This was our audio treat for the return trip from San Angelo last week. We finished all save the last disk which the resident of the back bedroom absconded with as soon as we arrived home. I managed to retrieve it for my commute to the university yesterday as I was just as eager to see how this story would play out.
WHITE CAT by Holly Black (Margaret McElderry 2010, LL/Books On Tape 2010)is the first volume in the Curseworkers Saga. I cannot wait to read more. As the novel begins, Cassel (and when I listened to the book I thought his name was Castle) awakens on the roof of his dorm. He has had a dream where a white cat has brought him out to the roof for some reason he cannot right now recall as he is fearful for his life. Once safely back down, Cassel is told he must leave school and seek medical help. If his "sleepwalking" can be ameliorated, he might be permitted to return to school.
Cassel is sent home with his brother Phillip. He knows Phillip and other members of his family are curseworkers, a term used for those who can perform magic of sorts. Cassel's mother can con people into believing they are in love (or despise one another), Phillip can break bones by touch, and brother Baron can make one forget and then implant new memories. Society wears gloves to protect themselves from the touch of any curseworker who may be lurking in the neighborhood, at school or at work. Intrigued? We were. Each little piece of information, slowly leaked from Cassel or one of the other characters, forms a new piece of the puzzle, a puzzle that is ever-changing. Is Cassel the only one in the family without some power/curse? Why does he have this dream about a white cat? Is he really responsible for a heinous act committed when he was still a child? <282>
Patience is rewarded in this nifty mystery/dark fantasy/magical novel.
READING LADDER DIRECTIONS: (not titles this time but possible directions to head)
magic
dark magic
special powers
family relationships
unusual school stories
con artists