Book Review: White Cat by Holly Black

Title: White Cat

Author: Holly Black

Series: The Curse Workers

Pages: 310

Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books

Year Published: 2010

First Line: “I wake up barefoot, standing on cold slate tiles.”

“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 criminals. Many become mobsters and con artists. But not Cassel. He hasn’t go magic, 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.

Cassel has carefully built up a façade of normalcy, blending into the crowd. But his façade start to crumble when he finds himself 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 behaviour of his two brothers. They are keeping secrets from him. As Cassel begins to suspect he’s part of a huge con game, he must unravel his past and his memories. To find the truth, Cassel will have to outcon the conmen.”

My Rating:4/5

When I first started reading this book I was intrigued by the idea of knowing that we had “workers” everyone, it does bring up an interesting image of what if. Someone out there is going to hate this comparison, but I think this book reminded me a lot of Xmen. The idea that it is illegal to be yourself is a terrifying thought. You can’t change who you are anymore than you can change the color of your eyes or who your parents are. It’s just a part of you. I think the reason that I couldn’t make this book a 5 is because of the lack of suspense. I can’t stress the importance of suspense in a book, I saw parts of this story coming and felt like I was only reading the first half to make sure I was right, the second half was a bit better though so luckily it wasn’t a waste. All in all, I’m glad that I picked this book up off the shelf, if only because it shows a great fantasy world that I couldn’t have imagined on my own.

THANK YOU HOLLY BLACK FOR HELPING PEOPLE REALIZE THAT IT ISN’T WHAT YOURE GIVEN THAT’S THE PROBLEM, IT’S HOW YOU CHOOSE TO USE IT!

Thanks for reading,

Love,

Sidny xoxo