![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bloodygranuaileThe third book in Holly Black's Curse Workers series, Black Heart, was released on Tuesday! And I have read it already! I feel so hip and not-months-behind-on-things.
Anyway, in this one, Cassel is sort-of working for the Feds, and hating himself, and his memory worker brother Barron is also working for the Feds, and being a smarmy asshole, because he's Barron. Cassel is still at Wallingford Prep, where his roommate Sam and his hippie friend Daneca are still angry at each other after breaking up at the end of the last book. Lila is also mad at Cassel after not being cursed to be embarrassingly in love with him anymore, and she is working for her father's Mafia ring. Everyone is miserable, especially Cassel, because that's how he rolls (also, because his life sucks).
The story opens with Cassel "practicing" his stakeout skillz by stalking Lila in his black Benz that the mob gave him in the last book becauseHolly Black thought Cassel needed a sexy car they are trying to entice him to join the Zacharov crime family. Cassel is aware that this is sad and pathetic, and just in case he isn't, Barron is telling him. From this point shit gets weird. Cassel ends up involved in a blackmail scheme involving the Dean and another student who is also a worker, a job with the Feds to take out Governor Patton (the rabidly anti-worker governor of New Jersey who became even more rabidly anti-worker after Cassel's mom worked him in the last book, because Cassel's mom is bad news) that Cassel is all conflicted about and which may or may not be a setup, and a lot of messy situations involving Lila and feelings and communication mishaps that make Jane Austen characters look straightforward and not at all broody. There is also a large helping of black leather and expensive cars and excessive coffee-drinking, for added gritty sexy urban-ness. (Please note that I am making fun, but I am emphatically NOT COMPLAINING.)
Speaking of sexy, I wish to give Holly Black a big Socially Responsible gold star for writing a sex scene where birth control is actually mentioned! This does not happen enough in books, in my opinion. Birth control: it allows you to avoid irritating pregnancy plotlines! And contrary to popular opinion, the sex scenes can still be sexy! (This is, of course, assuming that you are a good enough writer to write sex scenes that are sexy in the first place, which is apparently a rare skill.)
Also, there are witty one-liners, but not enough of them to be too precious.
...I still want to be Holly Black when I grow up, but I don't think I'm smart enough.
Anyway, in this one, Cassel is sort-of working for the Feds, and hating himself, and his memory worker brother Barron is also working for the Feds, and being a smarmy asshole, because he's Barron. Cassel is still at Wallingford Prep, where his roommate Sam and his hippie friend Daneca are still angry at each other after breaking up at the end of the last book. Lila is also mad at Cassel after not being cursed to be embarrassingly in love with him anymore, and she is working for her father's Mafia ring. Everyone is miserable, especially Cassel, because that's how he rolls (also, because his life sucks).
The story opens with Cassel "practicing" his stakeout skillz by stalking Lila in his black Benz that the mob gave him in the last book because
Speaking of sexy, I wish to give Holly Black a big Socially Responsible gold star for writing a sex scene where birth control is actually mentioned! This does not happen enough in books, in my opinion. Birth control: it allows you to avoid irritating pregnancy plotlines! And contrary to popular opinion, the sex scenes can still be sexy! (This is, of course, assuming that you are a good enough writer to write sex scenes that are sexy in the first place, which is apparently a rare skill.)
Also, there are witty one-liners, but not enough of them to be too precious.
...I still want to be Holly Black when I grow up, but I don't think I'm smart enough.
