White Cat: The Curse Workers, Book One

So I'm writing this for people like me since there are so many 5 star reviews. I bought this book because Holly Black has written some of my favorite books (and characters!) This is not one of them You know how sometimes you'll read a book and love the characters so much that rereading it is like hanging out with some of your favorite people? Well, this book is nothing like that. Cassell, our main character, has two brothers who are cruel, manipulative and abusive. Their mother is a flake and a narcissist, and our boy Cassell is a sad sack. (We're told several times that he is beautiful but virtually every girl in his high school is blind to this????) Cassell has been in love with/obsessed with a girl since he was 9. And what a girl! Lila is a spoiled mafia princess who is treacherous, vicious and a bully. Can't get enough of that, right? I read all the way to the end hoping against hope that our hero would run across a decent person somewhere and dump this collection of a-holes. But it never happens. I judge books on 3 things, so here is the summary... Writing is perfectly okay. Ms Black is a consistently solid writer. Plot is okay. It is complex, though I never felt that urgency to hurry up and turn the page to find out what happens next. Characters, yeah, well there's the rub. The brothers are awful. Mom is worthless. Cassell is a doofus, and Lila should have been drowned at birth. In fairness I should add that Granddad is decent and so are the friends from school. They don't make up for all the rest though. From the descriptions of books 2 & 3, this theme will continue, so I will be giving them a hard pass.I try to leave a review with a recommendation, and that is really easy here. Read almost anything else by Holly Black. Read The Ironside Trilogy. Read The Folk of the Air Trilogy. Seriously, so much fun and magic too.One last thing: boys can be victims of abuse too. I wouldn't have liked reading about a girl being treated like crap. Didn't like this either.

This was my first Holly Black book. And I loved it. The complete series is great. The story, the characters, the plot, everything is perfect. I would love this story in a movie.In an alternate universe there are people with certain gifts “the workers” and we meet Cassel. He is a 17 year old boy and we meet his family. All of them are workers but Cassel. At least that’s what it looks like. Then you find out the reason of his dreams and the meaning of the white cat. Interesting, smart and easy to read.

"Marks forget that whenever something's too good to be true, that's because it's a con."I must be living under a rock.Last January I went a little crazy and read (or at least I thought I did at the time…) every Holly Black book that existed.To my eternal chagrin I realized this book existed by a random group I am a part of on Facebook.And after staring at this book on Goodreads completely baffled on how I missed an entire series of books I immediately bought this one on Amazon and got started.Unlike most Holly Black books it didn't immediately hook me.It was a bit confusing. I couldn't figure out what time period this book took place, if it was in an urban fantasy or an alternate reality urban fantasy (it's this one- everything in the world is basically the same but with a history and past of magic "workers" and this magic system has direct political and social consequences), and the magic system just seemed like an giant headache.But everything eventually (thank god) gets explained and by the time you finish book one- the world and its complex system of "workers" - people with specific magical abilities who can only access their powers if they touch someone or something with their bare hand - and "non-workers" - ordinary folk - make sense.Our main character Cassel comes from a crime family and has a complicated relationship with his older brothers and mom (who is currently serving time in jail for a con-gone-wrong). He is a bookie, a thief, a con artist, tells so many lies that he has trouble keeping track of all of them, and is so completely adorable you just want to give him a hug.Despite his criminal proclivity he is really just a sweet kid and I loved watching him trying to unravel the mysteries surrounding his crazy "night-walking" episode.But perhaps the best element in this book though is the crime families and mobsters.Generally speaking most fantasy novels focus more on elements of high fantasy - Kingdoms, magical beings, magic systems, and courtly political intrigue.So whenever a fantasy book focuses on political intrigue between crime families I almost can't help but love it. There is something so interesting seeing the dynamic between shady backgrounds and magical powers.I can't wait to read book two and see what crazy schemes Cassel and his family cook up next!

I don't do reviews-- but I have thoroughly enjoyed these books, so much! The characters are very likeable and imperfect and relatable. Holly crafts a tale and builds it around us as we go-- without a whole bunch of outside narration. You figure it out as you read along.Clever and well crafted, these stories just held my interest and I could not wait to see what happened next. I am sorry that this series was only 3 books long. There might be more here, if she chooses to revisit Cassell.Well done.

