I have to say that this book was certainly better than its predecessors. The characters are still flat but a bit less flat, the plot has improved from being quite random to actually intriguing and even though it still has some problematic aspects (such as forced outing with no reflection on this), it starts to have the charme of court politics, power plays, and faeries being faeries.

Kids, don't do drugs. Especially not fairy ones. Apparently, I decided to start into the new year with trash reading because even though this book is pretty bad, I still finished it. (And am quite sure that I will read the third book too.) This second one has different characters than the first one (though appearances may happen) so no spoilers but honestly, I can't even describe the plot. A girl running away from home because her mother sleeps with her boyfriend to end up with some street kids who do fairy drugs? Yeah, that's the story. No, it doesn't get less absurd. Everything was so random and weird that I can't really say anything about the characters, except that the love story was the most random and weirdest thing of all. The dialogues were way too cheesy, there was absolutely no chemistry and seriously, what happened?? What's kinda cool is the urban perspective on fairies. I also allow bonus points for introducing a fantasy version of drug addiction and homelessness. Makes me wonder whether the book could have been really good if the characters and the plot weren't so random and flat. I still read it and I kinda liked the whole atmosphere. The funniest change from book 1 is that there isn't a gay best friend but a lesbian best friend whose main appearance is reduced to receiving queerphobic insults. Oh yeah, this book definetely feels like it was written in the 2000s and not always in a good way. Thank all the powers of books that Holly Black writes extremely good books now. This one was not.

Tithe: 5 Stars Valient: 3 Stars Ironside: 4 Stars - not taking this into my official rating of the book but I loved the little short story around Lutie. Deserves 5 Stars as well (Also I could let out my rage for Balekin again which is another extra 100 Stars). . not sure how but spoiler free reviews of the individual books: . Tithe I thought was a fun little Novel. I went into the stories with little to no expectations as people (my own mother included) always say they are so much worse than The Folk of the Air but I found myself quite a bit entertained. Especially given that they were written in the early 2000s (it held up pretty well) I find them to be a refreshing fantasy novel to read if you look for those of that time. I loved the darker faerie side, the one that is definitely lethal to mortals as we only got glimpses of that in TCP. Especially seeing Cornelius deal with it throughout the first and the third book. Valient was such a bore to me. I get why it is there but it could have been mixed in with Tithe and Ironside in my opinion. I barely cared for the plot and Val wasn't as interesting to me as Kaye was. It was not a bad story though, just not my cup of tea. Loved the little love story though. Ravus is such a sweetheart. Ironside was okay? Idk how to rate this one really because I liked it but it was kind of boring too?? Other than Jude's "quest" in TFoTA I didn't quite get how Kaye could solve hers. Maybe I am stupid though, idk. I wanted to see more of her mortal family and I really was just a bit bored. I enjoyed it more than Valien but I think there could have been more as the plot just kind of walked along and didn't catch up and get me excited for anything. It was interesting yes, but no where near Tithe for me. A good ending for the series though that didn't make me regret buying the book and reading nearly 800 pages.