Review - White Cat by Holly Black

Title: White Cat
Author: Holly Black
Publisher: McElderry
Pages: 310
Rating: 4/5

"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."

White Cat is a novel that I haven't even read about before. The author created a world where with the touch of your hand, Curse Workers could put a curse on anyone they wanted. I think that's slightly on the awesome side, don't you think? I immediately liked Cassel and his story as it developed with each page you turned. The plot was one helluva ride and often had you thinking one thing, but in truth, it was something completely different. The author did that with ease. Overall, I came to the realization that Holly Black has some skills cursing me with this book. Okay that was cheesy, but you get the point!*

Favorite line:

"Pet the cat, dude," says Sam. "She brought you a present. She wants you to tell her how badass she is."

*I realize this review is on the short side. I'm working on changing my review style and this is what you get in the process. So yeah... They'll get better. (At least I hope.)