White Cat by Holly Black

Title: White Cat
Author: Holly Black
Series: The Curse Workers #1
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books
Date Published: May 4, 2010
Buy: Amazon

Goodreads Summary

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 con men.

I haven’t read a lot of books that are written in a Male Pov and the “some” I’ve read usually consist of dual POV’s and The Maze Runner which was written by a male author so I didn’t think there could be much that would go wrong.

I usually avoid male POV’s written by females because after reading the extra’s some authors provide in male pov, I don’t think female writers could do a good job with Male POVs. The authors make some of the guys sound so “girly” for the lack of a better term. I was annoyed because well you know in most of the ‘extras’, they think about the girl and their feelings, etc. I am pretty sure that’s not ALL guys think about. They are as messed up as girls and they tend to have a lot of things on their mind other than their possible significant other.

But after reading reviews and seeing that people said that Holly did a good job with the male POV I decided to read it.

I wasn’t disappointed.

It really was an amazing book. The whole concept of “curse workers” is great but the best part of the book was Cassel. The author nailed it. I was so happy while reading the book because you could see how well Cassel’s character was written. He has become one of my all time favorite characters. Now I cannot go on and on about how well the author did with his character but you must know that he is a criminal (of sorts) and he acts like it. He doesn’t assume himself to be the good guy but you can see how much he cares for his family and friends.

I love all the layers behind everything that is going on and how every time Cassel discovers something there is always something more to the story. I also think he is rather realistic. You can feel how much he wants to be normal and how much he hates what his family does but he doesn’t hate them for it. They are his family and he does love them no matter what. Even when his brothers aren’t the best that they can be, he loves them.

I also find the mystery aspect of the book intriguing. It’s interesting how Cassel pieces the clues. I mean he is a professional criminal, he is good at that stuff but I love him for it.

I hope everyone reads this book and loves it as much as I did.