to pick this up. We all know Holly Black is a great storyteller when it comes to the faerie world. She proved that with the “Folk of the Air” series. Currently she’s one of the most popular YA authors, so my expectations were high. Maybe a bitt too high. Yes, I’m aware that Tithe is one of her first published works and is over 20 years old. That’s partially my mistake of course, but to be honest the book wasn’t that great either.

First of all, the characters. Personally, I didn’t like Kaye. She was hard to connect to and also hard to like as a main character. This might be caused by the fact that this was the start of Holly Black’s carreer and thereore was not much experienced in both world and character building. Also, the other characters weren’t likeable to me. I just couldn’t get a grib on them.

Furthermore, the plot felt super repetitive. I have a feeling that literally all of this plot is what we’ve already seen lots in other books set in the faerie world. This is probably because of the time. When you translate a book about 20 years late, you will get this experience. Moreover, I felt that the plot went nowhere. It had no purpose or whatsoever. Or maybe it has, but I don’t know it. I was already very frustrated early on, so I guess I have read the book with less focues and attention.

Is there something positive to mention about Tithe by Holly Black? Yes, it’s a fast read. I was able to squeeze it in between other books. Also, this has to do with the fact that the plot went nowhere and the characters were boring, so I wanted to finish this rather sooner than later. However, Black’s potential to become the author she is today was already visible. I guess I will just leave her old stuff behind and start The Stolen Heir soon.