White Cat

Starred review from April 12, 2010
In this beautifully realized dark fantasy, which launches Black’s Curse Workers series, Cassel Sharpe is a talented con artist who works as a bookie at his snooty prep school. But skilled as Cassel is, it’s nothing compared to the rest of his family, who are curse workers, able to control people’s memories, luck, or emotions with the touch of a finger (curse work is illegal, and all citizens wear gloves to safeguard against being taken advantage of). Three years ago Cassel murdered a friend, the daughter of a crime lord, and now, not by coincidence, he’s having nightmares about a white cat (“It leaned over me, inhaling sharply, as if it was going to suck the breath from my lungs”) and sleepwalking on the roof of his dormitory. Complex plots unfold around Cassel, and he eventually realizes that he can’t even rely on his own memory. With prose that moves from stark simplicity to almost surreal intensity in a moment, Black (Ironside
) has created a believable alternate America where mobsters are magicians and no one is entirely trustworthy. Ages 14–up.

Cassel Sharpe is a grifter, a member of one of the East Coast mobster-like families of curse workers (magicians). Jesse Eisenberg vibrantly portrays the boy's confusion over his bouts of sleepwalking, his self-loathing over a hushed-up childhood incident, his irritation at being bullied by his older brothers, his excitement when conning a mark, and his ambivalence at being suspended from private high school. Whether Cassel is explaining betting odds to his roommate or trying to put together a masterful and dangerous con, Eisenberg's skills at increasing tension allow listeners to suspend disbelief and immerse themselves in this smart and fresh approach to the paranormal genre. C.B.L (c) AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine