"We are largely who we remember ourselves to be," says 17-year-old narrator Cassel Sharpe. His statement takes on a chilling irony in Holly Black's (Tithe) darkly brilliant launch to the Curse Workers series. Cassel, who counts his skill as a con artist as his greatest talent, feels overshadowed by his curse worker family. In this world, the touch of a worker's ungloved hand can manipulate his mark's emotions, conjure dreams, erase memories, even transform him from human to inanimate object. "Everyone who isn't us is a mark," according to Cassel. Cassel descends from curse workers on both his mother's and his father's side. His grandfather, a death worker (he can zap the life out of his victims with his bare hands), and brothers are aligned with the Zacharov family, one of six big worker families that divvy up turf like the Mob. Still, curse work has been forbidden since 1929, and the governor of New Jersey is championing a proposition for compulsory testing of all citizens to see if they are workers (to remain strictly confidential, of course).
Cassel is just trying to lead a "normal" existence at Wallingford Preparatory. But that life is called into question when, in the opening scene, Cassel sleepwalks onto the roof of his dorm and nearly falls to his death. He doesn't remember how he got up to the roof, and he's plagued by dreams of a white cat and by memories of having killed Zacharov's daughter, Lila, three years before. He just can't remember why he killed her--especially because he had been in love with her. Lila was a dream worker--can there be a connection between Lila and the white cat? Black plants this gnawing question in Cassel's psyche, so that every new discovery seems to illuminate a corner of the shadowy mystery surrounding Lila's murder. Alongside these serious themes, opportunities for humor abound. For instance, there is "blowback" for every curse performed (as Cassel's grandfather explains, "Every curse works the worker"); family friend Uncle Armen has Alzheimer's as a result of his career as a memory worker. Black fully imagines the experience of the curses and their fallout. Romance, betrayal and the question of whether families are born or made are just some of the themes that will keep teens turning pages. While White Cat is a complete work, snatches of backstory and tensions built into certain key relationships promise plenty more in future installments.--Jennifer M. Brown