Exotic and stunning, Tithe is the story of Kaye caught up in power struggles between Seelie and Unseelie faerie courts in the crusade for power and dominance. Kaye's just a typical punk - poor, with a lousy band-playing mother, on the streets just living life like any other teenager - booze, drugs, and more dancin'. All that changes when she saves a silver haired man in the woods - Roiben, and learns of graver things from her faerie friends Spike, Lutie, etc. 
 Tithe succeeds because it is so incessantly enchanting; Kaye is involved in the most foreboding of struggles, the strangest of creatures and the most glamorous fey. (Yes, maybe Roiben has something to do with that..) Against a backdrop of street city punks and broken down deserted homes - Tithe's setting really stands out in a feeling of almost mythical awe. Kaye's a bit headstrong, arrogant as a heroine, there are some things that could have been avoided if she was a bit more prudent; but I think her character lent to the mood of the faerie power struggle and bleak yet fanatical backdrop of Tithe. Kaye's a punk, she's a kid schooled in street-smarts, raised with a music crazed mother, and harked on by her stringent grandmother. In the whole scheme of things, I think she fits in as a heroine, and she seems to be totally fitting as a teenage voice. 
 Also, Tithe makes its point with the plethora of stories about the side character. It's not just about Kaye's use in the faerie struggle, or her relationship with Roiben - eventually many of her human friends are drawn in to the struggle, for better or for worse. Tithe has leads readers in the beginning of a strange yet brilliant world of second questions and questioning surroundings - which make any reader want to read more. 
 Overall Tithe is stunning as a YA supernatural series, and I look forward to re-reading the next books in the series.