Review: Red Glove by Holly Black

Red Glove

Author: Holly Black

Release: April 5th 2011

Genre: Crime, Urban Fantasy, YA

#2 in the Curse Worker trilogy

Series: White Cat (#1), Black Heart (#3)

Plot:

Curses and cons.

Magic and the mob.

In Cassel Sharpe's world, they go together. Cassel always thought he was an ordinary guy, until he realized his memories were being manipulated by his brothers. Now he knows the truth — he’s the most powerful curse worker around. A touch of his hand can transform anything — or anyone — into something else.

That was how Lila, the girl he loved, became a white cat. Cassel was tricked into thinking he killed her, when actually he tried to save her. Now that she’s human again, he should be overjoyed. Trouble is, Lila’s been cursed to love him, a little gift from his emotion-worker mom. And if Lila’s love is as phony as Cassel’s made-up memories, then he can’t believe anything she says or does.

When Cassel’s oldest brother is murdered, the Feds recruit Cassel to help make sense of the only clue — crime-scene images of a woman in red gloves. But the mob is after Cassel too — they know how valuable he could be to them. Cassel is going to have to stay one step ahead of both sides just to survive. But where can he turn when he can’t trust anyone — least of all, himself?

Love is a curse and the con is the only answer in a game too dangerous to lose.

Goodreads | B&N

Review:

3.5 stars-ish? 

It wasn't as good as the first one, but it was still very good. I'm not sure about the rating, I feel like it doesn't deserve as much as its predecessor, but then again, 3.5 seems like too little. Ugh, I don't know. 

Anyway, I liked that, like White Cat, this novel was very snarky and sneaky and I just love being able to follow all these crimes and mysteries and uncover them together with Cassel. There is one big murder case Cassel tries to solve throughout the whole book, and he says something about the murderer at one point, but doesn't reveal their true identity until later, and at that point anyone had figured out who it was by that point. So when it was pulled out like the big reveal, it didn't carry that much weight anymore. 

We get to know a little more about the characters, although not much. We get to see a whole different side of Daneca which was nice, and also of course Cassel develops a bit during the events of Red Glove. It was interesting to see Lila more prominent in this novel, seeing as she was a cat over the span of most of the first one and thus, we didn't see that much of her back then. 

The writing is very good, it flows very nicely, seeing as not everyone can master present tense that well. But it adds a certain flavor and urgency to the story Black is telling that fits really well. 

So, yeah. I liked it a lot, and I can definitely recommend this one, as well as the first novel. Unlike a lot of other second installments, it doesn't disappoint, although I am left to wonder what she will write about in the next, third and final book as I don't quite see that many loose ends that were left at the end of Red Glove. But I guess, I'll see.