I got traunatized by the carousel scene and the kelpie 

this is not the first time i've read this, but a few things now really stand out to me about this book: this is not holly black's first published work, but this story in particular seems to really exemplify her writing style in a big way. you'll see this formula established in this novel of a 17 to 18 year old weird quirky girl with some strange relationship to her personhood being introduced to a new sense of independence, or maybe with a history of being wildly independent, with a complex relationship to her mother, repeated in multiple other stories by holly black. it becomes redundant, yes, but the part of these books that shines the brightest for me is the clarity with which the author writes about fairy myth. she has such a firm grip on the tropes and trappings of european fairy mythology that even when i don't find myself fully engaged by her characters, i am still delighted by the fae folk and lands that feature in the story. the other part of this story that feels particularly good to me is the nostalgic edginess of the main character and the interesting way that poverty is addressed. the edginess is not going to be to everyone's taste, but it scratched an itch in my brain that rarely sees the light of day. holly black's understanding of poverty is also very realistic, and also satisfies me in a deep way.
the first time i read tithe, the part that stuck with me the most was the side character cornelius. he is also the first in a line of characters that i view as holly black classics, which is the gay side character who is always some kind of unfortunate and awkward young man who gets along very well with the quirky female main character. i love corny. he is one of the best of all time. he is also the reason why i ended up rereading tithe recently, because i remembered his storyline in the book with more clarity than any other part of the story. if you want to read about a fucked up gay character who has a great character arc, i highly recommend this story. hes responsible for the fourth star in my rating of this book.

I have to say I'm very disappointed. I went into this thinking I would love it. There was no doubt about it, it felt like a fact. Roses are usually red, my cat is a lovable idiot, and I will like Holly Black's books. Sadly, this was not the case.

I could've known this was a possibility. While I absolutely adored the folk of the air series (minus the lost sister novella, yikes that one) and enjoyed the first book on the middle grade series Black has written with Cassandra Clare, I was also deeply disappointed with the Spiderwick Chronicles. But I just thought it would be a one time thing - 2 if you count the TFOTA novella.

As soon as I started this book, I disliked the main character. And, ok, she got a tiny bit better by the end. But honestly? I didn't care for anyone but Roiben. I kept on reading because I am not about to DNF a Holly Black book.

And, yeah, it took a long time for me to get into it, but eventually I did a bit. Because even though it felt rushed and downright sloppy, Black's writing is still pretty addictive. And as I said before, I did quite like Roiben. I think if it wasn't for him this would've been two stars.

At the end, I don't know how to feel about this. I wouldn't put it on any recommendations posts. But I don't hate it as much anymore as I did the first 100-ish pages.

As for the rest of the series? Who knows. Since I was so sure I'd love this, I had already bought the sequel. Maybe I'll give it a chance some day so my money was at least worth something. But maybe once I started reading other books, this will slip from my mind and I'll never find myself interested to dive into this series again.

I'm glad that this was released in, what, early 00s? Because I very much enjoying TFOTA and that shows that Holly Black's writing has improved a lot since then, meaning I won't be scared off from her recent books.

I'm hoping to read the TFOTA spin off series this year, or at least the first one, because now I've read 2 books by this author and both are rated badly.

Even though this was definitely weaker than “the Cruel Prince” (no wonder, with whole 16 years difference), I still enjoyed the story and the characters. The early 2000s vibes are strong, the faeries – as wicked as I like them. A fair amount of scenes and dialogues are awkwardly written (sudden changes in mood, kisses out of nowhere etc.), but with some polishing “Tithe” could hold up even today (though it certainly would never get published as YA).

Few things that bothered me:
1. Corny’s violent thoughts/behaviour (expressing the urge to hurt people, even his mother);
2. The age difference between Kaye and Roiben. He is clearly an adult man and she is sixteen. Made me feel icky every time I stopped to think about it, especially since they both act in accordance with their age.


P.S.: “She let out a breath she hadn't known she was holding” (x3)

Edit: thinking about this book after a few months, the depiction of homosexuality and race is definitely… not done well.