Red Glove (Curse Workers Series #2)

by Holly Black

Overview

The cons get craftier and the stakes rise ever higher in the riveting sequel to White Cat—now in paperback!

After rescuing his brothers from Zacharov’s retribution and finding out that Lila, the girl he has loved his whole life, will never, ever be his, Cassel is trying to reestablish some kind of normalcy in his life. That was never going to be easy for someone from a worker family that’s tied to one of the big crime families—and whose mother’s cons get more reckless by the day. But Cassel is coming to terms with what it means to be a transformation worker, and he’s figuring out how to have friends.

Except normal doesn’t last very long. Soon Cassel is being courted by both sides of the law and is forced to confront his past—a past he remembers only in scattered fragments, and one that could destroy his family and his future. Cassel will have to decide whose side he wants to be on, because neutrality is not an option. And then he will have to pull off his biggest con ever to survive…. 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781442403413
Publisher:	Margaret K. McElderry Books
Publication date:	04/05/2011
Series:	Curse Workers Series , #2
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	170,592
File size:	4 MB
Age Range:	14 - 17 Years

About the Author

Holly Black is the author of bestselling contemporary fantasy books for kids and teens. Some of her titles include The Spiderwick Chronicles (with Tony DiTerlizzi), The Modern Faerie Tale series, the Curse Workers series, Doll Bones, and The Coldest Girl in Coldtown. She has been a finalist for the Mythopoeic Award, a finalist for an Eisner Award, and the recipient of both an Andre Norton Award and a Newbery Honor. She lives in New England with her husband and son in a house with a secret door. Visit her at BlackHolly.com.

Editorial Reviews

Gr 10 Up—Cassel Sharpe spent his summer in Atlantic City with a string of blond girls, trying to forget Lila. After all, he turned her into a cat, and once she regained her human form, his mother cursed her to love him. Cassel knows he should avoid her. However, when he returns to school, he discovers that she has also enrolled in order to be near him. Soon, keeping his distance from Lila becomes the least of his worries; Cassel's older brother Philip is murdered, and the Feds want his help to solve the crime. Working with agents will put him in danger from two sources: If Lila's father, crime lord Zacharov, discovers that Cassel has turned informant, he will face the same fate as Philip. And if the Feds learn that Cassel is a transformation worker, they will find a reason to lock him up and throw away the key. In the midst of all the organized crime and romantic angst, Cassel also must navigate a high school where curse workers are regarded with suspicion and even hatred. While the mystery of who killed Philip isn't the most compelling part of the book, the drama caused by the relationships and the depiction of supernatural organized crime keep the plot moving along. All of the characters from White Cat (S & S, 2010) have matured, and their development is adequately depicted in this book. Part X-Men and part Sopranos, Red Glove will appeal to teens looking for a thrilling read.—Heather M. Campbell, formerly at Philip S. Miller Library, Castle Rock, CO

School Library Journal

In this smart and well-executed sequel to White Cat, 17-year-old Cassel Sharpe is still getting used to the idea that he's a transformation worker, the rarest and most powerful type of curse worker, able to transmute people and objects into whatever he wishes. Growing up in a crime family, he's always been on the wrong side of the law, but now everyone wants a piece of Cassel, including a mob boss, who sees him as an untraceable hit man, and U.S. agents, who want him to replace his recently murdered brother as an informant. Also, Cassel's mother has put a love curse on Lila, the mob boss's daughter, and Cassel's plan to avoid her until it wears off ("Lila's desire for me is a perversion of love. A mockery") dissolves when Lila enrolls at his prep school. As Cassel's grandfather warns him, "Magic gives you a lot of choices.... Most of them are bad." Black again delivers complex characters and a nicely developed alternate universe where magic workers are social pariahs. This powerful, edgy dark fantasy won't disappoint Black's fans. Ages 14–up. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

* "Black again delivers complex characters and a nicely developed alternate universe where magic workers are social pariahs. This powerful, edgy dark fantasy won't disappoint Black's fans."--Publishers Weekly, starred review

"Dark, disturbing fare, crafted by a master; readers of the trilogy's first will be supremely satisfied."--Kirkus Reviews

"Readers will be happy to slip back into Black’s elaborate, fascinating world of workers, curses, and the seeming ease with which everyone has learned to live in a world where no one, not even family, can be truly trusted, and this sequel offers satisfying additional glimpses into this nearly familiar but ultimately shockingly different world."--Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

"The Curse Workers series continues to offer a sleek and stylish blend of urban fantasy and crime noir."--Booklist

From the Publisher

The second book in the Curse Workers trilogy picks up with Cassel Sharpe returning to his prep school with a lot of baggage, mostly of the personal kind. Lila is back at school, too, and still cursed, if loving Cassel can be considered a curse. Cassel is conflicted about his awareness of his abilities as a transformation worker. His ambivalence only becomes more profound when his brother Phillip is found murdered. Two government agents come to school to talk to Cassel about the secret Phillip has been keeping from his family: that he had just agreed to work for the Feds. As Cassel works to figure out who killed Phillip—his mom?, his girlfriend?, a mobster?, his brother Barron?—he turns to his own cunning as well as the support of his prep school friends to solve the mystery. Black fans will love this second book in the series, especially for the way in which it continues Cassel and Lila's story and adds the additional tension of Cassel being courted by the two mob families as well as the Feds. Reviewer: Jean Boreen, Ph.D.

Children's Literature - Jean Boreen