Title: The Coldest Girl in Coldtown
Series: Holly Black
Series: #1 - The Coldest Girl in Coldtown
Format: Hardback
Release Date: September 3rd, 2013
My Rating: 3.5 out of 5.0
Series: Holly Black
Series: #1 - The Coldest Girl in Coldtown
Format: Hardback
Release Date: September 3rd, 2013
My Rating: 3.5 out of 5.0
Tana lives in a world where walled cities called Coldtowns exist. In them, quarantined monsters and humans mingle in a decadently bloody mix of predator and prey. The only problem is, once you pass through Coldtown’s gates, you can never leave.
One morning, after a perfectly ordinary party, Tana wakes up surrounded by corpses. The only other survivors of this massacre are her exasperatingly endearing ex-boyfriend, infected and on the edge, and a mysterious boy burdened with a terrible secret. Shaken and determined, Tana enters a race against the clock to save the three of them the only way she knows how: by going straight to the wicked, opulent heart of Coldtown itself.
The Coldest Girl in Coldtown is a wholly original story of rage and revenge, of guilt and horror, and of love and loathing from bestselling and acclaimed author Holly Black.
One morning, after a perfectly ordinary party, Tana wakes up surrounded by corpses. The only other survivors of this massacre are her exasperatingly endearing ex-boyfriend, infected and on the edge, and a mysterious boy burdened with a terrible secret. Shaken and determined, Tana enters a race against the clock to save the three of them the only way she knows how: by going straight to the wicked, opulent heart of Coldtown itself.
The Coldest Girl in Coldtown is a wholly original story of rage and revenge, of guilt and horror, and of love and loathing from bestselling and acclaimed author Holly Black.
My Review:
Okay here is one of my favorite authors, Holly Black. She has a way with character creation and weaving their relationships together. While I have only read White Cat at the time, the book was great and instantly on my watchlist. The Coldest Girl in Coldtown was spectacular. I love how original it is, and while this is a vampire novel of sorts, it takes a spin on the whole genre that I enjoyed.
First I will say that I think this is more of an adult/new-adult style than what some of her past books have been. By this I mean it's not necessarily as simple or cut and dry as the simple plot developers that show up. There are layers and layers in this book, that mold the entirety of it together. However, that in itself is a downfall, the layers tend to cut the main story in chunks and just when the story gets good it cuts to the past or a background/info-dump that could have been done in a better way (at the start of chapters instead of in the middle).
The world is current or slightly future in which vampirism is a plague. The humans have controlled it by creating coldtowns in which anyone and everyone suspected of being a vampire is sent into. They are quarantined making it harder to get out than to get in. People are willing to go in of their own free will and become vampires, and some do it for science and trying to learn more about them. As well, there are vampires that hold grand parties and have TV shows of everything. Like a gory version of Big Brother on your local reality TV show.
The novel starts with Tana waking up in a bathtub and even if she is a bit slow to realize it, she notices that the raging party she was at has fallen silent during the night. However nobody has left, they all are laying dead on the floor, victims of a vampire attack. In trying to escape she finds her ex-boyfriend and a body in the corner which happens to be Gavriel, an actual vampire. She manages to get out as other vampires are trying to kill them, and the whole story goes from there.
Tana is a survivor of sorts of one attack prior. She is partially responsible for her mother becoming a vampire, and when she comes into question whether she's infected or not, she takes the selfless way out. Heading with Gaviel into the nearest Coldtown, leaving her father and sister behind without any warning and little to no money. I loved that about her, she knew what she had to do, and even though it nearly broke her heart over and over, she did it to protect them.
There wasn't a whole lot of romance and no there really wasn't a love triangle at all in this. What romance is there though, is more of introductory. It gets the story and characters ready for the sequel, and it deserves that. Holly Black does a great job of weaving the romance that is there into something tangible. However what is there though, is the persistent fear that is on every page. The dark, gory, and twisted second half of the book and how Tana reacts inside the Coldtown is great. I love how gritty and almost masochistic the novel is. It's not your typical faerie tale, it seems to be more of a real-life look at vampires and how the world would look if this was the case.
I hope there is a sequel to this book, it leaves on a cliff hanger and while I don't exactly know the ending leads to believe there will be. I definitely will pick it up. Holly Black just took the cake with a delectable, sick and twisted world that constantly changed (even if he was a bit much at times). Tana and Gavriel were great and while I wanted to know more of Gavriel, frankly he just wasn't there often enough for me to feel more other than the budding romance. She did a great job setting up a good story, I just hope she can push the envelope further with the sequel (if there is one).
First I will say that I think this is more of an adult/new-adult style than what some of her past books have been. By this I mean it's not necessarily as simple or cut and dry as the simple plot developers that show up. There are layers and layers in this book, that mold the entirety of it together. However, that in itself is a downfall, the layers tend to cut the main story in chunks and just when the story gets good it cuts to the past or a background/info-dump that could have been done in a better way (at the start of chapters instead of in the middle).
The world is current or slightly future in which vampirism is a plague. The humans have controlled it by creating coldtowns in which anyone and everyone suspected of being a vampire is sent into. They are quarantined making it harder to get out than to get in. People are willing to go in of their own free will and become vampires, and some do it for science and trying to learn more about them. As well, there are vampires that hold grand parties and have TV shows of everything. Like a gory version of Big Brother on your local reality TV show.
The novel starts with Tana waking up in a bathtub and even if she is a bit slow to realize it, she notices that the raging party she was at has fallen silent during the night. However nobody has left, they all are laying dead on the floor, victims of a vampire attack. In trying to escape she finds her ex-boyfriend and a body in the corner which happens to be Gavriel, an actual vampire. She manages to get out as other vampires are trying to kill them, and the whole story goes from there.
Tana is a survivor of sorts of one attack prior. She is partially responsible for her mother becoming a vampire, and when she comes into question whether she's infected or not, she takes the selfless way out. Heading with Gaviel into the nearest Coldtown, leaving her father and sister behind without any warning and little to no money. I loved that about her, she knew what she had to do, and even though it nearly broke her heart over and over, she did it to protect them.
There wasn't a whole lot of romance and no there really wasn't a love triangle at all in this. What romance is there though, is more of introductory. It gets the story and characters ready for the sequel, and it deserves that. Holly Black does a great job of weaving the romance that is there into something tangible. However what is there though, is the persistent fear that is on every page. The dark, gory, and twisted second half of the book and how Tana reacts inside the Coldtown is great. I love how gritty and almost masochistic the novel is. It's not your typical faerie tale, it seems to be more of a real-life look at vampires and how the world would look if this was the case.
I hope there is a sequel to this book, it leaves on a cliff hanger and while I don't exactly know the ending leads to believe there will be. I definitely will pick it up. Holly Black just took the cake with a delectable, sick and twisted world that constantly changed (even if he was a bit much at times). Tana and Gavriel were great and while I wanted to know more of Gavriel, frankly he just wasn't there often enough for me to feel more other than the budding romance. She did a great job setting up a good story, I just hope she can push the envelope further with the sequel (if there is one).
