(the rating is from when i first read it in 2011; the review is from my 2018 reread. i'd maybe rate it slightly lower today, maybe 4 stars, but i've decided to keep the original rating.)

man, i remember being 17 and just absolutely adoring this book. i was a little scared to reread it; what if it didn't hold up now that i was 24 and not really the intended audience anymore? it would've broken my heart a little.

i'm happy to say that, although there's definitely stuff i like less now then i did back then, this book is still a ridiculous amount of fun. i continue to not be able to comprehend how holly black wrote both this series (which i love) AND all those fae books that i couldn't even finish. a mystery for the ages.

anyway!

the stuff i remembered most fondly about this book all more or less held up. bullet points, because my ability to form sentences is for shit today:

- i've always thought this series had a genuinely clever magic system, and i stand by that. the concept of blowback (whatever curse you work on someone comes back onto you) is one of the best ways i've seen of imposing limits on what your magic wielding characters can do, and holly black really goes into all the implications of this, some of them super horrifying.

Spoiler

barron slowly forgetting who he even is takes the cake for me, but cassel's own body transforming whenever he works someone is also an obvious contender.

- cool worlbuidling! i'm always disappointed when settings where supernatural stuff is publicly known don't really explore how society would change as a result - culturally, politically, legally, etc. this series does, and for that i gotta give props. some of it is a little more heavyhanded to me at 24 than it was at 17, but i still think it's pretty well done. a favourite bit is the idea of always having gloves on being a cultural norm, particularly because black consistently has characters react (with fear/embarrassment/etc depending on the situation) when someone is not wearing gloves. it makes sense for a world where magic can only be done by someone touching your bare skin with their hand! it's neat worldbuilding, and i appreciate it.

- there's some genuinely nasty stuff in this book! particularly for ya. i wouldn't say it's a dark book really, but - i find that in ya a lot of times something which if you think about it would have horrifying consequences, but the book chickens out of actually showing this, either leaving it implied or brushing over it altogether. white cat emphatically does not do this; whether it comes to the consequences of curseworking (see first bullet point above) or the depiction of cassel's incredibly fucked up family. and, you know. i respect that.

this review is a dumpster fire and if anyone's reading i apologize. i'm off now to reread 'red glove', which i also be back to messily review at some point. in conclusion: fun book, would still recommend. peace!