Book Title: The Coldest Girl in Coldtown
Author: Holly Black
Date Started: September 19th 2013
Date Completed: September 24th 2013
Genres: Fantasy, Dystopian, Romance, Thriller, Horror
Rating: Four stars
Review:
I've been waiting for this book for so, so long. I heard about it ages ago, but when I found out it was being released in September around the beginning of last year I immediately started researching and finding out all I could about Black's latest book. And now, finally, after months of anticipation, I finally got to read it. And I was not disappointed.
The Coldest Girl in Coldtown in set in a future world, where vampires have spread like an infection. All over the world Coldtowns - secured cities where vampires are held - have been set up to protect the major population. But as the glamorisation of vampires through the internet and other media rises, people are starting to go into Coldtowns of their own free will, even though they're not allowed out again, and there are still vampires on the loose all over the world. Tana's mother turned years ago, leaving her family devastated, and when Tana is bitten and possibly infected, it takes a lot for her to leave home. But an ex-boyfriend and runaway vampire she managed to save from a bunch of murderous vampires decide to head into the fortress, she decides to go with them, unaware she's about to enter a place that will both change her life forever, and make her name in this torn-apart world.
I love Black's writing. Always have, always will. The first time I experienced it was in The Spiderwick Chronicles (which I think was my first ever fantasy series - I was a late reader) and I loved it then. At the moment, I religiously follow her updates on the Curse Workers series, and have read all of her Modern Tales of Faerie, and quite a few of her short stories.
The thing I love about Holly Black's writing is the seemingly simplistic nature that actually holds a lot of emotion and action and meaning that a lot of writers struggle with in very complex sentences and structures. The dialogue is always believable and she's very good and creating characters that are consistent and could easily be real. Her action is lovely to read, and her description is great (if a little lacking in numbers).
The one thing I wish wasn't quite so involved with the brand names included all the time. I like to imagine things for myself, rather than being given a name and then having to picture it just like that (e.g. a fizzy drink being described as coke, or videos sites being set as YouTube). I don't know why I don't like it so much; maybe it's just closer to reality that I'd like, but I just don't get on with it very well. It's not a terribly bad thing to do, I just prefer it not to be there.
Black is very good at creating new stories that haven't really been used before, which always makes me even more eager to read her writing.
The biggest thing that really stood out to me was the genre mix: this story is set in a dystopian world, but one brought about by vampires. Maybe I just haven't read it yet, but I've never experienced those two genres being thrown together to create a whole new sort of plot. I really liked it and it's very unique. The way they were portrayed was also really good: there was that beautiful, eerie feeling around the vampires - still with that gritty edge Black is known for - and also the harsher reality of the dystopian world.
The plot itself was actually pretty basic, but with so many little things thrown along the way it worked really well. I loved the alternations between Tana and Gavirel's past, along with Tana and Pearl's present. It was made out to show that Tana was not the only important character, despite her protagonist's role.
There were a lot of links I made in my head between the popularisation of 'vampirism' and issues we see and deal with in our current society. I really like it when these sorts of things are included, not only because it shows that there are people out there who are aware of what's going on and care about it, but also because I know a much larger group of people are going to be understanding it better when explained through a unconscious platform such as reading a story.
The ending was my favourite part. (Unfortunately, The Coldest Girl in Coldtown didn't get five stars from me, but it was very close. If the whole book had been as awesome as the ending, it would definitely have got five stars.) The most obvious part of it was that Tana was clearly the hero. I was a little worried slightly earlier on that Gavriel was going to end up saving the day, and another female character would end up being talented - but not quite talented enough. But Tana was definitely the hero of this story, and she continued on afterwards. But the best part of it for me was the fact that the ending wasn't happy: far from it. But there was still that great feeling for ending a story and understanding its over and being okay with that. Plus I've always loved sad endings more than happy ones.
It took a while for me to like these characters. I liked Tana and Gavriel from the beginning, although I did doubt my early judgements later on, but they were really good. The rest took me a lot longer to get used to.
