Tithe November 24, 2007

Black, Holly (2002). Tithe: A Modern Faerie Tale. NY : Simon and Schuster. 331 pages.

Kaye redefines weird – she doesn’t go to school, she doesn’t quite look like everyone else, and – oh yeah – she gets visits from faeries that no one else can see. Or at least she did, before she moved to Philly with her mom. But when an unexpected attack sends both Kaye and her mother back to the Jersey shore, she gets pulled into the world of faerie – a world, it turns out, that she belongs to more than she’d ever guessed.

Usually I can steamroll right through books, but I had to put this one down more than a few times, for various reasons – none of them were bad reasons – they were just… well, here they are:

1. omg, yaoi fanboy, what?!

Corny. One of the more important side characters, Corny (short for Cornelius), is ethically challenged, a genius, and gay. He’s also an avid reader of shonen ai manga (translation: homoerotic japanese comic books, generally written by and for women). Well, he calls it shonen ai, but as Kaye helpfully describes some of the scenes in said manga, I’m actually guessing it’s yaoi, which is basically the same thing, plus more porn.

Let me be clear: I did not need to put the book down because I have a problem with people who are queer, intelligent, or fans of pornography.  Rather, I had a problem with the way the book used these aspects of his character to portray him as a person who has no regard for the lives of other people, or would be receptive to getting raped and brutalized.  It’s a valid and consistent character portrait, but it’s also an extremely offensive way to portray a specific group of people, in that it implies that one’s taste in porn could predispose a person to want to be raped.  Or that being smart means you want to gun down your classmates.

I’m relatively sure that the author didn’t intend her character to be offensive, but in my case, I was a little taken aback.

2. tortured hero? srsly, pls…

Roiben. Roiben is a faerie knight of the Seely Court (the relatively good and nice group of faeries), who is traded to the Unseely Court by his queen. In the Unseely Court, he is forced to carry out his new queen’s horrible orders, and is thus traumatized into becoming a brooding, dark anti-hero. And Kaye falls for him like I fall for chocolate donuts. I’m not saying I don’t sympathize – back in the day, I myself liked a platinum blond tortured hero or two. And Roibin is far from the worst incarnation of this little archetype, but… really…

3. Jersey shore, land of hidden magic?! XD

This time, I put the book down because I had to pause and savor my smug glee that yes, someone else sees the dirty, glittery, and wildly natural Jersey shore the same way I do. And, for once, the faeries (angels, demons, winged monkeys, etc…) don’t live in Central Park, NY, but a place I actually know and care about – and let me tell you, it is the perfect setting for this book. It sets the mood, reflects Kaye’s character, and foreshadows the nature of the faerie courts. Just – wow, I had so much love for the setting.

Alright. Now, putting all that aside, I really did enjoy this book. This is one of the better things to come from the faery/fairy stories that are becoming popular recently, and there was a lot of sensitivity and depth in all the characters. And after all, I may have put the book down more than once, but I always, always picked it up again.

Booktalk Hook: Did you ever think that you just couldn’t possibly be related to these people who are pretending to be your parents?

If you like this book: You’ll probably want to read the sequels, Valiant and Ironside. Or you might want to try testing out the shallow end of the pool of manga that this book is referencing, both in the text, and thematically – titles like Seimaden, Angel Sanctuary, or Alichino.