Tithe by Holly Black

I had mixed feelings about reading this, as other urban fairy tales have failed to capture my attention and imagination enough to carry on to the end. However it has been recommended so many times now that I decided to give it a go. I liked the opening and settled in to enjoy the story, and was certainly engaged enough to be thoroughly disgruntled when I reached the ‘reveal’ (I hate spoilers, so won't say in case you haven't read it, but you’ll know what I mean when you get there). Anyway I didn't want to read anymore and put the book aside.

My disappointment was down to my preferences, not the writing or the plot line. I just couldn't get the vision of Kaye out of my head and that really put me off. Still, a couple of days later I was back, I had to know what happened to Kaye, Roiben and Corny.

‘Tithe’ is well written, and moves along at a decent pace. It is a dark, gritty and bloody novel, with evocative imagery, set not in the fairy world of just the sweet and kind, but of the equally harsh and cruel. A world of the Seelie and Unseelie Courts. a fairy world that is political, capricious and violent, where characters are cruel for their own pleasure and amusement.

The characters are interesting and well drawn, though I would have liked more detail and insight into Roiben. He's interesting and attractive but edging on the two dimensional; I felt I knew him least. This reflected on the romance with Kaye which I felt lacked depth. I’ve moved on to ‘Valient’ and ‘Ironside’, so it must be good…its certainly enjoyable, and I'd recommend it as a good read.

Heights and Lows

Almost panicked as I somehow failed to set record on the second part of Wuthering Heights. Thank God for online replays! I enjoyed the drama, as much for Andrew Lincoln and Tom Hardy, as well as Sarah Lancaster a much under-used actress, but I wasn't convinced, and generally felt disappointed. Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights is about one of the greatest, all consuming, destructive, passionate loves in literature, filled with the full A to Z of emotions, good and bad. What we get with this production, is a somewhat restrained, almost Jane Austen-like tale of bad manners, but set in glorious Yorkshire countryside. The actors were good, but altogether it was a handful of sparklers rather than a full-blown fireworks display.

I am also disappointed on the book front. After years of not getting round to it, I finally read Tithe by Holly Black. Again, I enjoyed it, much more so than TV's Wuthering Heights, but I was left wanting at the end. What worked for me was the human girl with ability and a faery knight, it still worked for me after the revelation that she had Faery blood, I partly switched off with the green pixie deal. That just didn't work for me with, but I'm reading Ironside, so it wasn't all bad - I just hate it when books disappoint me though.

Exhaustion seems to have become a permaent fixture in my daily routine - regardless of how much or how little sleep I get. The knock-on effect is that I'm reading fewer books. This is very frustrating, so should the Grime Reaper come calling, I shall have to tell him to push off, and point to my currently ever-growing, not-diminishing reading pile. I don'y want to think about how little I've written - which is NONE! Now I need to sleep, so .....another day.......