Review of White Cat by Holly Black

Cassel Sharp comes from a family of organized criminals.  But they’re no ordinary mobsters, they’re curse workers, able to change people’s emotions, memories, luck with just a touch of their hands.  Forced to keep their abilities secret because of the outlaw of magic in the 1930s, most curse-workers fall in with the six most powerful worker families and use their abilities for illegal and often nefarious purposes.  All except Cassel, who can’t use magic but has commited the worst crime of all; he killed his best friend Lila three years ago, he thinks.

Now at boarding school, trying to live a straight-laced life while his mother is in jail, Cassel finds his façade of normality crumbling when he is plagued by dreams of a white cat that wants to give him a mysterious message.  He’s also beginning to suspect that his family, particularly his curse-working brothers are keeping secrets from him and potentially involving him in a huge con game. Now Cassel has to out-con his friends and family as well as his enemies in order to find the truth about Lila and about himself.

Combining the heady mix of mafia stories, con games, and magic, Black creates a wholly original, realistic, and intricate world in which, if you’re not careful, your whole world can be swept out from under you, as it is for Cassel and the reader in turn.  Similar in tone and candor to Black’s previous YA fiction, this books keeps the even the most discerning reader guessing and then begging for more.

A sequel, titled Red Glove, will be released later this year.

This review was written by Morgan Suity, Teen Room volunteer.  If you are interested in this book check it out in the library catalog, or find it on our New Books shelf.

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If you are interested in writing a review for the blog, contact Morgan on Thursday evenings in the Teen Room, or email morgan (dot) suity @ gmail.com

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