Valiant
Runaway Valerie flees her abusive home and stumbles into the arms of the faerie world hidden beneath New York City. There she meets a dangerous unseelie prince who claims her as his own. Caught between human cruelty and faerie politics, she must decide where she truly belongs.
Everything You Need to Know About Valiant
Val runs away from home and ends up in New York City with nothing but the clothes on her back and a talent for lying. She falls in with a group of street kids who are addicted to Nevermore, a drug that makes you see faeries and feel invincible. The thing is, Nevermore is actually a real faerie drug. The faeries peddling it aren't being kind; they're harvesting human emotions like a crop. Ravus, a troll, becomes Val's unexpected anchor when everything dissolves into addiction and faerie manipulation.
This is gritty urban faerie fantasy, no cottages or quests, just a kid trying to survive on the streets while addicted to something she doesn't fully understand. Val's voice is sharp and self-aware; she's not likable in a traditional sense, which makes her more real. The dynamic between Val and Ravus is genuinely touching without being soft. The NYC setting grounds the faerie horror in a concrete, lived-in space. Black doesn't flinch from depicting addiction as it actually is, not glamorous, just consuming.
The worldbuilding feels earned through Val's POV; you learn the rules alongside her.
Drug use and addiction (central to plot), homelessness, violence, sexual content, self-harm, manipulation and abuse dynamics, starvation/poverty.
Val gets clean, sort of. She's still entangled with the faeries and with Ravus, and that entanglement is ongoing. The emotional climax isn't a victory; it's survival and a tentative stability that could crumble. Ravus loves her, but in a way that's both protective and possessive. The Nevermore plot resolves, but Val's future is deliberately uncertain.
Readers who loved Tithe and want more of Black's street-level faerie world. Fans of gritty YA (Laurie Halse Anderson's material, not Shailene Woodley sunshine). NOT for readers wanting a typical romance arc or uplifting narrative. Fair comp: Skin (also about addiction and survival), The Diviners (paranormal elements, NYC setting) but darker than both.
Book 2 of Modern Faerie Tales. Read Tithe first (it's foundational), and Ironside wraps up the trilogy. Valiant can feel like a tonal shift, but it's deliberately exploring a different corner of Black's faerie world.
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