Editorial Review
When seventeen-year-old Valerie runs away to New York City, she's trying to escape a life that has utterly betrayed her. Sporting a new identity, she takes up with a gang of squatters who live in the city's labyrinthine subway system.
But there's something eerily beguiling about Val's new friends. And when one talks Val into tracking down the lair of a mysterious creature with whom they are all involved, Val finds herself torn between her newfound affection for an honorable monster and her fear of what her new friends are becoming.
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Customer Reviews
More Fey Travels 
2008-03-30
Valiant takes off in different directions from Tithe. There are some similar tertiary characters, but overall it's a completely different book. This book also touches on some gritty themes: teen addiction, homelessness, sexuality, shoplifting, and mother/daughter problems.
I found the writing stronger in this book, but maybe I enjoyed the plot/story more so than Tite. (Tithe is a good book). These books are not for young kids, but rather for teens. Some parents might find the themes in these books to adult-like; however, I think that it might be more realistic to offer the books as examples of the problems of addiction and how unromantic homelessness is for these street kids.
Valiant missed the definition of its own title... 
2008-03-08
I think that Holly is a creative writer but she loses her characters in her obsession with being dark. I mean I know she is trying to prove herself not `just a children's writer', but the problem with that is she loses the importance of having an interesting plot. I can't even fully explain how wrong this book is. How can you care about a character that can't seem to care about herself, or any one around her? How can you call a person "Valiant" that doesn't stand for anything? How is being- too delicate to face your problems, too weak to say no to drugs, too feeble to say no to sex with a guy, that you don't want to have sex with- how is this being valiant? I thought that the first book was an interesting read not perfect, but good enough, but valiant was almost as terrible as a book can be.
Note to younger readers: the main character in this book is the furthest thing from Valiant.
Note to Holly Black: find a dictionary look up the word Valiant and explain to your readers how you could misconstrue the meaning so badly.
Jbird 2008-02-17
Black continues to create a world where the reader is drawn to it's mysteriousness. The characters are so well developed that you imagine yourself reeking havic on the city.
Tithe is better! 
2008-01-27
I read tithe and was hoping this would be like it BUT it is not. It is very different drugs sex and magic, the ending is the best part with a little romance.
Good but.... 2008-01-25
Valiant was one of those books that leaves you scratching your head and wondering where the author is going with this. Now, as disappointed as I was that the second book didn't pick up with the same characters as Tithe, I still went into it full of expectation. I however was left feeling really sour. Not that it wasn't good; the writing was edgy and dark, full of twisted and realistic characters that are interlaced in a world that is far from realistic. Hot Trolls...now that just hasn't been done before so I have to give my props to Holly for being creative. However, the book just kind of fell flat. I didn't feel any real connection between Val and any of the characters. The fairy drug was an interesting twist but the book just felt more like it focused on this element and everything else was a side story. I have faith Holly had some plan to tie these characters together with the first book and I am sure it will all make sense in Ironside. Without this faith though a reader could lose a bit of interest. I give it 4 stars only for her unique writing style while a bit rough around the edges is alway pulled off with incredible imagery and a sense of gut wrenching realism. Plot was so-so and predictable. It felt like Black knew how she wanted to start and where she wanted to end up but had no idea what to do in between. Still can't wait to read Ironside though!
Amazing read and yet... 2008-07-04
As good as this book was, it wasn't actually necessary to the series. 'Valiant' was entertaining, but not what I expected when someone told me it was the next part in the series after 'Tithe'. While it does relate it still is sort of its own story withing the full story. Great on its own, it didn't need to sneak into the middle.
Valiant 2008-05-22
When I first started this book, I wasn't sure I would like it as much as I liked Tithe. My advice is to stick with it! It ended up being a good read. Although it doesn't seem to have connections to Tithe other than the fact that it deals with Faerie, characters from this book show up in Ironside, the actual sequel to Tithe. If you have already read Ironside, I don't think that there is information that will ruin Valiant for you, and I would still read it. I would recommend this book to teens who liked Tithe, enjoy fantasy and even those who like books that are more realistic and are looking for something a little out of their comfort zone because of the very real and 'human' conflicts that plague the main characters.
