Black Heart

Gr 10 Up—Cassel Sharpe is back at work…curse work, that is. The high school senior is barely hanging on at Wallingford Prep, in part because he spends too much time hanging out with his memory-worker brother and his "handler" at the Licensed Minority Division, a federal agency hoping to put Cassel's worker powers to use on their behalf. In his world, certain people are born with special gifts. Perhaps it is an ability to influence luck, or alter memory, or cause death. Cassel's power is the rarest: he can transform anything into something else. His society is an imaginative mix of underworld crime families and governmental restrictions that have made curse work illegal and therefore highly paid, if you know the right people. The concept of blowback is one of the most fascinating-that working magic has a physical price for the worker, be it rotted teeth or lost memories. Magic flows from the hands, and Black's description of gloves, and gloveless interactions, has a tinge of the erotic, rather like the glimpse of a bare ankle in Victorian times. Cassel's mother is missing, the feds want the teen for a dangerous political job, and a friend needs his help with a blackmail situation. His roommate needs help with a romance, and Cassel still carries a torch for Lila, who spent part of White Cat (2010) as a feline, and then was worked to artificially fall in love with Cassel in Red Glove (2011, both S & S). This book doesn't stand alone, but is a welcome addition to the series, with an ending that points a gloved finger toward book four as Lila and Cassel share a passionate kiss and drive off together in Lila's Jaguar.—Maggie Knapp, Trinity Valley School, Fort Worth, TX