Review: White Cat (Curse Workers, #1) by Holly Black

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 criminals. Many become mobsters and con artists. But not Cassel. He hasn't got magic, 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.

Cassel has carefully built up a facade of normalcy, blending into the crowd. But his facade starts to crumble when he finds himself 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. As Cassel begins to suspect he's part of a huge con game, he must unravel his past and his memories. To find out the truth, Cassel will have to out-con the con men.

As part of my new goal that I jump started recently I've been trying to work my way through some of the books that I've had on my shelves for quite a while that I've yet to read and this was the first on my list to check out.  I was a fan of Black's Tithe series so I was looking forward to this series as well and had a good feeling that it would be a series I'd be sticking with for a while.

Black did not steer me wrong!  Quite a bit different from anything else I'd read recently, I was of course kicking myself for not checking this title out sooner because as soon as I started reading the first chapter I was hard pressed to put the book down.  Cassel and his family of curse workers were varied and unique.  Interesting to keep up with and get their background as well as a general idea of what types of people they were and how their particular gifts worked.  How they used them was a different story.  Cassel's friends and the people around him were also a different and interesting perspective to get on top of Cassel's narration throughout the story.  It's funny because the whole way through I was trying to picture how people in today's world would react to gifts like his family and other possess and I have to say I think Black nailed it.  Their reactions, their attempts to bring the political sway into the mix and make it a legal matter was fascinating and terrifying all at once.

Lots of twists and surprises provided thanks to Black's writing and pace throughout the first installment and the ending!  Whoa!  That's all I can say....I didn't see any of it coming and I always appreciate that...when an author can throw a surprise in there for a reader that they really didn't expect it always a great talent that I don't often see as much as I'd like to.

So if anyone hasn't had the chance to check this series out, I think this opener will sway you as much as it did for me and I've already got the other series installments added to my TBR list so that I can see how things will go from here for Cassel and the rest of Black's creative and new faces.

I gave White Cat (Curse Workers, #1) 4 shamrocks!!!!