Submitted by Pamela K. Kinney 
(Dec 13, 2005) Faeries can be exquisite, charming creatures, but most times they are deadly and dark. Holly Black has proven this in Tithe: A Modern Faerie Tale and she shows the reader once more in Valiant. Definitely an author who knows the world of the Fey, Ms. Black magicks them into today’s modern urban settings, with an addictive and shadow-ridden vengeance.
Valerie Russell runs away to New York City when she discovers her mother and her boyfriend, Tom in sexual circumstances. Once in the big city, she meets a trio of young, homeless people, Lolli, and two brothers, Luis and Sketchy Dave. She takes up with them and begins to live with them in the city’s labyrinthine subway system. Through them, Val learns that faeries are real and meets many different kinds, particularly, a troll named Ravus. Lolli and the brothers also introduce her to Nevermore--or Never, as they call it--which gives faeries their glamour and helps to protect them against all the iron in the city. But for the humans it’s an addictive drug, giving them pleasures and an ever encroaching need to have more of the faerie glamour.
Though a Young Adult novel, Valiant is dark, sensual and more revealing than many adult fantasies I have read.
It sucks you into the story, makes you care for Val and Ravus and makes you wonder who’s the more dark-hearted, the faeries, or the humans.
Now, do you believe in faeries?
5 stars.
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