Valiant: A Modern Tale of Faerie

by holly black | Science Fiction & Fantasy |
ISBN: 0689868227 Global Overview for this book
Registered by CheriePie of Campbell, California USA on 12/8/2006
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3 journalers for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by CheriePie from Campbell, California USA on Friday, December 8, 2006
Received through BookMooch.com.

When seventeen-year-old Valerie Russell runs away to New York City, she's trying to escape a life that has utterly betrayed her. Sporting a new identity, she takes up with a gang of squatters who live in the city's labyrinthine subway system.

But there's something eerily beguiling about Val's new friends. Impulsive Lolli talks of monsters in the subway tunnels they call home and shoots up a shimmery amber-colored powder that makes the shadows around her dance. Severe Luis claims he can make deals with creatures that no one else can see. And then there's Luis's brother, timid and sensitive Dave, who makes the mistake of letting Val tag along as he makes a delivery to a woman who turns out to have goat hooves instead of feet.

When a bewildered Val allows Lolli to talk her into tracking down the hidden lair of the creature for whom Luis and Dave have been dealing, Val finds herself bound into service by a troll named Ravus. He is as hideous as he is honorable. And as Val grows to know him, she finds herself torn between her affection for an honorable monster and her fear of what her new friends are becoming.

Bestselling author Holly Black follows her breakout debut, Tithe, with a rich, harrowing, and compulsively readable parable of betrayal, abuse, friendship, and love.

Journal Entry 2 by CheriePie from Campbell, California USA on Saturday, July 28, 2007
I didn't like this one quite as much as Tithe. Though it seems more of a standalone, there are a few characters from Faery from the first one that are mentioned later on here. Apparently, Ironside, the third book in the series, is more of a direct sequel to Tithe.

When seventeen-year-old Val finds her mom and her boyfriend making out, she runs away from her home in New Jersey to the streets of New York City. She befriends a group of kids who live in the subway tunnels where she encounters some strange substances, and meets some even stranger people, including Ravus the Troll. She agrees to help him with deliveries since he cannot go out in the sun, while he teaches her sword fighting in return. She grows to admire him and when he's accused of poisoning the other exiled faeries, she vows to help him in any way she can and everything ends happily ever after (sorta). Just like a true fairy tale. LOL


This is now reserved for krin511, who won it in the July Paranormal & Urban Fantasy Swap on BookObsessed.

Journal Entry 3 by krin511 from Olney, Maryland USA on Saturday, September 1, 2007
Arrived today - thanks!

Journal Entry 4 by krin511 from Olney, Maryland USA on Monday, June 30, 2008
This was a good mix of the real and fantastical. I liked the way Val finds the strength in herself to help her new friends, both human and other. I also liked how Black interspersed faery folk among the buildings and parks of Manhattan and New Jersey.

Journal Entry 5 by krin511 at on Saturday, July 5, 2008

Released 15 yrs ago (7/5/2008 UTC) at

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Mailed to sejent!!

Journal Entry 6 by sejent from Louisville, Kentucky USA on Saturday, July 12, 2008
Thanks, krin! I'm looking forward to reading this.

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