Unique, Amazing, Fascinating, Raw 
2008-05-21
An amazing and unique modern day fairy tale. For anyone who loves fantasy or fairy stories, or books about strong women, i would suggest. Think "the weetzie bat books" and make it more "today" (the main girl is prone to think of video games often, etc), sexier, more raw, more dangerous, and add some serious girl toughness. think tank girl living underground in the tunnels in nyc and battling fairies (and they aren't typical tooth-fairy demure types) and being a hero. Think strange drugs and romance. this book literally took me to a world i have never heard another author describe.
I found this in the young adults section, but if you are buying for your a younger kid, i would read it first and decide. There is a lot of drug-type use and bondage sex and regular sex, lids living underground and running away, and other things that some kids might not be ready for. To put it a different way, it is very RAW. While i am all for kids reading mature books, this one gets pretty intense in a way that i think could be inappropriate. In my opinion the "mature" aspects are what makes the story really amazing, but i think this is definitely not for the younger or more immature reader. I am certainly not a prude, but i really would not want my 12 year old reading this. But i would totally buy it for her when she was a bit older!
but that is just me.
Riding the Crest of the Young Adult Wave 
2008-04-09
YA fantasy seems to be more popular than ever, and Holly Black's right in the middle of it.
As another reviewer mentioned, this is better than Tithe, though the world of teenagers that Black serves up is a bit raw and sensationalist. In Valiant, the magic drug use keeps it honest, and not edgy for edgy's sake. (Still a few too many unnecessarily "brutal" elements make it a bit callow.)
Definitely a fast paced book that'll hold your interest.
Much Better Than Tithe 2008-04-01
After Tithe, I was reluctant to continue reading Holly Black's faerie tales. However, a close friend assured me the series got better afterward and--even better!--all the books were linked. So I gave Valiant a chance, and I'm glad I did. In fact, I read it twice, because Valiant is a novel that makes more sense and is even more enjoyable during the second read.
The prologue gives us a glimpse of the side problem: somewhere, someone is poisoning antidotes meant for magical creatures. "Ravus," is one creature's final word.
Chapter one introduces us to Val. Val is a girl who does better as a sidekick, and she's perfectly comfortable in that position, particularly to her friend Ruth. "Robin to Ruth's Batman," as she puts it. She's also a bit of a tomboy, something she seems to find her mother responsible for, since she wasn't allowed to wear make-up, short skirts, or date boys until high school. And now she's dating Tom, only to find out she's not the only one--she's sharing a boy with her own mother.
This is where Val begins to change. She runs off, shaves her head, and allows herself to seem like a homeless person on the streets of New York. There she meets Lolli and Dave, who take her to their underground hideout with Dave's brother, Luis. But what's absolutely bizarre is that all three of her new comrades seem to think faeries and myths are real. And Val finds this out for herself when she becomes indebted to a troll... who happens to be called Ravus.
Holly Black takes her time developing these characters in intriguing ways. No one comes off as particularly boring or annoying to the reader--a HUGE improvement from Tithe. Val's inner struggles are made believable--her disgust and betrayal when she finds out about Tom and her mother; her uncertainty and wariness of her new friends; the addiction she forms with a strange drug called Never. And, probably the most enjoyable, was her developing feelings for Ravus and his strange actions around her.
We see guest appearances of Roiben and "the green-skinned, black-eyed" girl from Tithe, hinting that the books of modern faerie tales Holly Black is writing are all tied together. She paces this novel very well--I actually had difficulty putting it down to sleep! The swearing isn't overboard and the drama is kept out of the soap opera zone.
In short, Valiant is a wonderful continuation of Tithe, and I'm actually eager to get my hands on Ironside now.
