The cons get twistier and the stakes get higher in Red Glove, the sequel to White Cat.
Publishers Weekly
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.)
From the Publisher
* "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
Children's Literature - Jean Boreen
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.
School Library Journal
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
Read More
