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I hated loving this book. Having read Black's Titheand Ironside, I was none to keen on reading Valiant. Black has a penchant for writing about the scourge of human society, leaving me with a sense of filth, and therefore compelling me to exfoliate. None the less, Black’s writing is so perversely alluring, that she all but grabs you by the neck and drags you into the story.

Val is impossible to describe. She’s a shell of a girl. In possession of one lezzie best friend, a mohawk donning boyfriend, and incredibly vain and insecure mother, Val participates in her life, but couldn’t be accused of living it. When Val walks in on her mother getting it on with her boyfriend, Val flees, going nowhere, and reveling in her lack of destination. She finds herself in New York City, homeless, but free. It is here that she encounters Lolli, a blue haired Never addict, Sketchy Dave, brother to the “sighted� Luis, and joins their trio of loner losers. Val is introduced to a world that will afford you every possible pleasure you care to take, while leaving you living in squalor and slowly choking the life from you, one Never hit at a time. Val drowns in the world of fairie, and yet finds her inner strength, as well as the love she craves. But in order to save herself, and the troll she loves, Val must learn that being free to make your own bad decisions serves no purpose other than enabling you to own your destruction.

The characters within this story suck at life. They make piss poor role models and I hope that younger readers of this book wouldn’t think that Val’s “adventure� is the least bit realistic. Val would have wound up dead, on in the very least, assaulted. These characters run from their problems, steal, take drugs, and engage in casual sex. And yet I loved this book because these characters drop f bombs, filch, become addicts, and engage in casual sex. Life isn’t always pretty, and this book captures the essence of that filth while adding a touch of whimsy, and an acceptable happy ending.