The White Cat (Curse Workers, Book 1)
The extraordinary new adult fantasy of magic in our world and the price we pay for it by the author of The Spiderwick Chronicles.
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Review by Steven R. McEvoy for The White Cat (Curse Workers, Book 1)
(5 / 5)
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Holly Black is fast becoming one of my favourite female authors. I now rank her with Terry Tempest Williams, Madeleine L’Engle and Kathy Shaidle. Her works are dark, witty and sublime. Her world creation is believable and compelling, and something about every one of her books I have read has touched something deep and sometimes dark inside myself. Black has a way of drawing the reader into her world that makes you become a part of it. While reading this book I dreamed about it, and found myself reflecting upon it and the alternate reality it presents again and again. I cannot get the story out of my head, and to be honest I do not want to. Not since reading Madeleine L’Engle’s books about a decade ago has an author’s words and worlds impacted me so completely from a fictional novel.
The story is set in an alternate reality to our own timeline. Except instead of just booze being banned during prohibition, so is magic, or working as it becomes known. Though the ban on booze was lifted, the ban on magic was not. So in a time very close to our own, most people wear gloves for fear of being touched and worked by one with the gift. And people either fear that they have the ability or that they don’t and are just ‘normal’. Our hero Cassel comes from a family of workers. Not one of the controlling crime families, much like a magic mafia, but a family with certain skills and powers. He is the only one without them, and as such he always feels on the outside. Outside his own family because he does not have the gift and is not fully part of their plan, and on the outside at school because he comes from a family of workers. Cassel, just wants to be a normal boy in high school. The problem is, he killed his best friend four years ago, and even though he doesn’t remember doing it, he remembers her body and his family cleaning up the mess for him.
Cassel’s problems start when he sleep walks and nearly falls off the roof of his school dorm. Then he realizes all the pieces of his life, his memories, do not fit together right. He begins to wonder if he has been worked. He has a lot to figure out and not a lot of time to do it, and even fewer people he can trust.
Cassel is a strong character, troubled, and in a tight spot, but someone who is working to resolve his issues and trying to do the right thing. He is someone you grow to respect and appreciate, someone you would want as your friend.
The story is well written and the world Black has created is enthralling. Black leads us down a path where magic, the fey and the country witch developed into mainstays in our culture, not just something trifling at the sides. Though their practice and arts are against the law, many still use them, for both good and bad. Where charms and protection are needed, but cannot always to be trusted. As Black writes about the curse workers, you will fall under her charm and be captivated by her writings, and maybe be a little worked to love her and her books.
Review by Toni Harness for The White Cat (Curse Workers, Book 1)
(4 / 5)
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A good start to a new series by Black. New imaginative story and characters who are believable and easy to follow. A good read for any fans of Black’s previous books.
Review by Peter C for The White Cat (Curse Workers, Book 1)
(4 / 5)
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Review by Jan Edwards
Holly Black describes this as `…a novel about capers, curse magic and memory.’ I am not sure I can put it a lot better than that, but I shall try. Cassel is the only non-worker in a family of Curse-Magic Workers, and his elder brothers look down on him as a result. His father is dead and his mother is in jail for `working’ a sting on a millionaire with her `emotion’ touch. In fact, since Curse Working is illegal, many Workers are employed by a Curse-Worker Mob boss. Surely enough for any 17 year old to cope with, you would think? But Cassel has a lot more to contend with. His sleepwalking results in his being suspended from school, and he was haunted constantly for the past three years by memories of his murdering his girlfriend, Lila – who is the only daughter to the afore-mentioned Mobster.
With an opening like this you know life can only get complicated and so it does. A white cat is communicating with him through his dreams, and then it turns up in ‘person’. The magic in White Cat is consistent throughout and the place and people are totally believable.Cassel himself is not just a crook by default. He enjoys the thrill of chasing down his mark, even without the aid of magic. He’s a con-man and you know you shouldn’t like him; yet you can’t help yourself.
Like many of the Paranormal Romance titles this is marketed as YA but can be found as easily among the adult novels, with characters, intrigue and pace of a high quality that sets the page-turning quotient on high (I read White Cat in one sitting). I would also say in passing that Gollancz cover (shown) is more fitting than the `Twilight’ cover of the McElderry US edition. Red Glove, the second Curse Workers Book is expected May 2011.
Review by Gareth Wilson – Falcata Times Blog for The White Cat (Curse Workers, Book 1)
(4 / 5)
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It’s been a while since I had the pleasure of a brand new Holly Black in my hands. So when this offering from Gollancz landed I really had to jump at the chance. That said, knowing how much pleasure I get from a Holly Black, I really wanted to make it last and so forced myself to read a few titles prior to starting this, almost using it as a reward for all the hard work.
With Holly, what you get is some cracking Urban Fantasy, and whilst she’s more well known for Spiderwick and her Fae titles, this first adult offering, is a book that will be enjoyed just as much by fans of her previous offerings (I’d say to allow this title as a bridging gap from about 12+) as well as the adult market to which this one is aimed.
Beautifully written with some interesting turns, her new world of exploration is definitely one that will endear her to a whole new set of readers with her spartanesque descriptiveness, her realistic dialogue (given the situation that the characters find themselves in) and her touch of whimsy. A great read and one that I’m pleased I eked out for my own pleasure.
Review by A. Linhart for The White Cat (Curse Workers, Book 1)
(5 / 5)
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I read this in about four days, it was almost un-put-down-able! A brilliant new concept from the fantastically strange mind of Holly Black, as good by far as her Modern Faerie Tale series and just as captivating. A must for any fan of her previous work, anyone who likes a good con and those who like a little magic in their lives.