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.

April 1, 2010
Grades 7-10 Cassel remembers killing his best friend, Lila, three years ago. Now he finds himself on the edge of his dorm roof and doesnt know how he got there. As it turns out, nothing is what he thinks it is. Cassel knows his family are curse workers, a small minority around the world who can change luck, emotions, or even transform things and people into something entirely different. Because curse working is illegal, many are con men or mobsters, and members of Cassels family happen to be both. He, however, is the one born without any powers. Or is he? The first book in the Curse Workers series starts out with spine-tingling terror, and information is initially dispensed so sparingly, readers will be hooked. But then things get muddled, especially which curse workers can do what . . . and why. Despite the confusions, Cassel is an appealing hero, and kids will read to the end just to sort out events. In the final chapter, Cassels mother returns from prison. That should make the next book fun.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)