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Hello and welcome! My name is Emma and I've been a bookseller for over a decade. I also write fantasy under the name E. M. Epps. This blog features my Two-Paragraph Book Reviews. One paragraph from me. One from the book. Here's why I keep it short.

You are here: Home > Review: “White Cat” by Holly Black
White Cat (Curse Workers)

Review: “White Cat” by Holly Black

Image Emma 19 April 2011

Thumbs up for White Cat by Holly Black. Young adult fantasy.

Holly Black’s Tithe and Ironside are two of my favorite fantasies, which outweighed my hatred of novels written in the present tense just enough that I thought I would give White Cat at the very least a half-assed try. Well, on p45, after a slightly slow start, things started taking off and I whizzed through the rest. I like the world that Black creates, which hangs together nicely in its little details: for example, the touch of a bare hand can curse you, ergo everyone wears gloves, ergo porn involves women taking their gloves off. In the US, magic (“curse working,” whether positive or negative in intent) is illegal, so it’s gone underground, ergo most workers work for the mob. Like, for example, the protagonist’s family. Not that that’s his main problem, to start with; first is the fact that he nearly sleepwalks to his death off the roof of his dorm, which puts a serious crimp in his effort to seem like a normal guy. Also an issue is the fact that when he was fourteen, he killed a girl, and he doesn’t know why. Some really excellent twists here that will keep you up late. It’s no Tithe, but I’m still glad I pushed my way through the first few pages.

At nine she beat me mercilessly at video games, raced up hills and trees so fast I was always three steps behind her long legs, and bit me when I tried to steal her dolls and hide them. I couldn’t tell if she hated me half the time, even when we spent weeks hiding under the branches of a willow tree, drawing civilizations in the dirt and then crushing them like callous gods. But I was used to brothers who were fast and cruel and I worshiped her.


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Tagged fantasy, thumbs up, young adult
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My bookstore is an affiliate of Bookshop.org, so we will earn a commission if you click through my links and make a purchase. I, personally, am also an affiliate of the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program and will likewise make a commission if you click through those links and make a purchase. Having to use Amazon doesn’t fill me with joy, but they’re the only good affiliate program for used books available right now. So…that’s the way it is.

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