Valiant: A Modern Tale of Faerie

Another audiobook chosen because it was available and the ones I had on hold were not. I’d read the first Modern Tale of Faerie, Tithe, and didn’t like it much -- but, I thought, that was ten years ago, I’ve read other books by Holly Black since then and Valiant isn’t about the same characters as Tithe.

Val is feeling betrayed by the people she loves when she goes into New York to watch a hockey game and then misses the last train home. She falls in with a group of teenagers who live in the subway tunnels and run mysterious errands for faeries living in the city. Faeries who are being poisoned.

Valiant is a little darker and grittier than I’d prefer, and I had to skip over a couple of the descriptions around taking drugs (that show more sort of thing distresses me). But I was surprised by how much I wanted to keep reading!

Something else which I was not expecting was that, even though this is a story where friendships can be disappointing and difficult, when things are at their most critical, the characters’ success depends on friends going out of their way to support each other.

I enjoyed Black’s prose and the hints of Beauty and the Beast. I cared about Val and understood her choices, even when I didn’t agree with them. The way she builds on skills from playing lacrosse-playing background and gains new skills through practice is satisfyingly realistic. I also appreciated that this story doesn’t glamourise running away from home or addiction.

People said video games were bad because they made you numb to death, made you register entrails spattering across a screen as a sign of success. In that moment, Val thought that the real problem with games was that the player was supposed to try everything. If there was a cave, you went in it. If there was a mysterious stranger, you talked to him. If there was a map, you followed it. But in games, you had a hundred million lives and Val only had this one. show less

Val Russel lives a normal life with an annoying mother, a loving boyfriend, and lacrosse. A bit hot tempered, she clashes with teammates one too many times and finds herself kicked off the team. Then she goes home unexpectedly only to find her boyfriend and her mother kissing. Distraught and betrayed, Val decides to escape for a while and goes to New York after impulsively shaving her head and going to the hockey game she and her now ex were going to attend. Two homeless teens happen upon her sleeping and take her under their wing, teaching her how to survive and their own tips and tricks. They also introduce her to the world of faeries much darker than expected, but with addictive faerie medicine that gives humans faerie powers for a show more short time. Val spirals out of control more and more until she's caught stealing some it by Ravus, an exiled troll, and he binds her as a servant until she has repaid her debt. As both her feelings for Ravus and her addiction deepen, Val finds herself the only one willing to save him and has to fight literal and metaphorical demons to do so.

I expected Valiant to be a direct sequel to Tithe with Roiben and Kaye, but it only exists in the same world. I would have been disappointed if Val and her story hadn't completely won me over within the first few pages. She feels like a real person with numerous flaws who just experienced her first real betrayal by those closest to her in addition to being soundly rejected by the only thing tying her to her school. Her escape to New York is far from idyllic, but it introduces her to a completely different world with ultimate freedom and very little repercussions. At first, the world is fun even with the seedier parts like digging through dumpsters and sleeping outside. Then, things improve even more with the discovery of the faerie world and "Never," a faerie medicine to help them cope with living so closely with huge amounts of iron.

The effects are much different for humans and allow them to have faerie powers of glamour and compulsion along with feelings of euphoria and dreamlike disorientation. She and her friends start by taking it sparingly to get what they need to survive and then progress to taking it at least daily and stealing from people off the street and upscale shops. The first half of the story moves rather slowly, focusing on Val and her descent. Despite poor decision making, I was on her side the whole time. I felt for her, especially when the more monstrous sides of her friends were revealed. The need to escape and avoid negative feelings is completely understandable. When she realizes how far into the drugs and horrible lifestyle she is, it's so much harder to go through the withdrawal and get out of that situation.

Val's relationship with Ravus bloomed organically and unexpectedly. It has a Beauty and the Beast dynamic that is much more complex. Ravus won't become a handsome prince with true loves kiss; he will always be a hideous troll, but Val loves him anyway. Val steals from him and lies to him before her feelings developed, complicating things and making it seem like she was just using him. Their sword sparring is one of my favorite parts of the story because it's where they get to know each other the most. With some subjects, they don't mind sharing, but others are avoided. From the time Ravus is introduced in the story, a murder mystery is revealed with Ravus as its prime suspect. This series of murders has ties to the Seelie court where he is from and exposes even more corruption of the supposed good side of the faerie world. Val is alone in fighting for Ravus' innocence. She's a drug addict, a thief, a vagrant, and casual with sex, all of which are seen in society as immoral. However, she's the hero of this story and fights with all her might to free the one she loves, showing that mistakes and others' perception doesn't define her. At her core, she's a hero through and through.

Valiant is a very different story than Tithe and one that I enjoy just a little bit more. The hero has so many things going against her that she actually has to deal with when her adventure is over unlike Kaye who then lived in the faerie world. Val's object of affection isn't a handsome prince (although Roiben is much darker than the usual), but someone she connects with completely. So much of the story portrays reversals of tropes that ring much more true to me. I read this installment in only a couple of days and I will devour the last of the series as soon as I can. show less

Plot: Val feels shocked and betrayed when she accidentally discovers a secret her mother, her boyfriend and her best friend had been keeping from her. She runs to New York and falls in with a trio of street kids. But these are no ordinary runaways. Luis has the sight; he can see fairies. Val soon becomes a messenger for a troll and addicted to a strange magical drug. She also becomes drawn into a series of faerie murders that she must solve to save her new friends and her new love.

This is the second book in Black’s Modern Tale of Faerie series but it is not a sequel to Tithe; it is more of a parallel story.Val, Luis, Dave and Ravus all appear in Ironside and they are peripherally aware of the events in Tithe but Valiant is its own show more story. Val is a great character. Though she loses herself and makes serious mistakes (the drug addiction notably), she ultimately proves herself to be brave and strong, valiant as Dave calls her. She is not a girl who is saved, she saves everyone else.

