**I’m updating this post because it perfectly answers YA Highway’s Road Trip Wednesday question: What was the best book you read in September? I can’t wait eat up all the juicy suggestions from fellow readers!

I mentioned last week that I would save the review for White Cat for another time, and here it is!

As I started to sum up the back story for White Cat, my respect for Holly Black only grew. She brilliantly creates a complex world and trusts the reader to ‘get’ it without having to explain. Genius that she is, Ms. Black just tells the story. Through the characters, the reader learns to navigate the world in which they live. But I digress…

White Cat opens with Cassel Sharpe standing on the roof of his prep school, with no idea how he ended up there. In Cassel’s world, curse workers can manipulate other people physically and emotionally with a touch of their hands. Cassel has every reason to think he’s been worked; everyone in his family of con artists and gangsters has the ability to curse. Everyone except for him. But being the black sheep of the family is the least of his worries. Cassel is sure he’s responsible for the death of his best friend, Lila, daughter of the local mob boss. Cassel has to find out who is working him and why, and how it’s all related to the mysterious white cat who won’t get out of his dreams.

From the first chapter, I couldn’t put White Cat down. Cassel is one of those characters who you wish you could have over for pizza in real life. This story has the perfect balance of a teenager’s struggles with family, school, and friends, the intrigue of life in a crime family, and the complexity of an urban fantasy world. Think The Sopranos meets Harry Potter.

I can’t say much about the sequel without spoilers, but I loved Red Glove, too. I’m just glad the fall release season is upon us, and I’ll have plenty of other series installments to keep me busy until #3.

Music for today: Trojans by Atlas Genius