Valiant: A Modern Tale of Faerie by Holly Black

Valiant: A Modern Tale of Faerie
Holly Black
ISBN 978-0-689-868238
Simon Pulse, 2005
313 pages

Genre: Faerie, Urban Fantasy

Readers Annotation
When a teenage girl runs away to New York City, her life becomes inextricably intertwined with the secret, dark world of faeries, a group of junkie street kids, a murder mystery... and a troll she might be falling in love with.

Plot Summary
After Valerie catches her boyfriend in bed with her mother, she flees to New York City. Intending to stay for just the night, she decides to stay after befriending Lolli, Luis, and Dave, a group of teenage street kids who live in the subway system. Luis is able to see faeries, who use illusion to hide themselves from most people, and he and Dave work delivering potions to them for a troll named Ravus. Though the potions are medicinal for the faeries, it's a heroin-like drug for humans, who get temporary magical powers from it. Lolli and Dave are junkies, shooting up the drug which they call "Nevermore." Val soon becomes addicted, too. Ravus catches Val and Lolli breaking into his home; he magically indentures Val to work for him for a month to work off her debt. Ravus, however, is not as bad as he seems; he starts teaching Val swordfighting; she's a natural, after years of lacrosse. Like Beauty and the Beast, Val realizes she is falling in love with Ravus and cleans up her act.

Ravus' customers, however, are turning up dead, and Ravus becomes the main suspect. When Val's best friend comes to New York to try and convince her to come back home, they get caught in the middle of the mystery and are kidnapped by an evil faerie. Can Val clear Ravus' name? Will she ever return home now that her life is so intertwined with the world of the faeries?

Critical Evaluation
Black has written an extremely dark story of faerie, a very gritty urban fantasy. At times, it almost feels too dark. Black covers a lot of ground here--homelessness, drug addiction, rape, violence, with a few alternative lifestyles thrown in for good measure--and at times to me it felt like she was being edgy for the sake of being edgy, rather than choosing controversial topics that would really advance her story and her characters. Why, for instance, did the impetus for Val's leaving need to be the needlessly shocking affair between her boyfriend and her mother? (I did think the whole concept of Nevermore was creative and well-done, though.)

However, she's created a strong character in Val, one teenage girls who love the faerie genre will very much relate to, though I didn't feel that the character of Ravus was fully developed. Black is a talented writer, her beautiful language conveying the beautiful and seedy world of this magical New York. To be honest, this book was not quite my cup of tea. However, in reading the reviews of teen readers on Amazon, I can see that many young adult readers really loved this book and Holly Black's brand of dark faerie fantasy. This would be a great title to recommend to readers who are already fans of the genre, but for someone like me, who is relatively unfamiliar with the genre, it's not a compelling introduction.

Other Books in the Series
This is a companion novel to Tithe: A Modern Faerie Tale and Ironside: A Modern Faery's Tale. While these books inhabit the same world, they are companion books rather than pure sequels; the books stand alone, though characters from one may make an appearance in another.

About the Author
Holly Black is best known for being author of the children's fantasy series The Spiderwick Chronicles, though she has a big young adult following as well, thanks to her "Modern Faerie Tale" series. Her latest project is The Good Neighbors, a series of graphic novels, also aimed at young adults.

Curriculum Ties
This book is not well-suited for use in any school curriculum.

Booktalking Ideas
1. Talk about how Val gets caught up in the world of the street kids, their connection to the faerie world, and their addiction to Never.
2. Talk about Val and Ravus' "Beauty and the Beast" relationship.
3. Talk about the book's murder mystery element.

Reading Interest/Level
This book is full of dark subjects, making it appropriate for teens in high school.

Challenge Issues
This book is chock full of 'em. Take your pick: drug addiction, homeless teens, rape, sex, violence, murder... and throw in a few gay characters to boot. If the book were to be challenged, the librarian should ideally read the book; if not able to, s/he should read professional reviews of the book and reviews on sites like Common Sense Media that detail its potentially controversial material. S/he should also be able to explain and defend the library's collection policy and explain how the title fits that policy. In the case of Valiant, she could point out that ALA named it both a "Best Book for Young Adults" and a "Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adult Readers." The book also won the Andre Norton Award for young adult fiction.

Selection Criteria
I was not familiar with the author or the faerie genre, but when I saw a prominent display of this author's book at a local library in their teen section, I decided to check it out.