Explore the real-world places that appear in Valiant by Holly Black. Each location on the map shows what happens there in the novel, the real history of the place, and what's there today. Featured locations include Penn Station, Port Authority Bus Terminal, Washington Square Park, Tompkins Square Park, The Subway Tunnels Beneath Midtown and 6 more.
Midtown Manhattan, 8th Ave & 33rd St — Val's arrival in the city
After discovering her mother's affair with her father's lover and being betrayed by her family, seventeen-year-old Valerie Russell flees to New York City. She arrives in the cavernous bustle of the city's transit hubs with little money and a new determination to shed her old identity. The sprawling terminals introduce her to the world of runaways who survive in the margins of the city.
The original Pennsylvania Station opened in 1910 and was demolished in 1963, with the current underground station built beneath Madison Square Garden. The rebuilt station became one of the busiest transit hubs in North America.
Penn Station is the busiest passenger rail station in the Western Hemisphere, serving Amtrak, Long Island Rail Road and NJ Transit. It is a functioning public transit hub.
Visit: Penn Station (landmark)
8th Ave & 42nd St — Where runaways drift into the city
Port Authority-style transit hubs frame the world of teenage runaways in the novel, where kids like Val arrive with nowhere to go. Val's search for safety and a fresh start leads her into the orbit of street kids who survive by scavenging and squatting. It is this world of the city's discarded youth that brings her to Lolli, Dave, and Ravus's circle.
The terminal opened in 1950 to consolidate interstate bus operations in Manhattan. For decades it has been known as an arrival point for runaways and newcomers to the city.
It remains one of the busiest bus terminals in the world, handling commuter and intercity buses. It is an active transit facility rather than a tourist attraction.
Greenwich Village — Street kids and city life
Parks like Washington Square form the daytime landscape of Val's new life, where she panhandles, observes the crowds, and meets the street kids who will become her gang. Here she sheds her old identity and learns the survival rules of the city's young outcasts. It is a place of freedom and quiet vulnerability before she is drawn into the tunnels.
Washington Square Park was a potter's field and public execution ground in the late 18th century before becoming a park in 1827. The Washington Arch, completed in 1892, commemorates George Washington's inauguration.
The park is a lively public gathering place with a fountain, performers, chess players, and NYU students. It is open daily to visitors.
Visit: Washington Square Park (park)
East Village — Squatter and punk culture
The East Village's squatter and punk scene is the real-world backdrop for the kind of crowd Val falls in with. Her gang of squatters scavenges, scrounges, and lives off the grid, drawing a tight-knit family of runaways who protect one another. Val finds a sense of belonging here, even as hints of something unnatural about her friends begin to unsettle her.
Tompkins Square Park was the site of the 1874 Tompkins Square riot and the 1988 police riot over a curfew and homelessness. The East Village was long associated with squatting, punk music, and counterculture.
The park is a community green space with a dog run, playgrounds, and the Hare Krishna Tree. It remains a hub of East Village social life.
Visit: Tompkins Square Park (park)
Abandoned tunnels — The squatters' underground home
Val takes up with a gang of squatters led by the charismatic Lolli who live in the city's labyrinthine subway system. Down here, among the abandoned platforms and forgotten passages, Val finds a makeshift home, but she also senses something eerily beguiling about her new friends. The tunnels become the gateway into a hidden faerie world she never knew existed.
New York's subway opened in 1904 and includes numerous abandoned stations and disused tunnels. Grand Central's lower levels and nearby tunnels have long drawn tales of homeless communities living underground.
Active subway lines run through Midtown, and sealed or disused tunnels are off-limits to the public. Visiting them is dangerous and illegal.
42nd St & Park Ave — Gateway to the underground
Grand Central stands in for the great transit cathedral above the world of Val's underground friends. Beneath hubs like this, the squatters move through hidden tunnels and service passages. Val's journey from the bright public concourse down into the dark is a movement from the ordinary human world to the realm of faerie.
Grand Central Terminal opened in 1913 and was saved from demolition in the 1970s following a preservation campaign led in part by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. Its celestial ceiling mural and four-faced clock are iconic.
The terminal is a major commuter rail hub and tourist attraction, with restaurants, shops, and the Whispering Gallery. It is open daily.
Visit: Grand Central Terminal (landmark)
Manhattan — Where faerie and mortal worlds brush together
Central Park represents the patch of wild green in the city where the faerie world edges into the mortal one. Val and her friends cross such spaces as they move between the city above and the tunnels below. The natural spaces offer a contrast to the grimy subway tunnels, reminding Val of the old magic hidden in the modern world.
Designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, Central Park opened in 1858 and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1963. It covers 843 acres.
One of the most visited urban parks in the world, it features lakes, trails, a zoo, and numerous landmarks. It is free and open daily.
Visit: Central Park (park)
Beneath the city — The troll's hidden home
Val is talked into tracking down the lair of a mysterious creature, and her search leads her to Ravus, a troll who is an honorable monster. To escape with her life she must strike a bargain with him. Their relationship grows from fear to affection, even as she worries about what her friends are becoming.
New York's underbelly contains miles of tunnels, utility passages, and abandoned infrastructure beneath the streets. The location is fictional, placed near Midtown South for the sake of the map.
There is no public site here; the area is an ordinary part of the Manhattan streetscape above. Underground infrastructure is closed to the public.
14th St — Dealers, kids, and the pull of faerie drugs
Union Square-style city plazas are where Val's friends scrounge for money and supplies, and where she begins to see how deeply they are tied to faerie. Her friends' dependence on a strange substance called nevermore grows, and Val becomes increasingly afraid of what it is doing to them. The tension between loyalty and fear drives her toward a confrontation.
Union Square became a public park in 1839 and has long been a site of political rallies and protests. It is also home to the Union Square Greenmarket, established in 1976.
The area is a busy public plaza with a farmers market, shops, and subway access. It is a popular gathering spot day and night.
Visit: Union Square Park (park)
Alphabet City — Abandoned buildings and squatter homes
Abandoned buildings in the Lower East Side reflect the kind of squatter life that Val and her gang lead above ground. Val shares food and shelter with Lolli, Dave, and the others, and begins to find family among them. But as their behavior changes, she sees the dangerous side of her new life.
In the 1970s–1990s, many Lower East Side buildings were abandoned and occupied by squatters, some of whom later legalized their homes as co-ops. Alphabet City was long associated with urban decay and counterculture.
The neighborhood is now largely gentrified, with restaurants, bars, and renovated buildings alongside a few surviving squatter-origin co-ops. The private buildings are not open to visitors.
East River crossing — Between worlds
Bridges and crossings in the city echo Val's movement between her old life and her new one. Her flight from home leads across the threshold into a world of hidden tunnels and faerie bargains. Such liminal spaces mirror her struggle between the safe, ordinary world and the dangerous allure of faerie.
The Brooklyn Bridge opened in 1883 and was the longest suspension bridge in the world at the time. It was designed by John A. Roebling and completed by his son Washington Roebling and daughter-in-law Emily Warren Roebling.
The bridge carries vehicles and has a popular pedestrian and bicycle promenade. It is a National Historic Landmark and a major tourist attraction.
Visit: Brooklyn Bridge (landmark)
More by Holly Black: All Holly Black books
More novels set in New York City: Browse all New York City books on Map A Story
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