Super mixed feelings about this one. Loved: (initially) the snippets of poetry at the beginning of each chapter. One or two lines of brilliance. Hated: the gleeful descriptions of violence, the seeming celebration of masochism/abusive relationships. Liked: the clarity with which "The Faerie" were portrayed as destructive and cruel... though the lack of ANY sympathetic characters was a little tedious; kind of think Julie Kagawa does a better job with nuancing the fallibility of both moral and fey--though Black certainly offers moments as a stronger writer. 
 Almost put this book down half a dozen times, skipped over a few bits (in particular the purported attraction between the main protagonists, which fell completely flat), and managed to pick it up again, as the story pulled itself back together. Ultimately though, I couldn't be bothered to finish and quit 20 pages before the end (tellingly!). The characters/narrative simply failed to capture my attention enough to overcome my increasing impatience with the lack of depth in any aspect of the story. The short epigraphs that I found engaging at the outset, struck me as increasingly vapid--occasionally they were excerpted in such as way as to render them entirely nonsensical; they were clearly higher in writing quality than Black's own narrative, thus presented a jarring rupture with the rest of the prose; and they never managed to connect with the story in terms of content. 
 Do I regret having invested a few days reading this book? No - it had its moments, and offered some interesting fodder for reflection, e.g: what if the heroine comes from a hardscrabble background, and FAILS to rise above her circumstances? What if she just acts like a normal teenager, making one poor decision after the next? What does friendship entail for impoverished teens? How are beauty and approbation akin to narcotics? But finally Kaye was just too underdeveloped and lacking in reflection to excite my interest--her thought process leading up to the terrible choices were never thoroughly enough explained to justify them, making her seem to act out a robotic series of actions. 
 I bought this because Black's The Darkest Part of the Forest was recommended at Powell's. Based on "Tithe" am not in a hurry to read anything else.