Book Review: White Cat by Holly Black

Title:  White Cat
Author:  Holly Black
File type:  hardback
Release date:  May 4^th, 2010
Genre:  YA, paranormal, mystery

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 criminals. Many become mobsters and con artists. But not Cassel. He hasn't got magic, 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.
Cassel has carefully built up a facade of normalcy, blending into the crowd. But his facade starts to crumble when he finds himself 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. As Cassel begins to suspect he's part of a huge con game, he must unravel his past and his memories. To find out the truth, Cassel will have to out-con the conmen.

 

Perfection.

There were so many things I liked about this book. I don’t think I’ll be able to write this review if I don’t just name them separately.

1. Main character- I have to admit, I have a crush on Cassel from the moment he appeared shirtless and barefoot on that roof. Aside from being good-looking I like him because he seems so real. He doesn’t whine about being the only non-Worker in his family. He takes what he has left so he is an excellent scammer and a thief. He has been in love with the same girl since they were kids and I felt so bad for him because the girl doesn’t feel the same about him. At least not as much as he does.  He is not a jerk like most YA leading men are. He is actually a great guy and he still made me swoon. Authors need to get a grip and start writing male characters that aren’t abusing the power of their looks. I would like Cass even if he was hideous. Why? Because he is just the kind of guy I want to have by my side. 
2. Worker powers- I’ve never read anything like this. Cassel lives in a world where people are discriminated if they have certain ability so Workers hide their powers from other ordinary people and non-Workers fear everybody could steal their memories, change their luck from good to bad, give them nightmares, change their feelings or even kill them with a simple touch of their hand, so everybody wears gloves. But being a Curse Worker is not perfect. They get blowbacks; if someone erases the memories of a person s/he is going to lose one of their own memories.
3. Mafia- This is another thing I didn’t read about, especially not in a YA paranormal novel. Wish we find out more about them but I guess we’ll see more of the criminal activities in the second book.
4. The love interest- I kept waiting and waiting for Lila to pop up because I wanted to know more about this mysterious girl Cass was in love with. She is bossy and strong, not like those spineless ‘heroines’ I stumble upon. I kept hoping for something to happen, was ecstatic when things were going my way and then that ending killed me. I was killed. I yelled NO but things were the way they were.  I don’t want to spoil anything for anyone so I won’t say anything else.

If you’re still reading this review, please, pick up a copy of White Cat. You won’t regret it. I know there are different reviews floating around, from 5 stars to 2 but I thought it was so refreshing and different from most of young adult paranormal novels and you all should read it as soon as possible.