Review | The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black

The Coldest Girl in Coldtown 

Author: Holly Black
Release Date: September 3, 2013
Pages: 419
Review by: Cassia

When Tana wakes up the bathroom of her friend Lance’s farmhouse, hungover, she can’t believe that she was passed out that long, and that nobody woke her up. When she walks out into the living room, however, she finds a massacre: all her friends, dead. Blood everywhere. Their blood drained. After gaining the courage to walk into the next room for her keys and phone, she finds her ex-boyfriend, Aidan, and a vampire in chains. As soon as she makes the choice to save them, she is thrown into a rollercoaster of action, courage, determination, and blood.

I’m going to say this right now: I am not a vampire person. I never have been. However, I did enjoy this book. As you all know, I absolutely love Holly Black. I’ll read anything she writes. She always comes up with such unique ideas. I’ve never heard of anything close to the vampire world she creates in Coldtown: any vampires or infected humans are quarantined. Once they go in, they never get out. Even children that are born in Coldtowns never get out. No exceptions. To go along with that, she comes up with some pretty creepy stuff. Like, some of the characters want to become vampires and they use all these terms that are completely wacko, even for a world that crazy. It makes Tana’s world much more real.

There’s not much I can say about Black’s writing that I haven’t already said in other reviews, but I have to say it again. The vocabulary she uses is incredible. In a lot of young adult books, you don’t see a whole lot of vocabulary that makes you pull out a dictionary (or in my case, the dicitonary.com app on my phone). In her books, though (and some other authors), she forces you to think, and I love that. Even if I don’t particularly like the book she writes, I enjoy reading it.

Honestly, not too much happens in this book. Well, it does, but what I mean is, it’s not as action-packed as other books. However, something always comes up. Just as Tana clears one hurdle, another one jumps up in her path, from ground that looked safe. Another interesting thing is that when Tana does some things, she doesn’t really know why she does it, and I like the mystery it gives the reader about her. There are themes in this book, as there are in every book, but mostly I was entertained by the plot.

On to the characters! First we have Tana, our protagonist. Tana is a born survivor. Her surviving skills aren’t as much physical as they are mental. She might not know exactly what she’s doing, but she’s smart enough to figure it out as she goes. Also, she’s extremely compassionate. She’s in the middle of a massacre, and instead of giving in to her instinct to run, she decides to save her ex-boyfriend and a bloodthirsty, crazy vampire. Because they’re in chains and helpless. That takes a lot of kindness and courage. Now, this vampire that’s with Aidan (her ex)... I promised myself I would never fall for a vampire in a book. But I did. I fell so hard. Oh, by the way, this guy’s name is Gavriel. (Yes, I spelled it right. ;)) You all probably know this, but I love the interesting characters; they’re the ones I fall for. Gavriel is mysterious, dark, hurt, and insane. No, I’m not kidding: his mind isn’t totally right. He likes to speak in metaphors and quote poets. (AHHHHH how awesome is that?!?!) Which is also another reason why I fell for him. His relationship with Tana is interesting, too. Then you’ve got Tana’s ex, Aidan. I don’t really like him too much. I feel bad for him, mostly. He’s broken, too, but he’s kind of a baby about it. You can’t blame him, but I just don’t like that in characters. There are some other minor characters along the way that are eccentric, and some of them I like. Two of them are Midnight and Winter. They’re just crazy if you ask me. I like Valentina, though, but she comes in later, so I won’t way too much about her.

Black creates complex relationships between unique characters that are worth reading for, and a world that is different from the stereotypes.

Four stars!

Goodbye for now,

Cassia