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:

White Cat

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Book source: ILLed through my library.

Comments

[Maureen E]

I loved the first book and loved this one more, which I don't think came across in my review at all (note to self: don't write reviews when you should be in bed). Cassel is just such an awesome mixture of tough and tender. And I agree, Sam can just be my BFF, because he is great.

[tanita]

Oh, YAY!! I liked the first book well enough that I thought the second might be somewhat disappointing -- and while I know you read far more mysteries than I do, while I can't say that I was blindsided by everything in White Cat, I was shocked by how Black Holly just left the emotional sucker punch there. Just - wham, and she ended the book. A lot of YA authors don't do that - there's that "kernel of hope" crap we're all taught. (okay, okay, it's not really crap. But...) So, I was impressed with the crafting.

NOW I'm impressed that she somehow doesn't have mid-series slump, you know how the second book is usually just a bridge book? Wow. I need to study the "how" she does things a bit more. I'm looking forward to this book. (And lastly, may I say that the UK cover is MUCH BETTER than this one. Why must we always have the faces!?)

[Leila]

Ooo, the UK cover is CREEPY. I like it!

I was glad of the sucker punch in the first book, too. It's an element I think is really important to the noir genre -- the hero generally is left unhappy -- and I wonder if that's why we don't seem much traditional noir in YA? There are some contenders, like What I Saw and How I Lied and Gentlemen and Dooley, but you're right in that they all have that ray of hope that the end of White Cat avoided.

So, yeah. Red Glove is totally, totally *not* merely a bridge book -- it moves the broader arc along, and it's a gamechanger, but it's a story unto itself as well.

My lips are sealed about the ending, and now I'm *dying* for you to read it.

[Mia]

I just finished White Cat for one of my book clubs, and I love love loved it. I've never read any Holly Black before, and I'm jazzed that she has some fun-looking stuff to dive into.

[Trisha]

Okay, I just read Red Glove (and your review) and agree with Tanita about liking White Cat and being vaguely worried about Red Glove. But, WOW, this book totally delivered.

re: book two problems in general, I wonder if this is because we're so used to (especially in YA) paranormal/fantasy/science fiction trilogies in which there's one big story arc (in terms of action/plot) that runs through all three books. And this, on the other hand, is paranormal noir that reads more like a mystery series than a paranormal/UF series. I mean, there are recurring characters, but the basic mystery at the heart of each book is resolved, and what keeps us wanting more are our feelings for the protagonist and their tangled emotional relationships.