The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black

Title: The Coldest Girl in Coldtown
Author: Holly Black
Pages: 419

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.

Going into this, I did not know it was going to involve vampires. If I did know at the time, I probably wouldn't have picked it up. I'm personally not a fan of vampire books and/or movies at all, so this book was a little hard to get through.

Throughout the book, I kept getting lost and confused almost. I understood what Coldtowns were for and what it meant to be Cold and such, but it was mainly the names that made me confused.
I might have missed something or didn't read carefully enough, but names such as Caspar Morales, Thorn of Ishtra, and Spider made me get all mixed up on who is who. It was only in the end did I manage to clarify things.

One thing I did enjoy in the book was the writing style. Holly Black's writing is amazing and really descriptive and enjoyable to read. (Well maybe not during those creepy blood-sucking ones) The quotes about death at the beginning of each chapter really added to the dark tone of the story.

The plot didn't really keep me interested, which made it hard for me to pick this up and read it. It actually took me more than a week to finish it and put me in a reading slump. It felt pretty slow to start off with.
I didn't really understand why the characters were doing what they were doing until someone actually said it in the story.

The ending was a lot better than the beginning in my opinion. It concluded things nicely and I think I understand everything now. But parts were confusing at times.

My Rating:
✰✰1/2

It may be because of the plot, or just because I do not like vampires that I didn't rate this book high. The writing was great and so I hope I'll be able to read more of Holly Black's books. I do recommend this book if you like vampires, and even if you don't, why not give it a shot?


My overall thought: An interesting take on vampirism, written beautifully.