4.5 stars

I really, really enjoyed pretty much everything about this book. An exciting mystery, memorable characters and a touch of magic... I can't express how excited I am about reading Red Glove as soon as possible.

Holly Black is an author that never really did anything for me before. I gave up on Tithe after reading just one chapter, and her Spiderwick Chronicles weren't bad children's books but they didn't really stand out from the masses either. White Cat was completely different, I was addicted from chapter one. I loved Cassel - the protagonist - and found his voice believably male but easily relatable for me at the same time. The story is laced with humour from the very first page when we are introduced to our protagonist dangling from a roof in his underwear.

Basically, Cassel comes from a family of curse-workers (those who have various gifts such as memory manipulation, dream manipulation, etc.) and struggles with the burden of being ungifted and, therefore, an outsider even in his own home. Oh, and he happened to murder his best friend three years ago. Despite this, he has managed to build up some semblance of a normal life at his boarding school; well, that is, until the dreams about the white cat start occurring. A white cat that seems to want to tell him something. And then his brothers start acting strange and it becomes more and more obvious that secrets are being kept and Cassel is being lied to.

There's all sorts going off and the story is never boring, and every time the mystery appears to be solved, something else will happen. This is one of those books with many little mysteries to solve so even the most astute reader will find it difficult not to be surprised. I thought the whole novel worked very well and I will be starting Red Glove with a keen interest in what will happen to Cassel next. I'm only giving it 4.5 stars because this series has just begun but it's definitely one of my favourite books of the year.