Holly Black
Curse Workers #1
Published 2010 by Margaret K. McElderry Books
White Cat features Cassel Sharpe , outcast in all ways - a non-Worker in a magic-working family, poor in a school of rich kids, and the secret killer of the girl he loved at fourteen. As the story progresses, we learn secrets about Cassel, his family, and his world.
The world of the curse workers was a lot like Rachel Vincent’s Unbound world, featuring people who can do specific kinds of magic and most often work for large organized crime families. I really like this kind of world; it’s different from the usual fare of vampires/shapeshifters/witches, and its more creative nature makes it stand out.
Cassel was a great lead - he knew enough that there weren’t a lot of info dumps (the information about the world was conveyed very smoothly), but there was enough that he didn’t know to add mystery and suspense to the story. Personally, I love mystery and suspense and screwed-up characters, so this was great here. The only issue I had was that I was never really that attached to Cassel; as much as I wanted to know what was going on, when I found out, I didn’t want to kill the villains (and I should have).
The world of the curse workers was a lot like Rachel Vincent’s Unbound world, featuring people who can do specific kinds of magic and most often work for large organized crime families. I really like this kind of world; it’s different from the usual fare of vampires/shapeshifters/witches, and its more creative nature makes it stand out.
Cassel was a great lead - he knew enough that there weren’t a lot of info dumps (the information about the world was conveyed very smoothly), but there was enough that he didn’t know to add mystery and suspense to the story. Personally, I love mystery and suspense and screwed-up characters, so this was great here. The only issue I had was that I was never really that attached to Cassel; as much as I wanted to know what was going on, when I found out, I didn’t want to kill the villains (and I should have).
White Cat was an interesting read, and I’ll definitely grab the next books in this series.
Quality: Acceptable
Enjoyability: Good
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