A Decent Urban Fantasy

So after a very stressful day (a missing shipment of a case of wine, don’t ask, all that matters was thankfully recovered!) I am finally getting around to this review. This was my bookclub’s pick for the month. I read Tithe by Holly Black, gosh when it came out?, all I know was it was a long time ago, but I remember liking it. I don’t know if I’ve read any of her others, but since I still had okay feelings about Tithe I was cautiously optimistic about this one.

This is the story of Hazel and Ben Evans along with their friend Jack and the village of Fairfield. Here people have been living with the “fair folk” since settling in the town so they’re used to fairies. Oh, and there’s a sleeping prince in the woods with a glass coffin. The first third or so is mostly setting up, but once the coffin breaks open all hell breaks loose in Fairfield, it’s up to Hazel, Ben, Jack and the sleeping prince to save the day.

Overall it was pretty okay. The first third of the book really set it up as Hazel’s story, and while it is, Black also decided later on to give the others more development which I appreciated. It still felt lopsided, but I’m glad she gave the others some backstory. I appreciated that she made the story more than just another sappy teenage girl romance with a fairy prince. Also Ms. Black can write teenagers like no other. I regularly wanted to smack all of them, but in the “10 years from now you’re going to look back on all of this and realize how much you were idiots”.

It’s a short, quick read (or listen in my case) that rolls along, and while I have some quibbles if you’re looking for teen urban fantasy you could do a hell of a lot worse.