I enjoyed it; I loved the worldbuilding and some of the concepts, and even though I’m not raving about it, it’s a good book! It’d make a very good read for teenagers (it is pushed as a YA) but is a nice one for adults too; it doesn’t present anything majorly challenging but at the same time, is a story about identity and guilt, magic and family…The story’s interesting, and you’re immediately sucked into the plot; Cassel’s interesting, horrible, conflicted and brilliantly written. The worldbuilding is excellent, and I loved the way magic’s done, particularly for the death-workers! The plot twists are also excellent.However…I never quite felt the world was a whole. I struggled between the “magic” and the “con” sides of things; I think the danger and the crime element could probably have been played more strongly, at least on Cassel’s side (his mother being in prison was a good indicator of what could happen if things went wrong). I suppose the “magic being outlawed” aspect was the flaw for me; everyone in the book wanted to not be using it because it was dangerous, not because the rest of the world had issues with it. I wonder if the book’s been slightly mis-sold as well; the blurb on the cover is “You’re only a finger-tip away from another world” – which is true, but it’s not a world-walking, another reality thing. It’s a “someone can kill you with a touch”, which is a bit of a different prospect! When I re-read the blurb, I don’t exactly see the book I read…so I’m not sure how much that affected my expectations of what I was going to read, and how much that would help if it was changed.I’m not sure if I’m going to pick up the next one – I have other things I’d rather read, and I’m not that invested in the world or story that I have to know what happens next. But I’d recommend it to anyone who likes magic and crime, with a dose of nice plot twists and a good characterisation!

I thought there wasn’t much room left in the YA genre for a completely new prospect but I eat my words. I have not read anything like this, full stop. Holly Black has written a unique and beautiful novel that I loved a lot more than I expected!The start was admittedly slow because since it’s the first in a series there was of course world-building; and while it wasn’t bad/boring, it was hard to get into the story and connect to the characters but it quickly picked up and from then on never let up. I loved the ever present humour and the start was brilliant, with the male protagonist hanging from a roof in his boxers… A very clear indicator that this would be a fun book. The world of Curse Workers where people can change your emotions, or turn you into a cat, or remove memories with single touch is incredibly interesting, and there’s a lot more that can come from it.As far as characters went I thought Cassel’s family was shady to say the least. Cassel’s the only non-worker in the family and with that came a lot of secrets and dodging around the truth like it was the plague. They never gave straight answers and as con-artists were very good at lying; it all came with the job of being a Curse Worker because the second someone realised they were being Worked everything would go up in smoke and they’d be carted off to jail (Cassel’s mother learnt that the hard way, but God only knows if she learnt her lesson).Cassel was easily my favourite part of the book because it was easy to see him as a real person: likeable but flawed (it was easy to forget it’s written by a female, so well done Black!). He’s the laid back guy who prefers to hide in the shadows where drama still manages to find him; and what’s most surprising is that he’s not the type of person you expect to rise up and be a hero, but he does even when he doesn’t think can do it himself. I really wanted things to work out for him but of course if that happened there would be no story! Instead he faces complicated obstacle after obstacle trying to cling onto what parts of himself he still had left untouched by poisonous lies.Now while I’m not usually a romance fanatic I think it needed something more than Cassel’s memories of a girl he loved that to be honest sounded really spiteful and just plain bitchy. He didn’t drone on about her *phew* and she was mentioned plenty enough for me as is, but perhaps someone else could have added something to the story? Just an idea, but still this was a great book and if you’re dubious about it like I was just have a go and stick with it. You won’t regret it and you just might end up loving it…Posted on: http://enchantedbyya.blogspot.co.uk

