Holly Black created yet another world that is filled with supernatural feel to a normal kind of setting. This first book was mostly about the build up I feel like to get the reader to understand the new world she had created, a world with people who have supernatural powers in a mobster ruling in New Jersey. I thought it was kind of funny because I recognized places that she had mentioned in the towns by my college. I thought it was different compared to the Tithe series because the whole book is in the point of Cassel, a guy! Holly Black really got into the male mind so that the readers could sypmathized and yet be realistic. There was a lot of build up in this book and the end made me really wish I had the second book on hand because of how she left it! A warning though, it's not a bad one, it threw me for a loop but the book is written in the present tense! Took me a little bit to get a hold of that!