Not that great - Rated 
I have to say that I didn't really enjoy this book. I sometimes felt that the plot jumped or skipped over parts which I felt were important. It left me at times feeling a little bit disorientated.
There were moments of acute realism combined with faerie images and this was what originally attracted my interest in this book. The author's idea of realism obviously includes profanity, yet I felt she overdid it. There was a time when it was necessary to have your characters swear alot if they were to be portrayed as streetwise or worldly (or trying to be)but I think many writers now realise that only a small amount of profanity does the job, or works even better (what with it being more noticable).
Some of the images the author uses work - and sound great - but there is so many of them (in replace of a fantastic plot) that their effect is somewhat diluted. For me, a great book should sound effortless and this just appeared too 'trying too hard'.
fairy story with freshness and hard edged realisem for grown ups unwilling to give up on fairys - Rated 
i loved this book sick of the constent rewritting of the lord of the rings and having loved harry potter books and his dark miterals i was giving teen novels a go . i got this book on the strength of the spiderwick books that i had read to my god son and my fasination with fairys. it is hard edged and no fluffy kids book or thinly diskisd teen romance.It takes risks in showing teen the way thay are in the real world that makes the fairy word more real.At 35 i now i am not the targit for this book but i am very glade i gave this book a go and will be reading more holly black and taking chanses on teen fiction to see if i can find more of this freshness that i have been missing in fiction written for grown ups who crave fairy tails
Tithe - Rated 
From reading a short synopsis online, I went out and bought Tithe, and I must admit that the first few chapters were surprising. The life Kaye leads was not what I was suspecting at all, and I did spend a few moments regretting buying the book. However, I continued with it and found that it was actually pretty awesome. Holly Black has an unique writing style, together with the originality of the character Kaye and the cruel faerie world, this was a very enthralling read, but nothing of what I expected it to be like. But give it a try, perhaps from the library first!
not a midsummer nights dream - Rated 
more much ado about nothing! I really wanted to like this book, but while throwing all the typical sensationalist teen angst stuff into the mix - a dab of ethnicity, a dollop of gay fantasy, and a few parboiled screwed up teens with issues, attitude and way too many hormones... all set against the background of the seelie & unseelie faerie courts. Unfortunately the story lacked substance and the characters were shallow, unsympathetic and mostly stereotypical. Feral faeries - nope, this lot belonged on top of a christmas tree... especially with their fashion sense! I know it was a first novel but nothing about it left a lasting impression at all. Even the cover art was banal. C'mon people faeries deserve so much better than this!
Dark and gripping and lots of fun. - Rated
If you want a fluffy faerie romance where everyone is sugary-nice and from a respectable background, where the goodies are good and the baddies are evil, and teens never ever say the f-word - this book won't be for you. Kaye's a messed-up kid who's had a tough life and often does stupid things, and the faerie world she stumbles into is harsh and cruel and violently capricious. But it's also weirdly beautiful and compelling, and so is Roiben, the faerie knight who Kaye gets tangled up with.
Holly has a fabulous sense of language, and there's some really interesting imagery in the book. The plot skips around some and it's a bit sloppy in parts, but this is her first YA novel, and if she's this good now, she can only get better. Looking forward to the sequel.
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