Review- White Cat

Title: White Cat
Author: Holly Black
Series: Curse Workers #1
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry
Find it here: Amazon, Goodreads
Source: Purchased

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 facade of normalcy, blending into a crowd.  But his facade 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, Casses will have to out-con the con men.  

My thoughts: 

When I first heard bloggers raving about this book, I was excited to get it and experience it for myself. But then I heard that the author is Holly Black and I had some major second thoughts.  I read about half of her book Tithe and it freaked me out so bad that I literally wanted to put it in the freezer like Joey from Friends.  But I put my fears aside to read White Cat and I ended up loving it!

I love the uniqueness of this book.  It's unlike any other paranormal book that I've read before.  The closest things that I can relate it to is witchcraft or the glamour of vampires.  Whereas the glamour of vampires is all the same from one to another, the curse workers are born with different talents.  I would also classify White Cat as a sort of dystopian because the curse workers have significantly changed the world and the way people live their lives.   Because curse working occurs through the touch of the hand, everyone wears gloves.  Curse workers are mobsters and their work is illegal.

The story was so intricate and involved that I was constantly guessing and had no idea what was going to happen next.  And those are my favorite kind of stories because I want to always be surprised!  I also enjoyed the moral behind the story; every action has it's consequence.  Even with curse workers.  If the worker can erase memory, they every time he works someone, he looses pieces of his own memory.  This book blew me out of the water.  Holly Black is an excellent writer and storyteller!