Tana was a really good protagonist. Blacks' leads are always great, because they really aren't 'normal' or goody-goody at all. She's known for her grit, this woman. Tana was a rebel, and an actual one. And she ended up saving the day and caring more about herself and her family than boys. Always a winner with me.
I loved Gavriel from the start. I liked the way he wasn't really sane, and that was made very clear, and not glamourised. He was trouble, and he probably did make Tana's life harder than it needed to be, and got her into a lot of bad situations, but that's what makes a story. His backstory was great and I do think (eventually) that he and Tana had good chemistry.
Aidan annoyed me at first. I think that was supposed to happen, but it annoyed me more when Tana started helping him and seemed to be fine with him. Then I felt sorry for him when he started to get really ill, because I do think he actually was a good person: just a bit of an idiot. His ending was a little too happy for me, but there you go.
Lucien was a great villain and Elisabet was threatening. It's rare that I find a fictional character threatening, but both of these characters were that. Their backstories were fairly predictable, but I liked the way their behaviour was slightly out of the expected.
Jameson and Valentina was good, but I wanted more of them. I connected with their characters more than most of the other minor characters, but they were in very little of the book, although did have a fairly large part in the story.
Pearl was okay, but I kept getting confused by how old she was supposed to be: sometimes she was brave and mature, and at other times incredibly childish and irritating.
Midnight and Winter were good characters. Although they were very key in the story, I was a bit surprised by how they came into the story quite a ways in, became extremely important, and then completely disappeared another halfway through. It was just a little strange, but it worked well with the story nevertheless. I really loved Winter; he's the kind of protective brother character I always get on well with. Midnight annoyed me quite a lot because she really was stupid and too stubborn for her own good. But in a way I also kind of pitied her - and I also got so angry with her because I wanted her to do well and be okay. And stupidity just generally annoys me.
The story literally starts from the first page. We end up being given a situation we don't quite understand right away, which raises all kinds of questions and grabs the reader, making them want to read on. Then, in alternating chapters, we get to learn about Tana's history, and we start to understand little details and parts of the character's personality as we go through. In this way, it was almost like a mystery, since we were getting little snippets throughout the entire book, that in the end all drew together to make sense. The great thing about this was that the pace was consistent: even without action or drama all the time, the reader's mind was always working in order to link all the little things together and make a perfect story.
I loved The Coldest Girl in Coldtown. I knew I would, and I was not disappointed. The thing I especially love is the fact that is a teen vampire romance - but it's still so good. I know I am very critical when it comes to Young Adult romance, even more when it involves vampires, because, from experience, I know that a lot of people get away with writing similar stories and making money because it's what teens 'like' - meaning the quality falls and keeps plummeting. But authors like Holly Black regain a little bit of my faith and encourage me to keep looking for good Young Adult authors; they really are out there.
I would recommend this book to anyone who loves a bit of paranormal fantasy; romance; dystopian. There's some good action in there, and the characters are generally easily accessible to many people.
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I've been waiting for this book for so, so long. I heard about it ages ago, but when I found out it was being released in September around the beginning of last year I immediately started researching and finding out all I could about Black's latest book. And now, finally, after months of anticipation, I finally got to read it. And I was not disappointed.
The Coldest Girl in Coldtown in set in a future world, where vampires have spread like an infection. All over the world Coldtowns - secured cities where vampires are held - have been set up to protect the major population. But as the glamorisation of vampires through the internet and other media rises, people are starting to go into Coldtowns of their own free will, even though they're not allowed out again, and there are still vampires on the loose all over the world. Tana's mother turned years ago, leaving her family devastated, and when Tana is bitten and possibly infected, it takes a lot for her to leave home. But an ex-boyfriend and runaway vampire she managed to save from a bunch of murderous vampires decide to head into the fortress, she decides to go with them, unaware she's about to enter a place that will both change her life forever, and make her name in this torn-apart world.
I love Black's writing. Always have, always will. The first time I experienced it was in The Spiderwick Chronicles (which I think was my first ever fantasy series - I was a late reader) and I loved it then. At the moment, I religiously follow her updates on the Curse Workers series, and have read all of her Modern Tales of Faerie, and quite a few of her short stories.
