Still working on whether I liked this one or not. I guess I could have given it 3 stars, but something held me back. 
 I just didn't care much for Val. I felt compassion for her, and hurt with her, but she went from lacrosse playing high school student to homeless drug addicted and sleeping in an old subway station way too seamlessly. It's not believable. At all. 
 Lolli and Dave's characters were too fake, too idealized homeless teenager, like the author did absolutely no research on their characters. Luis was decent, he worked to protect his brother, made deals to keep himself and his brother safe, showed anger when Lolli brought Val in and then tried to keep Val from his world, but even his character was off. 
 And I find it very unbelievable that Val's first reaction was to run away and become homeless. What about her father? What about the grandmother she talks of? Someone in her family would have taken her in. 
 Once again, like when I read Tithe, I'm left wondering how the main character can fall so easily in love. I understand the notion of love at first sight, but we're made to believe that the character (insert Val or Kaye here) falls for the "monster" 's personality and soul/self, but when exactly do they develop that love? Val loves almost immediately, but before she's even given a chance to know him. Again, unbelievable. 
 Overall, I thought Valiant was better than Tithe, but more unbelievable. I've started Ironside and it seems to start out better written, which leads me to believe that Black is just constantly improving. (I previously wondered how something as good as White Cat and Red Glove could come from someone who wrote something as bad as Tithe.) We shall see.