(no subject)

       

It's interesting to read these side by side, because some of the crux elements are the same:

- kids from crime families trying to break away
- by going to boarding school
- being forced to use those skills for higher good
- They have striking colors in your standard Mob Noir colors of Black, White, and BLOOD

By merit of the authors, though, the treatments are completely different. It's just one of those odd things that they were released so close to each other.

Holly Black's White Cat goes first.
It's a new fantasy world she's set up for this (I think), first in a series, if all goes well. And as is her strength, it's one with harsh realities of people abusing others and dilemmas that are not neatly solved. The ending involves a suckerpunch only incidental to the main plot, but makes sure to re-establish the basis of this reality : life here is mean.

The details work to keep the settings vivid (if always badly lit in my imagination), and the scene where Cassel starts cleaning his mother's house is used to set up a gripping picture of a family of meshed dysfunction and the way a child accepts it. A scene that should have been a boring backstory-flash is my favorite from the whole novel.

The dedication is "For all the fictional cats I've killed in other books." This is somehow the perfect frame for the book that follows--a book firm in the tradition of her dark faerie books, with a completely new setting I'm looking forward to seeing more stories from.

Heist Society by Ally Carter

Like White Cate, this book is firm in the tradition of the author's earlier books, the Gallagher Girls spy school series.

I thought it was a tighter book as far as storytelling goes (though I just read her newly released 4th in the spy series and it is, likewise, showing her maturity as a writer) and it sits well beside her other novels. Instead of a mob-like family as in White Cat, Katarina is from a long line of art thieves, with their own rules and alliances. Much brighter, though with a possibility of serious danger.

The characters surrounding the heroine were fun and interesting--there's a whole range of types in this underground society--while Katarina remained somewhat of a cipher. It's an illustration, I suppose, of someone working in the negative for their motivation--she doesn't want to do the job, but she doesn't want her dad in the hands of the man demanding her help.

I look forward to sequels, because this setting and concept has a lot of potential. And who doesn't like a good heist story?

***

If this is going to be a new trend, I have no objection.
The Alfred Kropp books were on these lines, and though I haven't gotten to reading the sequels I really enjoyed the first, so I plan to.

while I'm breaking my radio silence

also, I just stopped following sounis , because I was unfollowing another community and realized that I didn't ever look forward to the posts there anymore. I had hoped the conversation of deeper things would recur after Conspiracy of Kings, but it really didn't.

This is not a break-up note. Because communities online have a very short lifespan, and that's okay. It's disturbing when they go zombie, that's all.

If anything wonderful happens over there, flag me down, Reprobates! I still love you!