The Curse Workers: White Cat; Red Glove; Black Heartby Holly Black
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
This is probably the first Holly Black book that I didn’t fall in love with immediately. I did like it, but I didn’t find it quite as engaging as the Folk of the Air (a masterpiece series), Coldest Girl in Coldtown (a standalone under-the-radar masterpiece), or even the Tithe series.
Most of what I love about Holly Black is there – great characters, clever dialogue, a crapton of bon mots. The worldbuilding here (curse workers possess various cool powers but cannot use said powers indiscriminately) wasn’t as strong as in other books, but I didn’t hate it. I thought the concept of blowback (basically receiving back what you put out ten folder, so if you’re a death worker you can kill someone with a touch, but you’ll literally lose parts of yourself as a result) was smart, I was really engaged by the whole criminal underworld/con man focus, and I thought Cassel was a delight. Actually, most of the main characters were great (I very much enjoyed Cassel and Sam’s dynamic, and Cassel’s family is like a smorgasbord of train-wreck entertainment).
Given all that, I’m not sure why I only rated it 3 stars; in fact, I’ll be generous and bump it up to 3.5. I think if I had to pick a reason, it would be, first, I didn’t like Lila (the main female character and Cassel’s love interest) at all. For a gangster’s daughter, she was bland, and I couldn’t for the life of me figure out why Cassel loved her so much. She’s supposed to be some tough, cool girl, but I found characters like Jude from FotA and Tana from CGiCt much grittier, which is saying something, given that Lila is a mob boss in training. Also, this was a bind-up of three separate books, so I think it just felt like kind of a slog going through all three one after the other.
That being said, I’d still recommend it because there’s enough of what Holly Black is known for and what she excels at present here to make it worth the effort in reading.
Keep It To Your Shelf 
i surprised myself I’m used to Holly Blacks other books and loved them all immensely this book was a very slow read for me but once I engaged myself in it I realized it was just as good a read as any of her other books was it great perhaps not but it wasn’t bad the characters were likeable and once you felt the words of this book the curse workers ( the complete series in one book) it becomes a favorite as well I’m someone who’s extremely critical of what I read but Holly Blacks books are my number one favorite I have other authors I love but none quite as much as hers this series is a slow burn book for anyone who embraces Holly blacks style of writing and if you give it a try read it and embrace yourself in the book as you do with many if not all of her books I’m sure you would love it I’m weird anyways I’m 52 years old but have always loved books in fact my entire apartment is full of them but my Holly Black collection of books 📚 those are my absolute favs and this book does deliver and if you go in with a open mind and embrace it as you as have her other work you’ll definitely come out of it loving it
LikeLike