White Cat by Holly Black
25 Jun 2010 Leave a Comment
in 4 Stars Tags: Holly Black, YA
Synopsis (from Goodreads): 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 mobsters, or con artists. Except for Cassel. He hasn’t got the magic touch, 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.Ever since, Cassel has carefully built up a façade of normalcy, blending into the crowd. But his façade starts crumbling when he starts 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, caught up in a mysterious plot. As Cassel begins to suspect he’s part of a huge con game, he also wonders what really happened to Lila. Could she still be alive? To find that out, Cassel will have to out-con the conmen.Holly Black has created a gripping tale of mobsters and dark magic where a single touch can bring love — or death — and your dreams might be more real than your memories.
Review:
In these pages you will find a world where the simple act of shaking ungloved hands is unheard of and the very idea would make people cringe. Where a bare hand can become risque and the simple act of brushing up accidentally against another person can be seen as a hostile act. This idea alone is enough to interest me, but Black takes it farther yet. She’s developed a world where such powers are just as dangerous to possess as they are awesome. Where crime lords have spawned in order to take advantage of the ensuing wrath of a public that doesn’t share the same gifts. Different families are akin to the mob bosses in our own very real history. It’s all so intriguing, even before the history of being a worker comes to light, you feel like you could know these people.
Cassel is a wonderful protagonist. He’s easy to identify with, to sympathize with and to root for up to the very end. Although I wouldn’t want to say much else about the characters, because as a reader you’re in for a bumpy ride, full of twists and turns that are so much fun! Like the synopsis says, “he will have to outcon the conmen”. (4 out of 5-stars)
Until next time! -Samantha
Inside Out by Maria V. Snyder
13 May 2010 Leave a Comment
in 4 Stars
Synopsis (from Goodreads): Keep Your Head Down. Don’t Get Noticed. Or Else. I’m Trella. I’m a scrub. A nobody. One of thousands who work the lower levels, keeping Inside clean for the Uppers. I’ve got one friend, do my job and try to avoid the Pop Cops. So what if I occasionally use the pipes to sneak around the Upper levels? The only neck at risk is my own…until I accidentally start a rebellion and become the go-to girl to lead a revolution.
Review:
Inside Out follows Trella, a scrub in the lower levels of Inside, the only world she’s ever known. Her job is to keep the vast array of pipes and vents of Inside clean. When her and her fellow scrubs see a chance to find Gateway, the somewhat mythical portal to a better place, they decide just how much they’ll risk to get to it.
The concept of this story was very interesting. The set-up is very much sci-fi, where scrubs live in the lower level of the cube-like Inside and the Uppers (or people with more power, more room, more freedom) live in the upper levels. When Trella’s best friend Cog becomes involved with a supposed-prophet, Trella starts to learn more about everything she’s already decided she didn’t want to know. Trella’s growth and transformation in this story was very interesting to read and she’s such a sympathetic character. The only beefs I had with this story were that Trella’s relationship with another character felt a bit forced and I think it could have waited until the next book, as well as the seemingly endless string of inventions that made things a lot easier for Trella, et al.
(Quick aside: There’s a ton of technology, but these people don’t have surveillance cameras? Maybe this will be answered in the next book?)
What really made this story for me was the ending. It came with its fair share of revelations, while still leaving a satisfying conclusion/set-up for the sequel. Overall it was a completely engrossing story, with a well-thought out world, and characters I rooted for until the end. Recommended, especially for fans of Snyder’s other work as well as anyone looking for something different. (4 out of 5-stars)
Until next time! -Samantha
