Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.75 AVERAGE
3.75 AVERAGE
3.5 stars because I liked the concept of the story - curse workers have different abilities (emotional, memory, death etc) that can be transmitted by hand so everyone in their society wears gloves. Alot of workers are part of a mob type group where their skills can be hired out but they owe they loyalty to one boss or family. Cassel comes from a family of curse workers but doesn't have any abilities himself. But the family "business" still affects him and then he discovers something about himself after sleepwalking out to the roof of his dorm.
Mar 2011 - listening to the book didn't make it better for me
Mar 2011 - listening to the book didn't make it better for me
This book's cover is pathetic and absolutely doesn't do it justice.
Full review coming later, I think.
Full review coming later, I think.
Things I enjoyed:
-young protagonist conman
-just a lot of morally dubious behavior
-the focusing on what makes a person a person - their actions or their memories
-the protag getting to a place where he can admit he has friends!! developing love and trust!!
-it's a good plot and a good first book arc in a series!
Things I enjoyed THE MOST:
-One of the characters mentions reading "one of Mom's romance books, 'The Windflower' cover to cover out loud. The Windflower is also, frankly, amazing, and one of my favorite-favorite things that this book does quite a bit of is build a reading list for the reader out of the character's reading habits.
Other Things:
-young protagonist conman
-just a lot of morally dubious behavior
-the focusing on what makes a person a person - their actions or their memories
-the protag getting to a place where he can admit he has friends!! developing love and trust!!
-it's a good plot and a good first book arc in a series!
Things I enjoyed THE MOST:
-One of the characters mentions reading "one of Mom's romance books, 'The Windflower' cover to cover out loud
Spoiler
to someone who was tripping to hard in a bathroom. And I knew, before the reveal, that this must be a LIE!!!! because the audiobook for 'the windflower' is 19 hours and that would be an exceptionally long tripOther Things:
Spoiler
-I know it must be one of the hardest things to write a Big Twist with Good Foreshadowing without leaving the reader going "How Come /I/ Know and You Don't, otherwise wildly competent protagonist" - this one dipped a little on the "please figure this out" scale for me, but of course I am not the intended audience.
Helena, I love you for making me read this. RTC!
Holly Black is my go-to author for writing that immerses you completely in the story, flawed, but loveable main characters, and a true edge of darkness and painful consequences in her stories.
Whether it be her younger-YA Spiderwick chronicles or the older YA Valiant/Tithe, she always delivers.
And here she does it again. I gave up multiple hours of sleep for this book because I needed to know what happened. Black gives a shout out to Justine Larbalestier's "Liar" in this book, and the protagonist, Cassel has many things similiar to the female protagonist of Liar.
He's unreliable in what he tells us.
He begins the book by explaining he killed someone important to him.
He is entangled in complicated family relationships based on fear and mistrust and an added layer of the supernatural.
In this case, Cassel is the only non-worker in a family of curseworkers. He has responded to this challenge by becoming a consummate con artist. He runs betting pools at his elite private school. All his relationships are based on a con/mark vibe, and his inner turmoil as he figures out who he is and who he wants to be is fascinating.
Cassel is flawed, does mean things, and we love him anyway.
Meanwhile he has to figure out what con his curseworker brothers are running on him, figure out his mysterious dreams of a white cat, and figure out how to get back into school when a dangerous sleep-walking incident causes problems.
Excellent.
This Book's Food Designation Rating: A luscious Napoleon for the layers of goodness in the book. You eat through one layer and then you find a flaky layer of information you didn't expect and then you're back to the rich, smoothness of the characters that draw you in.
Whether it be her younger-YA Spiderwick chronicles or the older YA Valiant/Tithe, she always delivers.
And here she does it again. I gave up multiple hours of sleep for this book because I needed to know what happened. Black gives a shout out to Justine Larbalestier's "Liar" in this book, and the protagonist, Cassel has many things similiar to the female protagonist of Liar.
He's unreliable in what he tells us.
He begins the book by explaining he killed someone important to him.
He is entangled in complicated family relationships based on fear and mistrust and an added layer of the supernatural.
In this case, Cassel is the only non-worker in a family of curseworkers. He has responded to this challenge by becoming a consummate con artist. He runs betting pools at his elite private school. All his relationships are based on a con/mark vibe, and his inner turmoil as he figures out who he is and who he wants to be is fascinating.
Cassel is flawed, does mean things, and we love him anyway.
Meanwhile he has to figure out what con his curseworker brothers are running on him, figure out his mysterious dreams of a white cat, and figure out how to get back into school when a dangerous sleep-walking incident causes problems.
Excellent.
This Book's Food Designation Rating: A luscious Napoleon for the layers of goodness in the book. You eat through one layer and then you find a flaky layer of information you didn't expect and then you're back to the rich, smoothness of the characters that draw you in.
Definitely not my favorite by this author. I don't know if I'd want to continue on with the series or not.
fast-paced
Surprisingly interesting and twisty. I listened to the audiobook narrated by Jesse Eisenberg (juno/zombieland). He is just so good, so perhaps that helped it feel less YA, which, it is, of course. Still, a fun read, quick, diverting.