Cassel is cursed. He comes from a family of magic workers and lives in a world where magic was banned decades ago, but Cassel can't work magic. His family hate him for being the only non-worker...and because they helped cover up a murder he committed as a child. But when Cassel finds himself being haunted by a white cat, and his dreams are leading him to sleepwalk to increasingly bizarre places, he is forced to turn to his family to discover the secrets hidden in his past.This is the first book in the Curse Workers series and the first book by Holly Black I've read and it blew me away. Finding young adult urban fantasy can be near impossible, but this is an incredible example of just how good it can be. Holly Black has reshaped our world by pushing curse workers out of the closet in 1929 and now in the present day their existence is banned so they are forced to hide their identities. One thing I love is that in this world, magic comes at a cost, so whatever you do will rebound on you in a somewhat karmic way.The plot is brilliantly written and packed with twists and turns. There is an incredible depth of storyline and the world of the curse workers is fully fleshed out. Workers are divided into different groups (death workers that can kill with a touch, memory workers who can rewrite your life) and exist as an underground society since the ban, with most working as con artists or for organized gangs. There are even worker equality groups in the non-worker community. The idea of a con is woven throughout the storyline as it is a skill Cassel learnt at his mother's knee.Cassel is a great lead character. As the normal guy in a family of workers, he is able to introduce us to their world without info-dumping and also plays the black sheep incredibly well which helps him in his quest to find out why he's being haunted by the white cat. His roommate Sam ends up as his best friend almost by accident and I loved how their friendship grew over the course of the book. Daneca the pro-worker supporter adds some comic relief to the book with her determintion to win Cassel to her side.Cassel's family on the other hand was a different story. I didn't really like either of his brothers or his jailbird mother, but I adored his death worker grandfather Desi. He brought a new dimension to the story and quickly became a favourite character.All in all, this was a great read and I'm looking forward to  Red Glove .Plot: 10/10Characters: 10/10Ending: 10/10Enjoyment: 10/10Cover: 9/10Overall: 49/50 Red Glove

*I repeat, minor spoilers for the book in this review*My main frustration with this book was a technical and personal one: it was written entirely in first person present tense, which I loathe. I will actually avoid books using this narrative technique because I hate it so much but, as it was Holly Black novel, I decided to try and get over my aversion. Which sort of worked. There was nothing remotely wrong with this story. The story was good what with its ambiguous characters, who were neither good or bad, and decent, if a bit vague (my issues with the narrative rearing their head again), world building. Even Cassel was not a character who you could call a good guy - he gets his kicks out of conning people, for heaven's sake. A novel with this narrative style is too fixed and has too narrow a viewpoint for me. I like to know as much as possible when reading.It wasn't all bad, though. If there's one thing I like in a book, it's an unreliable narrator. I like not knowing if the character is being truthful or playing with my trust. I like not being able to believe a single thing that the character tells me. Cassel was one of the most unreliable narrators I have read in a while, not only because he keeps things from the reader but also because almost every other character was keeping things from him. That made it interesting to me and is all I'm saying about it because to say more would spoil the book even further.As well as being unreliable as a narrator and a con artist, Cassel was also completely likeable. I found myself rooting for him throughout. Cassel killed someone and the frustration of not remembering what happened, the guilt of knowing he's a killer, was well written and definitely something that helped with the sympathy I felt towards him.The other characters were also well written. The good were good (I loved Cassel's roommate Sam and how he also realises that conning people is fun. I hope to read more of him in the subsequent novels), the bad were awful and the in between ones were the best by far.Holly Black also does something fun with the plot that I wasn't expecting: she lulls you into thinking you are a clever so-and-so who has guessed what's going on from the start just to pull the rug out from under you right at the very end, thus making the writing unreliable also.While I didn't quite get over my aversion to first person present tense narratives, I found a lot of other things to enjoy in White Cat. Unreliable narrators, characters whose motives aren't clear and a twisty-turny plot that keeps you guessing are more than enough to make be pick up the next in the series.

This is the first book by this author that I have had the pleasure of reading. Holly Black effortlessly draws the reader into the world of workers and curses and crime families.I thought the story was very original. Having a male protagonist lead us through the story was a fresh approach, one I am sure, many YA authors will be jumping on in the near future.The voice of Cassel is an interesting one. There is a slight hint of irony with his character. As the only non-worker in a family full of workers, all he has ever wanted was to be different - to be a curse worker like his siblings and his parents, yet at his elite school he strives to blend into the background and be just like everyone else. Part is in protection for his family, part is fear of being noticed. But just because Cassel isn't a worker doesn't mean he isn't without talent. At an early age, his mother trained him in the art of conning and even runs an elaborate underground gambling scheme in his school.The story unfolds gradually, and I found myself guessing along with Cassel instead of rushing ahead to try and figure it out before him. My paranoia grew along with Cassel's, unsure who to trust. With an interesting twist of modern magic and old school mafia, this book is nothing short of brilliant. I got lost in Cassel's world, his history became my history, his laws became my laws.Even the supporting cast were memorable, with room-mates and the second in command to a powerful crime family making each appearance filled with possibilities.The book ended with an obvious twist for a sequel, and I can hardly wait for it!