And, because I always need to comment on the romance, I love the concept of it in this novel. It is so completely different from romance in most faerie stories. Val does not fall for the inhumanly beautiful, immoral faerie prince. She falls in love with the monstrous faerie with a good heart. My one complaint was that there was little build up to their romance.We know that they’re in love because we’re told but we don’t really see it happen. I’d love to see more of their developing feelings in the future, more than the few pages they get at the end of Ironside. Meanwhile the twisted relationship between Dave and Lolli is in many ways what drives the plot of the novel, his desire for her and her disdain of him. They are both twisted by their addictions and their desires; they do bad and stupid things that hurt themselves and those around them. But the way Black writes them is very human. So while you might shake your head at some of the things they do, like Luis, you cannot truly hate them.

Black has created a fascinating world with a wonderful cast of characters. I look forward to more though I’ll probably have to wait some time. To date there is a collection of short stories, Poison Eaters, which takes place in the same universe but Black claims to have no plans to write a fourth Modern Tale of Faerie the near future. show less

first line (of the prologue): "The tree woman choked on poison, the slow sap of her blood burning."

first line (of the first chapter): "Valerie Russell felt something cold touch the small of her back and spun around, striking without thinking."

Holly Black pulls no punches. Her Faeries are not for the faint of heart. Nor are her humans, for that matter. Her characters -- and their relationships and motivations -- are gritty and complex. Still, though, there's magic in the world. And while that doesn't candy-coat all the nastiness, it does help the medicine go down. Valiant easily stands alone, but I still recommend reading it in conjunction with the earlier Tithe and subsequent Ironside. (Tithe and Ironside are "Movie A," as it were; show more Valiant is the "B Side"...though no less compelling for that.) show less

Holly Black continues to weave faery stories with dark taste in Valiant. I love the girls in Holly Black stories, how they embody resilience and strength no matter how f****d up things may get. Mistakes happen but they get it, especially when you're a teenager, you're bound to make your own. As what happened with Val, she got broken and hurt, and ended up finding her own strength amidst the dark situation she got caught up with.I pretty felt hanged up in the end. I wish there was more since everything was a mess mostly in the story. Then again this is no ordinary fairy tale. This is Holly Black's Modern Faery Tale, where nothing is what it seems.

After walking in on her boyfriend making out with her mom, Val runs away to New York, and takes up with a group of kids who live in the subway tunnels. Val soon discovers that these kids make deliveries for a troll to the local fairy population of New York. After breaking into Ravus’s (the troll’s) home, Val finds herself in servitude to him, making these deliveries as well – taking medication to the fairies in New York that will help them live in such close proximity to iron. Of course, after spending so much time in Ravus’s company, Val begins to realize she has feelings for the troll.

I don’t know why it’s taken me so long to read this book; I liked Tithe a lot, and always meant to pick up Valiant but never got around to show more it. I enjoyed Valiant even more than I expected to, and in fact even more than I remember liking Tithe; I’m not sure if that’s because I had forgotten how much I enjoy Black’s writing, or just because I like the story better… at any rate, I’m happy I’ve rediscovered Black, and am not going to wait quite as long this time to read Ironside.

I love stories that have elements of fairy tales, but I think I’ve mentioned that on numerous occassions. I love how this book was all Beauty and the Beast ish, as it is one of my favourite fairy tales. The whole “all that is gold does not glitter” (borrowing from Tolkein for the moment) idea and theme really is such a wonderful thing to be reminded of every once in a while, and when it includes fairies or something magicial, it makes it an even more enjoyable reminder.

I think I can probably relate more to Val than any of the characters in the first book, which is a reason why I enjoyed this book better than Tithe. We’ve all been in a position like Val’s – where we know we’re making bad choices, but are happy about it because gosh-darn-it, we’re the ones making the choices, no one else is telling us what to do.

As Val jumped down into the litter-strewn concrete after them, she thought how insane it was to follow two people she didn’t know into the bowels of the subway, but instead of being afraid, she felt glad. She would make all her own decisions now, even if they were ruinous ones. It was the same pleasurable feeling as tearing a piece of paper into tiny, tiny pieces.

And then in the end, even after making all these bad choices and being in a position where she’s addicted to drugs and whatnot, she’s still the one to save the day. She’s still the little mortal who can beat the bad fairies. show less

This is a follow up book to Tithe. Though set in the same world, Valiant follows a new set of characters. When Val catches her boyfriend and her kissing on the couch, she runs away from home and lands in New York City. She creates a new identity with herself and meets new friends, other teenagers living in the NY subway system. Through them she discovers the world of faerie and the many folk who live in the city despite the great amount of iron that could do them harm.

I love Val. She a great character, on the one hand noble and giving, willing to sacrifice herself for her friends, and on the other hand throwing herself into action (a way to combat prior complacency) to such an extent that she makes terrible and terrific mistakes. I show more like her, even when she's screwing up, even when she's stupid or mean, because it's clear that for all her self destruction there is a chance she could pull herself free of the rut she's dug for herself, and that underneath it all she has the will and good heart to do it.

At its core, Valiant is about figuring out and making sense of who you are as a person. It's about Val growing up and taking ownership of her life, but it's also about friendship and love and loyalty and the willingness to take risks in the name of what's right, in other words, being Valiant.

Though Val is a complex character, the plot itself isn't especially complex. But that's okay, because it's a fun, quick read, and altogether thoroughly enjoyable. show less