The Coldest Girl in Coldtown review

The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black
Narrator: Christine Lakin
Published by Hachette Digital, Inc. on 2013-09-03
Length: 12 hrs and 6 mins
Genres: Paranormal, Vampires, Young Adult
Pages: 440
Format: Audiobook
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.

 Julie’s Review:

The Coldest Girl in Coldtown was such a cool book (ok that was a bad pun). But really, I found it fun. I thought the way people get turned into vampires was pretty unique, since it deviated from the norm of either simply being bitten, or drinking vampire blood. In this book, someone who gets bitten gets infected, and goes through a sickness where they go “cold”. Then, if they drink human blood, they’ll die and be reborn as vampires. Or, they can attempt to quarantine themselves to avoid temptation when the sickness gets really bad and the cravings make them go mad, and it is possible they can wait out the sickness and get better. This is the hope our main characters clings to the entire story, as she wonders whether or not she is infected after her narrow escape from a party where there were only two human survivors.

Without going into too many details, our MC goes to Coldtown with her ex-boyfriend, who is infected, and a chained up vampire being used as a trade. Both of these characters were really fun and I enjoyed the not-at-all-awkward scenes between Tana and her ex. He actually turns out to be a decent person, er, yea, so I think Tana and her sister (a 12 year old, who was dumb enough to follow her sister into Coldtown) were lucky to have his help. The vampire, Gavriel, he is something else. Tana surprises him from the very beginning when she asks him if he needs rescuing from the party (where he was chained up by the other vampires) and along the way she keeps surprising him with her courage, and no-bullshit attitude. Tana is a great character, and I love her portrayal in this story. She surprises even herself with her kick-ass-ness.

The relationship between Tana and Gavriel was a nice slow burn. They had an epic kiss where Tana *spoiler*bit her tongue before kissing him. WHAT? That led to one of the dramatic quotable lines from the book “you are more dangerous than daybreak”, which has to be my favorite line. I mean, seriously! Then there’s the scene at the end.. *sigh*

I think the only complaint I have about this book is the sort of open ending. Is there going to be a sequel? Unknown. Does Tana make it through infection and get to the other side still human? Unknown. Does it matter? Well, maybe not. All we need to know is she’s got Gavriel to help her through whatever she turns out to be, and they will save each other.

I listened to the audiobook for this one and I liked it pretty well. My only complaint about the audio version is all the random times music would play. It just felt out of place. Otherwise, I quite liked the simple quiet narrator’s voice and I think it really fit with Tana’s personality.

Subscribe to Chapter Break posts.