Author: Holly Black
Genre: YA
Page Count: 310
Book Type: Library Hardcover
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books: An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Division
ISBN: 978-1-4169-6396-7
picture from www.amazon.com
From Goodreads: 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.
My Review: The cover is what completely drew me into this book. I actually hate cats, but I like this cover, so I guess that is saying something for it. I'm assuming the boy on the front cover is Cassel, which fits his description pretty well I would say. It's the people on the back cover that confuse me a bit. I'm not sure if they are supposed to be Anton, Barron or Philip. It doesn't really matter; however, I am curious.
It is refreshing to read something in YA that isn't vampires, which is why I think I enjoyed this book as much as I did; however, at times in the story I got a bit confused because it seemed as if every single person in the whole entire world was being evasive. I also think that Cassel's family may go down in history as one of the worst fictional families ever. The granddad is one of the only redeeming family members, and even he is a drunk. Also, it seemed as if it didn't flow well at some points---extremely chaotic with all of the elements that were trying to be intertwined.
Don't get me wrong, I did enjoy it and it was a quick read, but I don't think I enjoyed it quite as much as I was hoping. Cassel was a good main character, but I think it was the supporting characters who were less than desirable. I don't mean that I disliked them because they were not nice--I'm a person who thinks Bellatrix Lestrange is an absolutely delicious character--I mean that I disliked them because they seemed more one dimensional. All in all, this book left me feeling a bit chaotic, just like its story. I was satisfied and dissatisfied all at the same time.
Have you read White Cat and did you enjoy it? Let me know in the comments!
