Red Glove

I <3 Holly Black. Her new book, Red Glove returns readers to her Curse Workers world where transformation worker Cassel Sharp is struggling to find his place in the world now that he knows that he is a powerful worker. With his memories of the terrible things he's done gone, Cassel has to decide if he'll continue on the assassin's path his brothers set him on or let himself be recruited by a couple of ruthless feds intent on using his connections for their ends. None of this is made any easier by the presence of his childhood crush and the terrible guilt he feels at her having been cursed to love him. Can he resist the temptation to be with her until the curse wears off? Does he want to?

And all the time in the background, there is social and political unrest of a distopian nature threatening to change everything for this world where everyone wears gloves all the time to protect against unknown curse workers. There is a test that determines whether a person is a curse worker or not, and the government is proposing that the test be made mandatory for everyone. Cassel and his friends attend a protest where opposing placards read such phrases as "What do you have to hide?" and "Test everyone, Trust no one!" The tension feels very authentic and parallels civil rights protests of the past. One can even see similarities between the increasingly fear driven treatment of the curse workers and Nazi Germany's treatment of Jewish families. Pretty heady stuff to get teens thinking about the power of fear and ignorance in our own world.

That is Holly's gift, it seems. Writing fantastical works of fiction that feel real enough to live in. The emotions, visions and sensations she conjures up with her pen are nearly palpable in their authenticity. More please!

6 toes!