The Curse Workers: White Cat; Red Glove; Black Heart
Ratings55
Average rating3.5
I love reading about conmen and Cassel is pretty darn good at running a con.
This is a world where people wear gloves because “workers” = curseworkers can manipulate people with just a touch of their hand. Now, I wish there was more information about this. I still don't quite understand about blowbacks and I feel like it took me too long to fully grasp these curseworkers. We are kinda just thrown into it.
I also wasn't totally keen with how the book was written in the beginning because there would be a little passage regarding current time period, then another of thinking about his past or about workers, then switch back. Just wasn't my style for explanation of events and such. Towards the middle, this fades away and I got more into the swing of things. The story really picked up then too because we are given more than just uneasy feelings. Things happen or are exposed – I was pretty hooked.
The book is pretty fast paced and I probably finished this within a few hours. Once I got hooked, I really didn't want to put it down. I wanted to know how this conman was gonna con his way out of trouble. I wasn't disappointed ^_^
The ending... dang. I feel like this book could be read as a standalone –no need to keep reading, but because of one detail right at the end making me go “Oh, god no....” I want to know how Cassel with his life rocked, will handle it.
So, not an amazing book, but it is pretty interesting, with a different fantasy aspect. I definitely don't like this one as much as The Coldest Girl in Coldtown but I like it enough that I'll recommend it to people and will try more Holly Black books, and yes, I do plan on reading the other two books in this trilogy.
2.5 stars
Overall I would say I liked this book–there are a lot of interesting ideas, and Cassel is a decent narrator–but there were enough elements that rubbed me the wrong way that I am currently uncertain as to whether or not I will seek out the other books in the series. It shaded just a bit too negative for my tastes, in general.
A weird, but interesting supernatural read told from the male perspective which is rare in young adult books. It took me a little bit to get interested, as the pacing of the plot was quite uneven, but once the story started moving it was quite the tale. I'll probably continue reading this series.
There are not a lot of books out there that are so effective from start to finish the way White Cat is. It's a clean 300+ pages, and every scene, every sentence really, does an extraordinary amount of work. It tightly weaves an intricate plot with a dysfunctional family dynamic, all around this teenage boy, Cassel Sharpe, who is both a con man and a mark, a curse worker and not. Even his race is ambiguous. Cassel is always simultaneously in and out of everything. But I was fully into this book.
It's really hard to talk about how good White Cat is. It's just so solid. The characters are fascinating and dynamic, the plot is rich. I think the best part is the alternate reality, which comes complete with its own history, societal prejudice, and criminal justice system. But at the same time you'd have to squint to really see this world as different from ours. The only outright difference is that everyone wears gloves and charms to prevent being worked. Holly Black likens the criminalization of working - the use of magic - to Prohibition, which gave rise to organized crime as we know it today. She delicately explores what it's like to grow up in a family of people that are criminals just by being born the way they are, and what its like to be absorbed into a dark world without even realizing how deep you are.
There's an undeniable theme of manipulation and coercion in this book. Everybody's working somebody. To give them good luck, to take away their memories, to make them fall in love. Even when Cassel can't work magic, he works as a bookie for his classmates, taking their money based on his own fixed odds, getting close enough to be accepted but never embraced. No one is really who they truly are, whether it's because they are being purposely deceitful, or because they've had some part of them taken away. Cassel discovers that a very big part of him has been taken by people he was supposed to trust. It was disturbing to me on a very subconscious level, because it's never really said outright how horribly Cassel has been violated. He feels it though, and I felt it.
White Cat satisfies every craving between action and suspense, emotion and sophistication. It's got gangsters, assassination plots, mystery and even a semi-demented love story that's worthy of its characters. I couldn't have asked for anything better.
I loved Holly Black's faerie books when I read them a few years ago so, after reading the synopsis of this series, I had high expectations. While I listened to this on “tape”, read by Zombieland's Jesse Eisenberg (whose voice is definitely not made for reading out loud and was probably only chosen for “star power”) which undoubtedly effected my reception of the book, how this story was told was still weird and boring and I couldn't care about any of the characters or the world they live in. It started out alright but about 60% in, I was just like ughhhhh get on with it and stop with the dream sequences. They have neat names though.
I came into this book with few expectations. I'd heard some buzz about it, but I got it because I wanted an audiobook for my trip to Iowa and I knew that my celebrity crush Jesse Eisenberg was the narrator of the audiobook. And he did a great job, obvs, but it turns out the book was very compelling too. It's contemporary fantasy with flavors of organized crime and boarding school. Very fast-paced and interesting, and I've already started the sequel.
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This summer I'm re-reading some of my favs to see how well they hold up and THIS ONE DOES. I feel vindicated in my constant attempts to force teens to read it. ICONIC, I love that Holly Black is following her ear-plastic-surgery faerie bliss but I wish she'd write more books like this TBH!!!!!
I really enjoyed this book! Interesting plot line and set of characters. And the male perspective was a great change of pace.