Review: White Cat

Title: White Cat
Author: Holly Black
Genre: YA, Urban Fantasy


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. --Goodreads




White Cat was mysterious and a compelling read. I loved the world that Holly Black created of Workers and the powers I learned about. It was like the Mafia meets Magick. Everything was very crafted and well-developed, and when I first delved into the story, I had high expectations-- having read Holly Black’s other works before. I wasn’t disappointed in the slightest. This tale was so unique, believable, and unlike anything I’ve read in recent years!


I did have some small nitpicks. Personally, I decided that I like her Faerie tales better in conclusion of this. At times, I felt a little bored in parts of White Cat that made me skim a bit-- and I couldn’t quite connect with Lila as well as I would have liked. I loved Cassel’s character, though. His voice and personality was strong.



Nonetheless, a fantastic read that I will be highly recommending. I look forward to continuing on with this series!




4.5 stars!