White Cat by Holly Black

From GoodReads: Cassel comes from a family of curse workers -- people who have the power to change your emotions, your memories, your luck, by the slightest touch of their hands. And since curse work is illegal, they're all mobsters, or con artists. Except for Cassel. He hasn't got the magic touch, so he's an outsider, the straight kid in a crooked family. You just have to ignore one small detail -- he killed his best friend, Lila, three years ago.

Ever since, Cassel has carefully built up a façade of normalcy, blending into the crowd. But his façade starts crumbling when he starts sleepwalking, propelled into the night by terrifying dreams about a white cat that wants to tell him something. He's noticing other disturbing things, too, including the strange behavior of his two brothers. They are keeping secrets from him, caught up in a mysterious plot. As Cassel begins to suspect he's part of a huge con game, he also wonders what really happened to Lila. Could she still be alive? To find that out, Cassel will have to out-con the conmen.


Now I have been a Holly Black fan since Tithe, Valiant, and Ironside, I love her detailing and her ability to bring characters to life.  In White Cat, true to her style, she has done it again.  Cassel makes you feel every emotion as he goes through them, making you want things to go his way.  I adored this book for it's originality and concept.  (Also, I LOVE the fact that this book, unike so many in the Teen and YA genre, is written from a male perspective.)  If you like strange twists and turns, as well as the supernatural, then White Cat is a book for you!