Review: White Cat

White Cat - Holly Black
Genre - Young Adult Urban Fantasy

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 the 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, Cassel will have to out-con the conmen.

There is such a big hype about White Cat that I knew I had to read it to see what all the fuss was about. It tells the story of Cassel who is the black sheep in a family of curse workers. I liked Cassel - at least I think I did. Sometimes I wasn't too sure because Cassel doesn't seem to know who he is. He is complicated, messed-up and there is a lot going on in his life that he is not fully aware of.

The concept of curse workers is so interesting and I love the direction that the story went in. It was so unique and really caught you off guard. You had Cassel's sketchy brothers and you never knew what was going on with them because they were so good at conning. The plot revolving around Lila and the white cat was so amazing! And don't even get me started on the ending. Just when you thought things might look up for Cassel that happens.

Am I glad that I did read it? Of course! White Cat is a book like no other. It's unique, original and creates a world so fantastical that I didn't want to leave. You travel through the book not really sure about what's really going on, but that's not a bad thing. It just lets the revelations at the end hit you all that harder.

All I can say is, I don't want to spoil this book for anyone, so go out and read it! ASAP!