Kith - Good Neighbors Book 2 - Holly Black & Ted Naifeh

The Good Neighbors:
Kith - Book Two
Holly Black (Author)
Ted Naifeh (Illustrator)
Graphix an imprint of
Scholastic
ISBN 9780439855631

I have been anticipating this book for more than a year, since I read book one, Kin. Now to be honest, I am not a huge graphic novel reader. I can count on one hand how many I have read in the last decade, but this book I could not wait for and the next year, until book three comes out, is going to seem to last forever.

Graphix is the graphic novel arm of Scholastic press, most famous for Jeff Smith's Bone. This book is the second in a trilogy from Holly Black, one of the authors of the Spiderwick Chronicles. The series called The Good Neighbors began with Kin last fall, and continues this year with Kith. This is an incredible graphic novel. The story that started strong and compelling in book one, becomes even better in this follow-up story. The characters are enticing and draw the readers in, and the artwork is incredible.

This is the continuing story of Rue Silver. Rue thought she was a typical student - she had good friends, hung out, went to class and broke into abandoned buildings to climb and explore in them. But after finding out that her mother was really of the faery folk, she finds out that her grandfather Aubrey wants to take over the town. He wants to surround the whole area in a spell and separate it from the human world. Rue is torn in her loyalties - her family among the faeries or her friends and all the humans in the town. An epic battle is brewing between man and faery and Rue is stuck right in the middle.

This story has a very dark edge. Rue and her friends are university students, struggling with issues of loyalty, fidelity, lust, and all the other emotions and decisions they need to make. Unfortunately they also all know about the faery world, and once you learn about something you cannot unlearn it. Her friends are drawn into this power struggle and she must decide what side she is on.

Unfortunately the book ends with a cliffhanger, leaving the reader salivating and waiting for the next installment due in the fall of 2010. This is a book very well-done with an amazing storyline and fantastic artwork.

(First Published in Imprint 2009-11-13 as 'From Spiderwick to Fantastic'.)

Other Books by Holly Black:

The Poison Eaters and Other Stories (2010)

The Modern Faerie Tales
Tithe (2002)
Valiant (2005)
Ironside (2007)

The Spiderwick Chronicles
The Field Guide (2003)
The Seeing Stone (2003)
Lucinda's Secret (2003)
The Ironwood Tree (2004)
The Wrath of Mulgarath (2004)
Arthur Spiderwick's Notebook of Fantastical Observations (2005)
Arthur Spiderwick's Field Guide to the Fantastical World Around You (2005)
Care and Feeding of Sprites (2006)

Beyond Spiderwick
The Nixie's Song (2007)
A Giant Problem (2008)
The Wyrm King (2009)

The Good Neighbors
Kin (2008)
Kith (2009)
Kind (2010)

The Curse Workers
White Cat (2010)
Red Glove (2011)
Black Heart (2012)

Anthologies
Geektastic: Stories from the Nerd Herd (2009)
Zombies vs. Unicorns (2010)
Welcome to Bordertown (2011)