The Modern Faerie Tales by Holly Black – A Book Review + Style Inspiration

The Modern Faerie Tales by Holly Black

A Book Review Style Inspiration

The Modern Faerie Tales series by Holly Black is one of my all-time favorite YA novels. All of them are super easy reads, but the story themselves are what stands out. Each of them takes place in the fairy world, but is slightly different. I really love the world she created with these and the characters are strong female leads which is something I enjoy in novels. I thought it would be fun to share my reviews for each of these books as well as some style inspiration for what I think the characters would wear so I hope you enjoy!

Tithe, the first book in the series ( I think it’s Holly Black’s debut novel actually) follows Kaye, a nomad teen who travels with her mom as she plays in rock bands. A series of events forces her back to New Jersey with her grandmother and her childhood home where circumstances bring her to the world of fairies. I love Kaye’s uniqueness and her ability to be herself. She expresses how she feels different from other people and I think that resonates to people everywhere, especially teens!

Style Inspiration for Kaye

Kaye’s style picks are pretty basic, a little punk influenced, and based on what’s described in the book. She seems to wear a lot of t-shirt and jeans with boots so that’s what I imagined!

Valiant follows a girl named Val who witnesses something horrible and runs away to New York City where she meets a group of homeless misfits who have dealings with fairies who live in the city. There are a ton of other things that happen, but I don’t want to give it away. This is my favorite of the 3 books as I really loved Val’s character so much. I loved her resilience and desire to live on her own terms. I loved her fighting spirit and the other characters in this book are just really raw and real. It’s actually a surprisingly realistic turn of events in this book considering it’s about fairies.

Style Inspiration for Val

Val is sporty; she plays on the lacrosse team at her school. She dresses very utilitarian or at least that’s how it’s described in the book and she expresses a disdain for makeup so I steered clear of that!

This is the last book in the series and it follows Kaye mainly, but features all of the characters in the fairy world from all 3 books. In it, Kaye has made a vow and is forced to go on an impossible quest to find a fairy who can tell a lie. I don’t want to say too much about this one either in case you haven’t read it, but it’s a fun read and I love that it showed all the characters interacting with each other since they are in the same universe and had previously had parallel stories, but never ran into each other so that was cool!

You can get these books at Target, your local Barnes and Noble or anywhere online. They’re pretty easy to find!