Review: The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black

The Coldest Girl In Coldtown

Author: Holly Black
Series: Standalone
Publisher: Little Brown Books for Young Readers
Genre: YA Paranormal
Format: Hardcover, 432 pages
Release Date: September 3, 2013
Source: Mid-Columbia Libraries
Rating: 4.5 Stars
Add to Goodreads
Buy the Book

Synopsis from Goodreads:

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.

My Review:

This is by far the most unique vampire book I have ever read. A truly refreshing change to the genre. In America, vampires and infected humans live in Coldtowns. Once you go in, you don’t get out (at least not easily). Let me explain how the vampirism in this book works. If a human is bitten by a vampire they go “cold”. Infection starts to run through their bodies and the desire to drink human blood is uncontrollable. Once they succumb to the urge and drink human blood they die and rise up again as a newborn vampire. If a person doesn’t want to turn into a vampire they can attempt to quarantine themselves for the 88 days it takes for the infection to work its way out of the system. Easier said than done since the infection makes you pretty much insane with the desire for blood. I thought this was really interesting. It was basically traditional vampirism with just a small twist. (In traditional vampirism, or at least the kind I’m most familiar with, if a vampire bites you you have to drink vampire blood to be turned.)

Something that I absolutely loved about this book was the fact that humans are fascinated with vampires. The paparazzi are constantly chasing them down trying to snap pictures and they even have reality shows starring vampires. This was so accurate. If vampires were real, we would totally do this. If vampires were real? Who am I kidding? They’re totally real, right?

Our main character, Tana, wakes up after a night of partying to find that all the other teens have been brutally murdered by vampires. The only survivors are her ex-boyfriend and a mysterious vampire chained up. I loved Tana. She wasn’t fearless, but she was extremely brave. She had a really good heart. I mean, her ex-boyfriend Aidan is a total douche, but she still saves him from the hungry vampires lurking in the basement. Not only does she save Aidan, she also saves the vampire who is chained up. She knows that the other vampires are going to do something horrible to him so she saves his life, risking her own in the process. Tana is constantly thinking of other people. Her main goal is to protect other people from an infected Aidan and to protect her family.

Ready to talk swoony boys? I got one for you. Well, Holly Black has got one for you. Gavriel. The vampire. Gavriel is crazy, literally, something isn’t right in his mind. But oh my god was he sexy. He’s a really old vampire so he speaks from another time. Some of the things he said literally made me drool. 

“I can hear your heart beating, like a wounded animal hurling its broken body against the walls of its cage. A pretty song.” -Gavriel

  

Does that not make your heart pick up? I want to tilt my head to the side and let him take a bite out of me. There are two super steamy scenes between Gavriel and Tana. I needed a cold shower after reading them. I was literally fanning myself. My husband asked me several times exactly what I was reading. I could seriously write down a million quotes of his that I loved. This book was riddled with sticky notes when I finished reading.

“You are more dangerous than daybreak.” -Gavriel

This book was awesome, but I wish there were more. I know, I know. I totally just wrote a post about how I wish there were more standalones… but I need more Gavriel. The ending was kind of open and you all know how I feel about open endings… I just wish things were more tied up or that we were getting another book so I could swoon over Gavriel some more. Please, Holly? Pretty please? So that’s why this book got bumped to 4.5 stars vs. 5. Because seriously, other than the open ending, this book was amazeballs. A must read for sure. If you love vampires, don’t wait. Start reading now. You’ll love it. Happy reading all!