Red
Glove
Holly
Black
Gollancz
2011
Red Glove is
the second book in the Curse Workers series
by Holly Black. If you have not read the first book (White
Cat) then this review will
contain spoilers. You have been warned.
After
the startling, transforming (yep, I went there) and violent events of
White Cat, Cassel Sharpe is surely due a break. Reeling from
the manipulation he suffered by his brothers’ hands, he’s spent
the summer with his erratic mother, always on the look out for the
next con, grifting their way through hotels and rich guys like in a
manner reminiscent of John Cusack and Angelica Huston. On his return
to Wallingford, school for the privileged/smart/possibly criminal, he
hopes for some normality but before long the feds are knocking at his
door – his brother is dead and they want Cassel working the case.
The thing is, the ever present criminal element of the Curse Workers
(which seems to be, er, almost all of them) also have stakes in
Cassel. With his transformative powers of interest to all, Cassel
has some interesting choices to make… not least to do with Lila,
crime lord's daughter, erstwhile murder victim (not to mention cat)
and the love of Cassel’s life. But wait, Lila loves him too! How
beautiful, how touching, how perfect! Except, of course, it’s not…
When
first encountered in White Cat, Cassel Sharpe wasn’t in the
healthiest of mental places. While somewhat discomfited that he was
the only non-worker in an acclaimed family of curse workers/mobsters
he was also tortured by the confusing yet indubitable memory of
killing the girl he loved two years previously. Red Glove
finds Cassel no less conflicted albeit for a host of different
reasons. With both the mob boss Zacharov and the authorities
courting him Cassel is once again forced to take a difficult look at
himself, his family and his future. As in White Cat, Cassel is
aware that his natural path would be to get in with the most powerful
crime family by whatever means yet he doesn’t want to be, well,
bad. He’s a cleverly written character who, while well
intentioned, often believes himself to be wicked and clearly thrives
on the thrill of the con. In Red Glove, Holly Black has
cleverly added yet more complications in the now human form of Lila,
the girl whom Cassel loves and who claims to love him but whose
feelings he cannot trust. All of these elements render Cassel's
decision making process somewhat protracted, often confusing but
always real. Cassel could easily be one of these dreadfully angst
written characters, wrestling with his conscious (or, God forbid, his
eternal soul – I am so over that),
but Black has given him a sly humour, relatively easygoing manner and
some occasional downright boyishness that make him not only
incredibly enjoyable to read but also give him one of the best male
voices in current YA fiction. He’s one of my personal favourites,
mainly because he’s just so damn believable.
Other
characters in the book are as interesting as they were in White
Cat, with perhaps the exception of the cursed Lila who, mostly,
is relegated to delicate swooning and love-sick misery. Actually,
that makes her pretty interesting too come to think of it. However,
the stand out bit player is Cassel’s mother. A truly terrifying
yet utterly delightful character, reading her is rather like walking
a knife edge and I hope to see more of her conniving, manipulative
and oddly loving interplay in the next instalment. Daneca is another
character who becomes increasingly uncomfortable to read over the
course of the book – it seems that everyone in Cassel’s world is
harbouring one secret or another… except perhaps Sam, who is as
solid, sensible and loveable as ever.
Plot
wise, Red Glove is at once as simple and as complex as White
Cat was. The central plot strand concerns Cassel looking into
his brother's murder and this works well as a standard murder
mystery. However, it is the sub plots that are truly intriguing.
Primarily, there is the conflict caused by Lila’s curse –
particularly in light of the fact that Cassel’s mother placed it
upon her, effectively cursing her own son in the process. There are
then further strands regarding the authorities use of Curse Workers,
an anti-worker Senator and his dubious Proposition 2 and the
prejudice on both sides of the worker/non-worker divide.
The
strength of Red Glove, as with White Cat, is the
realisation of an utterly recognisable yet also fantastical world.
While Cassel’s interactions with the FBI hold the familiarity of a
million cop shows, his dealings with his mother, Zacharov and Lila
bring to mind old time mobsters, red lipstick, tackily opulent hotels
and glamorous deceit. It is to Black’s credit that she can evoke
both modern and historic criminality in her cleverly rendered
parallel universe. As with reading White Cat, it defies
belief that the writer of the pleasant yet ultimately bland Tithe
series has been able to create such a rich, witty and darkly violent
world. Red Glove is a worthy second book in Black’s Curse
Worker series and I am sure that the third and final instalment
will be more than worth the wait.
Red
Glove is available now. Thanks to the team at Bookbitz for
providing me with a copy of this title to review.
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