Red Glove: Curse Workers, #2 -- Holly Black
I had mixed feelings about White Cat, the first book in this series.
Red Glove, I loved. Wholeheartedly and unreservedly.
In the world of the Curse Workers series, magic use is illegal, and therefore, magic users are generally mobsters and con artists. Criminals, at any rate.
At least, that's the perception of the general public. That distrust and fear is what keeps the entire population -- those with magical abilities and those without -- gloved at all times.
I generally don't worry overmuch about keeping my synopses free of spoilers about the earlier books in a series, but I'm not going to provide 'em here. Much of the joy in the Curse Workers series comes from their twisty-turny-double-cross-triple-cross nature, so I don't want to come close to divulging any secrets. So, my spoiler-free synopsis is:
Due to [REDACTED], high school senior Cassel Sharpe is seriously unhappy in love. Since [REDACTED], he's been keeping a huge secret from one of his older brothers, as well as putting up with his mother's usual shenanigans, which is plenty for one guy to handle. But now, he's being actively courted by the mob and the Feds: The mob, due to his discovery of [REDACTED], and the Feds, due to the murder of his other older brother. Put simply, everyone he knows wants something from him, and most of those things conflict.
Someone's going to end up extremely unhappy, and it looks like it's probably going to be Cassel.
Unlike White Cat, Red Glove kept me guessing. And guessing. And guessing. And I never guessed right, about the plotting or the characters.
At some point, I got so involved in the story that I stopped guessing -- which says a whole lot for the book, as that's a real rarity for me. In Red Glove, Holly Black captures the classic noir atmosphere and sensibility while keeping Cassel's voice and behavior believably teenagery. In other words, at times, he's hard-boiled and tough, while at others, he complains about his mother:
Believe it or not, there are magazines out there called, like, Millionaire Living or New Jersey Millionaires or whatever, that feature profiles of old guys in their homes, showing off their stuff. I have no idea who else buys them, but they're perfect for my mother. I think she sees them as gold digger shopping catalogs.
It makes for an excellent combination. Without giving away specifics, I also loved that while Cassel's present circumstances appear to offer few remotely viable (let alone attractive) options, he's also discovering that the possibilities for his future are much, much broader than he'd previously believed. So, unlike most noir stories, there is a ray of hope in there, albeit tiny and somewhat hidden.
Also? I love Sam.
I'm so looking forward to Book Three, especially due to how this one ended. Really, a genuinely fabulous read.
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Previously:
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Book source: ILLed through my library.