Saturday, May 21, 2011
A Review of White Cat (Curse Workers, Book 1), by Holly Black
White Cat (Curse Workers, Book 1), by Holly Black
A book review by Krista Ahlberg
The mob…now with magic!
Cassel Sharpe lives in a world much like ours…except that the touch of someone’s bare hand could kill you. In a world where magical ability—the ability to manipulate emotions, give luck, transform, and even to kill—is carried in the fingertips, magic was outlawed along with alcohol during the Prohibition and never legalized again. Gloves are worn at all times, especially in public, but everyone knows that there are curse workers still out there, whole families of them moving in the shadows and influencing events in every arena.
Cassel is the black sheep—the only non-worker in a family of workers, stuck away at boarding school, rigging poker games, fielding phone calls from his loving but misguided mother (who’s not going to be in jail much longer), and trying to forget about his best friend Lila, whom he accidentally killed three years ago. But then one night Cassel finds himself on the roof with no idea how he got there, except the memory of a white cat leading him through the darkness. With this, everything in Cassel’s world starts to shift, and he discovers that everything he thought was true is wrong. His brothers have been lying to him for years, Lila isn’t dead, and there just might be more to Cassel than anyone—even he—suspects.
I knew I would love this book from the first page. Cassel’s voice is conversational, likable, and yet dynamic, moving the reader through past and present with ease. The plot moves quickly, covering a variety of material and painting the world in fantastic detail: you’ve got to admire a book that makes both a trip to the animal shelter to kidnap a cat and a seedy underground mobster restaurant vital to the story it’s telling. White Cat brings together a large cast of interesting characters, all realistic, flawed, and often very funny, especially Cassel’s Granddad, who stands out among the rest. My only complaint is the book’s ending, which seemed to rush through the final climactic scenes and failed to explain everything to my satisfaction. But I have high hopes for the sequel, Red Glove, and I don’t doubt that it will live up to all of them.
A book review by Krista Ahlberg
The mob…now with magic!
Cassel Sharpe lives in a world much like ours…except that the touch of someone’s bare hand could kill you. In a world where magical ability—the ability to manipulate emotions, give luck, transform, and even to kill—is carried in the fingertips, magic was outlawed along with alcohol during the Prohibition and never legalized again. Gloves are worn at all times, especially in public, but everyone knows that there are curse workers still out there, whole families of them moving in the shadows and influencing events in every arena.
Cassel is the black sheep—the only non-worker in a family of workers, stuck away at boarding school, rigging poker games, fielding phone calls from his loving but misguided mother (who’s not going to be in jail much longer), and trying to forget about his best friend Lila, whom he accidentally killed three years ago. But then one night Cassel finds himself on the roof with no idea how he got there, except the memory of a white cat leading him through the darkness. With this, everything in Cassel’s world starts to shift, and he discovers that everything he thought was true is wrong. His brothers have been lying to him for years, Lila isn’t dead, and there just might be more to Cassel than anyone—even he—suspects.
I knew I would love this book from the first page. Cassel’s voice is conversational, likable, and yet dynamic, moving the reader through past and present with ease. The plot moves quickly, covering a variety of material and painting the world in fantastic detail: you’ve got to admire a book that makes both a trip to the animal shelter to kidnap a cat and a seedy underground mobster restaurant vital to the story it’s telling. White Cat brings together a large cast of interesting characters, all realistic, flawed, and often very funny, especially Cassel’s Granddad, who stands out among the rest. My only complaint is the book’s ending, which seemed to rush through the final climactic scenes and failed to explain everything to my satisfaction. But I have high hopes for the sequel, Red Glove, and I don’t doubt that it will live up to all of them.
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