Review: White Cat

 Title: White Cat

Author: Holly Black

Release Date: May 4^th, 2010

Series: The Curse Workes #1

Number of Pages: 310

Publisher: McElderry Books

Source: Bought

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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.

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Again, it this one series I still don’t understand why I didn’t pick up sooner. With all the talking about this series, I decided to finally read the first one. It had been in my TBR pile for a while. Everyone was raving about it, and as the sequel came out last week, why not give it a shot?

I honestly didn’t know what to expect. Sometimes, I buy books simply because everyone is talking about it, and I have to see for myself what it is about. All I knew was that it was supposed to be good. And it was.

The story was didn’t captivate me right away. There were a couple of What The Heck moments, but after a while, I really got into it. Once I was addicted, I just couldn’t put it down. Supernatural powers meet Mafia and organized criminal gang. Wow, not something I would have expected. Black created a world for this series, and I still completely surprised by how crazy it is (in a good way). The ending leaves me begging for more. I’ve already ordered Red Glove. Still, even if she leaves you waiting for the sequel, it is not a painful one. It is one that makes me excited for the sequel, but it won’t make me lose sleep, like some other books did (yes, CoFA, I’m definitely talking about you!).

The characters were great. My favorite is Cassel, there is just something about him that makes me want to go and hug him (strange…). The two brothers got on my nervers from the beginning, but in a good way. The annoyed me like they were my own brothers.  I adore the grandfather, even if I wasn’t sure at first. There’s something about him that makes him likable to me. The mother annoys me, and I can’t really explain why, but she does. Finally, I really like Sam and Denace. They are really great friends to Cassel. After all, they do some crazy stuff for him.

White Cat was the first book I read by Holly Black. I can honestly say that it won’t be the last.

Overall, I would give it a good 4.5/5, simply because of the ending that left me unsure for a while.