Tithe a modern faerie tale By: Holly Black

1. Tithea modern faerie taleBy: Holly Black Sonya Dent Year of Publication: 2002

2. Introduction Setting: Philadelphia and New Jersey First events: • Kaye and her mother are in a bar in Philadelphia with her mother’s band, Stepping Razor, when her mother’s boyfriend tries to stab her mom and is arrested. • After her mother’s attempted murder situation, Kaye and her mother, Ellen, move in with her grandmother since they have no place to stay, and kaye and her friend ,Janet, hang out with their fiends and drink bottles liquor in an abandoned warehouse. • At that time, in the warehouse, Kaye is alone in a section of the warehouse when Janet's boyfriend, Kenny, comes in and talks to Kaye, which unsuspectingly leads to him touching her and ripping her shirt open. At that moment, Janet and her friends walk in and see what was going on. Kaye then ran out of the place with a ripped shirt and jeans on. • On her way home, after the incident with Kenny, Kaye hears someone in the woods, and she goes to check it out. She finds a knight that has been shot with an arrow and helps him, but is unaware that she is helping her enemy, and she befriends him. The novel is about a young, naïve girl named Kaye Fierch. She is 16 years old, and she already dropped out of high school. She lives at her grandmothers house with her alcoholic mother who drags her from city to city, because they either can’t pay their rent or her mother’s wild rock band is on travel. Kaye hangs around a group of troubled kids who are drunks and smoke all the time. They have crude language, and they are always doing things that they shouldn’t be doing. People that hang around her think she’s weird, because she claims to see faeries, but later on in the novel she finds out why she sees these creatures, and she is very unaware of the danger that follows her. She also finds out that she is not what she appears to be and it changes her life forever.

3. Central Conflict The conflict is between to two courts in the book the Seelie (good) court and the Unseelie (evil) court. They both are trying to take control of each other, so they have a tithe to settle the issue, but things don’t go according to plan for Unseelie or the Seelie court when they try to use Kaye as their “human” sacrifice.

4. Characters • Kaye Fierch (Protagonist) Description: Kaye is the main character in the book. She is secretly a pixie and doesn’t know it until the mid- beginning of the story. She is very intelligent, but too smart for her own good in some cases. She is mature, but sometimes very naïve. • Ellen Fierch (Protagonist) (Minor) Description: Kaye's mother. She is a struggling rock singer, and tours the country with her rock band, Stepping Razor. She is almost stabbed by her drunk boyfriend, Lloyd . She is then forced to move back in with her mother temporarily. She is not a good mother, but she is caring. She is more of a friend to Kaye than a parental figure.

5. Characters • Rath Roiben Rye (Protagonist) Description: A noble Seelie knight traded to the Unseelie Queen before the beginning of the novel as part of a truce agreement between the two courts. He is a strong fighter and feared by many. He is very attracted to Kaye, but he doesn’t know why. He is one of the main supporting characters for Kaye. He is forced to perform cruel acts for his new Queen, but he does not enjoy them. • Cornelius “Corny” Stone (Protagonist) Description: Janet's older brother. He is very weird, and has murderous fantasies. He ends up bonding with Kaye, and the first to know her secret. Along with Roiben, he is also one of the main supporting characters. He is a computer geek who loves comic books and manga. He is gay, but his sister and family knows. Kaye finds out later in the novel, but is ok with it. He enthusiastically helps Kaye when they both discover that she is a faerie, but he is eventually seduced, enchanted, and captured by Nephamael, who makes him his lover and slave.

6. Characters • Janet Stone (Protagonist) (Minor) Description: Corny's younger sister and Kaye's best friend since elementary school. Suspects Kaye of flirting with her boyfriend, Kenny. She is oblivious to her friend and brother's faerie involvement. • Kenny (Protagonist) (Minor) Description: Janet's boyfriend He becomes attracted to Kaye, because she enchanted him.

7. Characters • Lutie-Loo (Protagonist) (minor) Description :One of Kaye's faerie friends from childhood. She is only a few inches high with silkily hair and wings. • Gristle (Protagonist) (minor) Description: The last of Kaye's faerie friends from childhood. He is killed by Roiben during a 'fox hunt' after stealing cakes from the Unseelie Court and does not appear in the novel.

8. Characters • Spike (Protagonist) (Minor) Description: One of Kaye's faerie friends from childhood. He strongly dislikes and distrusts Roiben. • The Kelpie (Antagonist) Description: A murderous water horse and one of the Solitary Fey, who teaches Kaye magic and how to make a glamour in return for a carousel horse companion..

9. Characters • Silarial(Protagonist/Antagonist) Description: The Seelie Queen, sister to Nicnevin and Roiben's former Queen. It is believed she orchestrated the whole plot to kill Kaye and free the solitary fey. • Nicnevin (Antagonist) Description: The Unseelie Queen, sister to Silarial. Beautiful as she is evil, she passes her days plotting against the Seelie kingdom and amusing herself and her subjects with cruel pastimes.

10. Characters • Nephamael (Antagonist) Description: Initially a knight of the Unseelie court, he is traded for Roiben as part of the Queen's truce. He hates his new home. He is cruel, manipulating, and ruthless, and takes great pleasure in toying with humans and lesser faeries, especially when he meets Corny, whom he makes his pet.

11. What Critics Said • Hyperlink: http://suite101.com/article/review-of-tithe-a-modern-faerie-tale-by-holly-black-a322985 • The article said that Tithe: A modern faerie tale is a beautifully written novel, and is very good for teens that love fantasy stories about dark faeries and changelings. • Hyperlink: http://twisted-kingdom.blogspot.com/2006/09/holly-blacks-tithe.html • The article said that they loved the book because it was a TRUE faerie tale instead of a watered down, Disney faerie tale.

12. My Opinion on the Novel I think that the book was very interesting, because you don’t know what will happen next, and it has unsuspecting turns that you would never think of happening, but I think most of the word choice is too inappropriate for some people.