Review: White Cat by Holly Black

Cassel comes from a family of curse workers -- people who have the power to change your emotions, your memories, your luck, by the slightest touch of their hands. And since curse work is illegal, they're all mobsters, or con artists. Except for Cassel. He hasn't got the magic touch, so he's an outsider, the straight kid in a crooked family. You just have to ignore one small detail -- he killed his best friend, Lila, three years ago.

Ever since, Cassel has carefully built up a façade of normalcy, blending into the crowd. But his façade starts crumbling when he starts sleepwalking, propelled into the night by terrifying dreams about a white cat that wants to tell him something. He's noticing other disturbing things, too, including the strange behavior of his two brothers. They are keeping secrets from him, caught up in a mysterious plot. As Cassel begins to suspect he's part of a huge con game, he also wonders what really happened to Lila. Could she still be alive? To find that out, Cassel will have to out-con the conmen.

Holly Black has created a gripping tale of mobsters and dark magic where a single touch can bring love -- or death -- and your dreams might be more real than your memories.

Holly Black has outdone herself. I was absorbed in the world of the Curse Workers from the beginning, and I wish there was more to White Cat so I could still be in it. Cassel is a fantastic main character, and his snarky retorts had me giggling throughout the entire book. 

At the beginning, you're sort of dropped into the middle of the story and world, but the way plot aspects are introduced is great. The backstory is told for the most part through flashbacks, and the curse worker abilities are explained, but also shown in everyday life, like the wearing of gloves and tv shows about bad curse workers turned good to help the police. 

I thought I had the story figured out a little ways into the book - and I was right. But luckily there were so many other things going on that I had no idea what was coming next. 

White Cat was fantastic, and now I'm disappointed that I have to wait for the next book. I NEED it. 

FTC: This book was provided free from the publisher for review. I received no money whatsoever for this review.