White Cat by Holly Black

White Cat by Holly Black

Source: Library
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry
ISBN: 978-1-4169-6396-7
Pages: 310

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.

Everything about this book just completely drew me in – I loved it!

The whole concept of ‘workers’ was fascinating. I mean, obviously, I’ve read books with magical powers before but the unique twist on it was wonderful. I really liked that there were actually effects to what happened to the workers when they used their magic instead of them just being all-powerful.


Another thing that was just really cool was how bare hands were a total taboo! I distinctly remember parts of the book where Cassel would just think about how gross it would be for people’s hands to touch. I guess in a world where anything can happen from a single touch, it’s important to keep your hands to yourselves!


I really loved Cassel as a character. Not only was it just a really nice change to read from a male’s perspective in YA, but I genuinely liked Cassel’s personality. He was funny and kind of a complete pushover when it came to Lila. I actually found his relationship with Lila adorable – she bosses him around, he does what she says but they both do care for each other.


The ending of White Cat was unbelievably evil! I really do feel sorry for everyone that had to wait almost a year for Red Glove… I only have to wait about a week! Despite that, I still wish I’d have bought this book when I saw it at the store last April – ah well, now I know to go with my instinct.

White Cat shaped up to be a truly excellent read.

Cover Comments: I love this cover! The colour scheme matches the story really well and I like how big the font is. The leather and the cat and the red smoke around the series title... it's all just perfect. This cover is definitely worthy of the story it guards!