Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Valiant by Holly Black

Publisher:  Margaret K. McElderry Books
Publish Date:  Sept. 5, 2005
ISBN:  978-0689868221
Pages:  336

I quite enjoyed TITHE and was looking forward to VALIANT. The first chapter or two almost lost me and then the Holly Black writing took off.  You know what I mean - the ugly beautiful damaged writing.

Val takes off to NY after she catches her mom and boyfriend making out.  She meets some street kids, Lolli and Dave and Dave's brother Luis.  The kids run errands for faeries.  Not the pretty sparkly ones, but the dangerous tricky ones.  The troll Ravus makes a drug called Never for the faeries, it helps them live in the city surrounded by iron.  But for humans...the drug is magical.  It allows them to do magic and to be more like faeries, it's also highly addictive.

The faeries are dying and Ravus is the prime suspect. But Val is falling for him and needs to figure out whose behind the deaths.  She also needs to conquer her addiction to Never.  We catch a fleeting glimpse of the TITHE characters toward the end, which was nice.

This story touches on so many important issues and is a hard hitting story.  Ms. Black hits on love and trust, addiction and the harm it does everyone it touches, betrayal and hate and living with our choices.  Well done!

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