Valiant
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<p><p>when Seventeen-year-old Valerie Russell Runs Away To New York City, She’s Trying To Escape A Life That Has Utterly Betrayed Her. Sporting A New Identity, She Takes Up With A Gang Of Squatters Who Live In The City’s Labyrinthine Subway System. <br>but There’s Something Eerily Beguiling About Val’s New Friends. Impulsive Lolli Talks Of Monsters In The Subway Tunnels They Call Home And Shoots Up A Shimmery Amber-colored Powder That Makes The Shadows Around Her Dance. Severe Luis Claims He Can Make Deals With Creatures That No One Else Can See. And Then There’s Luis’s Brother, Timid And Sensitive Dave, Who Makes The Mistake Of Letting Val Tag Along As He Makes A Delivery To A Woman Who Turns Out To Have Goat Hooves Instead Of Feet. <br>when A Bewildered Val Allows Lolli To Talk Her Into Tracking Down The Hidden Lair Of The Creature For Whom Luis And Dave Have Been Dealing, Val Finds Herself Bound Into Service By A Troll Named Ravus. He Is As Hideous As He Is Honorable. And As Val Grows To Know Him, She Finds Herself Torn Between Her Affection For An Honorable Monster And Her Fear Of What Her New Friends Are Becoming.</p><h3>publishers Weekly</h3><p>what Makes Black's Books So Appealing To Young Adult Readers Is Their Well-balanced Mix Of Reality (including A Healthy Dose Of Sex), High-concept Fantasy And Old-fashioned Mystery. Raudman's Expert Reading Of Black's Second Book In What The Author Calls The Faerie Series Catches That Delicate Blend Very Well, Giving Equal Weight And Credibility To Characters Who Are Definitely Human (like Heroine Valerie, Her Dismal School Mates, Her Tacky Family And The Sad Young Derelicts She Meets In The Subway Tunnels Of New York) And Those Who Are From Another World Entirely Like The Golden-eyed Troll Ravus, Who Delivers A Drug That Heals Faeries But Kills The Human Runaways Who Steal It, Looking For A Way To Improve Their Desperate Condition. Raudman, Whom Listeners Might Recognize As Several Of The Younger Voices On The Simpsons, Has A Universally Appealing Voice Likely To Please Hardcore Fantasy Fans And Neophytes Alike. Ages 14-up. (july) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.</p>