Hey friends! Ready for the next section in our White Cat Literary Feast, courtesy of the lovely Holly Black?
Feel free to join in the discussion using the equally-lovely Comment button at the bottom of your screen. ;)
Reader beware, however -- spoilers lurk here.
Shel: Okay, so Cassel's plan to get the cat back from the pound seems overly complicated. Am I alone in this? Couldn't one of his friends just pretend to be 18?
Monica: Here here. Or, heck, just sneak in! I don’t know what kind of security his local Humane Society has, but at mine you just need to climb a fence and open the back door…. But then I guess the plot wouldn’t be as tricksy, and his friends wouldn’t realize he’s a con artist, and we wouldn’t get the Ocean’s-Eleven-Like walkthrough of how to steal a pet from the pound. Which would be too bad. ;)
Shel: You've...you've made note of this? Monica, have you stolen animals from the humane society? If so, could you steal me a puma? The kitties need a new friend. Or would that not be possible? ... Forget I asked. Anyway, I totally thought it wasn't going to be Lila in that carrier.
Monica: “Cassel decides the orange-striped tabby in the carrier was actually fairly adorable… and certainly better behaved than Lila Cat. He resolves to give up on Lila, who was honestly kind of an evil brat, and left home for Seattle with the tabby in tow, where he became a barista and lived in an animal-permitting apartment. The End.”
Shel: I would read that book. It seems simpler than this one, though, because wow, there are some plot twisties here! I can't believe the way Barron and Philip are treating Cassel. That boy needs a new family, stat.
Monica: Honestly. Flee, boy, flee! You’re resourceful and clever, and make nice friends! But really, the first minute that I’d realized my brother was basically hypnotizing my sister-in-law (and he’s the nice brother)… that’s when I hit the road and don’t look back.
Shel: And I guess Cassel is officially the awesomest person on awesome street.
Monica: Don’t get too pumped, sweetie. There’s still plenty of time for him to break our hearts. Although no matter what happens, I am sure I will still like him more than Lila.
Shel: So true. I was super surprised by the twist of what Barron's REAL curse was. Well played, Holly Black. That's totally explains his compulsive lying.
Monica: I was so pumped for that! His lying had been worked into the story so early that I’d just accepted it as part of Barron’s personality. To know that actually his brain was turning all holey… absolutely epic. (It almost made up for the fact that Barron was evil – He seems almost too awful. It doesn’t make any sense to me – was he kicked as a kid, or what?)
Shel: I agree. And to be honest, I have no sympathy for either Barron or Philip. Barron's a sociopath. And I don't care that he's left as a gentler version of himself. I wanted him to be left as a pile of memoryless goo in an asylum somewhere. I view what they did to Cassel to be unforgivable. But then, I am an only child. A merciless, vengeful only child.
That's all for now, Faithful Readers -- I need to slowly edge away from Shel and get started on the last section. We'll be discussing chapters fifteen all the way up to the back cover on Saturday. So grab a book, snuggle up next to your favorite furry friend (but, you know, not one who's actually a bratty hateful girl in disguise), and get reading!
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