New Jersey is up next with Holly Black's White Cat.
In Cassel's world there are people who are called curse workers, or workers for short. They basically have magic and can use it on you by skin to skin touch. There are different kinds of magic, ones that influence your emotions, luck, and some that even work on the physical body. Here is the thing, "working" is banned in the U.S. which forces many workers to a life of crime and working for large crime families.
Cassel is from a family of workers. His mother workers emotions, his grandfather is a death worker, and both of his brothers have talents. Too bad Cassel did not get any working talents. He did, however, get his mother's talent for running a con. Even at his school, he is the resident bookie. Oh, and he killed his best friend, Lila, when he was 14.
The book starts with Cassel waking up on the roof of his dorm, not sure how he got there. After that happens, the school forces him to take medical leave until a doctor gives him to okay to come back to school. His brother Philip takes him home, where Cassel begins to suspect that not everything is what is he thought it was.
He continues to sleepwalk, and has a recurrent dream with a white cat. His brothers seem to be very secretive, more than usual, lately. Oh, and he gets the feeling that parts of his memory are missing. Someone is working him with a memory curse.
Cassel is a complex character, who is trying to balance a normal life with his criminal life. He doesn't have problems blending in with people, but at the same time he is not really a part of the crowd. He doesn't really have true friends until about half way through the book, but Sam and Daneca are really great friends.
Ms. Black captures the fear of having everything you thought was true be a lie really well. What is scary than knowing that your memories, things that define you, may not be real or are missing.
Here is my problem with the book, while an enjoyable read, it does not really inspire me to know more about the characters or the world it creates. And I have a personal belief that if you write a series, then at the end of your first book I should be so hooked that I can't wait to start the next one, and White Cat did not do that for me. It was good, just not good enough.
Currently Reading:
My Life Next Door
by Huntley Fitzpatrick
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