White Cat by Holly Black

Title: White Cat

Author:  Holly Black

Genre: Young Adult

Publisher:  Gollancz

Publication Date: 17th June 2010

ISBN: 9780575096714

Stand alone or series: 1st book in Curse Workers Series

Pages:  320 pages

Book Received from: Bought

First Lines:  I wake up barefoot, standing on cold slate tiles.  Looking dizzily down.  I suck in a breath of icy air.

Synopsis:
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 Thoughts:
Cassel Sharpe hasn't had it easy, what with being the only one in his family that isn't a curse worker, his mother being in jail for a job gone wrong, his father's dead, and his two older brothers working as mobsters.  So when he is found out on the roof of a building in only his boxers he is suspended until further notice.  Problem is, he thought he was dreaming.

I was a bit hesitant to read this.  Many of the blogs I read gave flawless reviews and I was worried that all the hype that this book has generated, that it would be a let down.  Thankfully no.  I loved the world building in White Cat.  The fact that curse work had been made illegal made everything the Sharpe family did a crime.

I also enjoyed the bits of historical facts that were wound around the Curse Workers history.  Another thing I liked was how Cassel was trying to stay clean and distance himself from his family, but because his mother had encouraged him at an early age to 'participate' in cons, he still couldn't help having a little gambling con on the side at school.
Fantastic read and I look forward to getting my hands on Red Glove the next book in this series!

Fave Line: "I spent most of my childhood jealous Barron.  I wanted to be him, and I resented that he got to be him first. ' - Page 38