'White Cat' Book Review

White Cat
Holly Black
310 pg., U.S. Hardcover
SimonTeen
4/5 Stars


One Star for Character Development
One Star for Plot
One Star for Conflict and Resolution
One Star for Ending

i. CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT
The main  character in this book is Cassel Sharpe, a boy descended from a line of criminals called workers. Cassel killed his best friend Lila when he was fourteen and has never learned to live with himself. As secrets are uncovered, so is Cassel's character.
Another main character that we learn more and more about is, indeed, Lila. *SPOILER ALERT* Towards the end of the novel, Lila (who was in the form of a cat, not actually murdered by Cassel) appears in human form. She has a quite mysterious aspect to her, and we learn more about her family in the book. She defies her expectations, and goes against the mobster/worker Anton, who planned on assassinating Mr. Zacharov, Lila's father.
Lila and Cassel seem to develop a romantic relationship in the novel, but *SPOILER* at the end of the novel, we discover that is not the case (See 'iv. ENDING')

ii. PLOT

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.

--Summary from Goodreads

The plot of the book is immensely interesting, and takes place in a universe that is both similar to, and different from, our own. Curse workers are rebels in the society, and looked at as a taboo. Anton, a worker, has planned to persuade Cassel to kill Lila's father since Cassel is a transformation worker: he can transform things with his touch. Cassel also must deal with his emotional conflict of the loss of his best friend, Lila.

iii. CONFLICT AND RESOLUTION

The main conflicts in this book are as follows:

-Cassel has a fading memory

-Cassel is a worker

-Cassel killed his friend, Lila

-Cassel has been "hired" to kill Zacharov

The conflicts are described quite well. Cassel "killing" Lila is expressed through a series of memories about his friendship with the young girl, and how spontaneous his actions were. 

Cassel defies Anton's orders of turning Zacharov's heart to stone by keeping his gloves on. Gloves are a defense mechanism in this book that protect a worker's powers from others. Cassel whispers to Mr. Zacharov that we is to pretend to die, and Zacharov does so. In the wake of this battle, Anton is killed.

As for the resolution of Cassel and Lila, Cassel has been given visions and messages from a white cat living with him (he assumes it is Lila) to chop off its head. When Cassel receives a sword, he realizes that there is some sort of containment of Lila's human body, and she is transformed back into a human as Cassel blacks out.

iv. ENDING

The ending of the book is stated above: Cassel's deception of Anton. I think that the ending is a lot similar to that of Mockingjay; the main character is to kill one person, but ends up killing the other. Black did a great job of portraying the whole 'devil's advocate' of each character.

The ending I definitely liked was at the exact end: Cassel's mother reveals that she worked Lila's mind to love Cassel. Cassel becomes furious with his mom. I think that this is such a plot-twisting point and definitely came out of nowhere. I really was not expecting this.

The book was a roller coaster of excitement and drama, and I was immensely glad it was not overtaken by romance, especially since it was told from the perspective of a male. I love the whole aspect of magic that is portrayed in this novel, and how it is something frowned upon. I look forward to Red Glove, the sequel, which is out now.