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meganbmooreThis is the third of Black’s faerie books, and combines parts of the casts of the first two. Specifically Kaye, Roiben and Corny from Tithe, and Dave and Luis from Valiant. The Tithe characters were the main characters, but the Valiant characters…well, one was a rapist, murderer, druggie and dealer, and the other I barely remembered.
Note: The rest of this has spoilers for Tithe and Valiant.
Kaye’s boyfriend, Roiben, is being crowned king of the Unseelie Court, and his court isn’t exactly thrilled that he’s dating a Seelie pixie, so they play a trick on her to get her to make a special form of declaration that, if accepted, would permanently bind her to the Unseelie Court. Roiben, not wanting that, tasks her to find a fae who lies, an impossibility, and the fae cannot lie. Not realizing he’s trying to save her (not that he bothers to try to explain) Kaye takes off, and when her friend Corny is cursed by a member of the Seelie court and the Seelie queen asks to meet her, they head for New York and the Seelie Court. Their guide is Luis, who became the Seelie queen’s servant to save his brother’s life. Luis attempts to endear himself to the reader by saying that everything bad that happened to them is all the fault of the girl his brother was obsessed with, turned into a drug addict, and raped. Apparently, she made his brother an evil, raping murderer by not loving him back. (While I do not think Holly Black thinks this, she does think I’ll like and sympathize with a character who does.)
Add that to Black reminding us every chance she got that no bad thing he ever did was Roiben’s fault and everything was the fault of the mean faerie queens and Roiben’s just a poor, faultless woobie, and I think I’m through with Black’s books, as much as her world interests me. That said, most of the drug use and creepier elements of the first two books are gone, I found Kaye more likable than I did in Tithe, and Black actually addresses the subject of the human child Kaye replaced, something that was brushed aside in Tithe. All of which makes me sad that other things annoyed me too much to have an interest in reading more.
Note: The rest of this has spoilers for Tithe and Valiant.
Kaye’s boyfriend, Roiben, is being crowned king of the Unseelie Court, and his court isn’t exactly thrilled that he’s dating a Seelie pixie, so they play a trick on her to get her to make a special form of declaration that, if accepted, would permanently bind her to the Unseelie Court. Roiben, not wanting that, tasks her to find a fae who lies, an impossibility, and the fae cannot lie. Not realizing he’s trying to save her (not that he bothers to try to explain) Kaye takes off, and when her friend Corny is cursed by a member of the Seelie court and the Seelie queen asks to meet her, they head for New York and the Seelie Court. Their guide is Luis, who became the Seelie queen’s servant to save his brother’s life. Luis attempts to endear himself to the reader by saying that everything bad that happened to them is all the fault of the girl his brother was obsessed with, turned into a drug addict, and raped. Apparently, she made his brother an evil, raping murderer by not loving him back. (While I do not think Holly Black thinks this, she does think I’ll like and sympathize with a character who does.)
Add that to Black reminding us every chance she got that no bad thing he ever did was Roiben’s fault and everything was the fault of the mean faerie queens and Roiben’s just a poor, faultless woobie, and I think I’m through with Black’s books, as much as her world interests me. That said, most of the drug use and creepier elements of the first two books are gone, I found Kaye more likable than I did in Tithe, and Black actually addresses the subject of the human child Kaye replaced, something that was brushed aside in Tithe. All of which makes me sad that other things annoyed me too much to have an interest in reading more.