"Don’t be too sympathetic. Here’s the essential truth about me: I killed a girl when I was fourteen. Her name was Lila, she was my best friend, and I loved her. I killed her anyway. There’s a lot of the murder that seems like a blur, but my brothers found me standing over her body with blood on my hands and a weird smile tugging at my mouth. What I remember most is the feeling I had looking down at Lila--the giddy glee of having gotten away with something.
No one knows I’m a murderer except my family. And me, of course.
I don’t want to be that person, so I spend most of my time at school faking and lying. It takes a lot of effort to pretend you’re something you’re not. I don’t think about what music I like; I think about what music I should like. When I had a girlfriend, I tried to convince her I was the guy she wanted me to be. When I’m in a crowd, I hang back until I can figure out how to make them laugh. Luckily, if there’s one thing I’m good at, it’s faking and lying.
I told you I’d done plenty wrong."

Until I read White Cat,I had yet to read anything by Holly Black with the exception of wanting to read her faery books. Open the first page of White Cat and you are drawn into a world of magic and crime, of betrayal and love. A world that gives birth to a story of thinking you are guilty of something but what if you really aren't? You see, Cassel Sharpe is the only non-worker in a family full of curse workers, the outcast when all he wants is to belong in the one place he certainly should. Then Lila dies... Cassel believes he murdered her, murdered his best friend, the girl he loved, and the daughter of the head of a crime family, the same crime family that employs his grandfather, who is a Death worker. But it seems as if everyone around him has a secret and he is the only one who is kept in the dark. Could what he had been told his whole life be a lie? Could being a non-working con artist be the path of his life? Or is there something more to him than meets the eye? To find out he will have to get to the bottom of secrets, of lies, to the truth hidden in the eye of a white cat who looks so familiar... But coming from a family of professional con artists that may prove harder than it looks.

Black is a phenomenal writer, giving voice to her characters, making you wish you could live the life they do. Cassel's story is touching and addicting, leaving you turning pages and wanting to know what happens next. Even the first page can tell you that it is addicting, from those very first words. I cannot wait for the next installment in the Curse Workers books.