The thing I love about Holly Black's writing is the seemingly simplistic nature that actually holds a lot of emotion and action and meaning that a lot of writers struggle with in very complex sentences and structures. The dialogue is always believable and she's very good and creating characters that are consistent and could easily be real. Her action is lovely to read, and her description is great (if a little lacking in numbers).
The one thing I wish wasn't quite so involved with the brand names included all the time. I like to imagine things for myself, rather than being given a name and then having to picture it just like that (e.g. a fizzy drink being described as coke, or videos sites being set as YouTube). I don't know why I don't like it so much; maybe it's just closer to reality that I'd like, but I just don't get on with it very well. It's not a terribly bad thing to do, I just prefer it not to be there.
Black is very good at creating new stories that haven't really been used before, which always makes me even more eager to read her writing.
The biggest thing that really stood out to me was the genre mix: this story is set in a dystopian world, but one brought about by vampires. Maybe I just haven't read it yet, but I've never experienced those two genres being thrown together to create a whole new sort of plot. I really liked it and it's very unique. The way they were portrayed was also really good: there was that beautiful, eerie feeling around the vampires - still with that gritty edge Black is known for - and also the harsher reality of the dystopian world.
The plot itself was actually pretty basic, but with so many little things thrown along the way it worked really well. I loved the alternations between Tana and Gavirel's past, along with Tana and Pearl's present. It was made out to show that Tana was not the only important character, despite her protagonist's role.
There were a lot of links I made in my head between the popularisation of 'vampirism' and issues we see and deal with in our current society. I really like it when these sorts of things are included, not only because it shows that there are people out there who are aware of what's going on and care about it, but also because I know a much larger group of people are going to be understanding it better when explained through a unconscious platform such as reading a story.
The ending was my favourite part. (Unfortunately, The Coldest Girl in Coldtown didn't get five stars from me, but it was very close. If the whole book had been as awesome as the ending, it would definitely have got five stars.) The most obvious part of it was that Tana was clearly the hero. I was a little worried slightly earlier on that Gavriel was going to end up saving the day, and another female character would end up being talented - but not quite talented enough. But Tana was definitely the hero of this story, and she continued on afterwards. But the best part of it for me was the fact that the ending wasn't happy: far from it. But there was still that great feeling for ending a story and understanding its over and being okay with that. Plus I've always loved sad endings more than happy ones.
It took a while for me to like these characters. I liked Tana and Gavriel from the beginning, although I did doubt my early judgements later on, but they were really good. The rest took me a lot longer to get used to.
Tana was a really good protagonist. Blacks' leads are always great, because they really aren't 'normal' or goody-goody at all. She's known for her grit, this woman. Tana was a rebel, and an actual one. And she ended up saving the day and caring more about herself and her family than boys. Always a winner with me.
I loved Gavriel from the start. I liked the way he wasn't really sane, and that was made very clear, and not glamourised. He was trouble, and he probably did make Tana's life harder than it needed to be, and got her into a lot of bad situations, but that's what makes a story. His backstory was great and I do think (eventually) that he and Tana had good chemistry.
Aidan annoyed me at first. I think that was supposed to happen, but it annoyed me more when Tana started helping him and seemed to be fine with him. Then I felt sorry for him when he started to get really ill, because I do think he actually was a good person: just a bit of an idiot. His ending was a little too happy for me, but there you go.
Lucien was a great villain and Elisabet was threatening. It's rare that I find a fictional character threatening, but both of these characters were that. Their backstories were fairly predictable, but I liked the way their behaviour was slightly out of the expected.
Jameson and Valentina was good, but I wanted more of them. I connected with their characters more than most of the other minor characters, but they were in very little of the book, although did have a fairly large part in the story.
Pearl was okay, but I kept getting confused by how old she was supposed to be: sometimes she was brave and mature, and at other times incredibly childish and irritating.
Midnight and Winter were good characters. Although they were very key in the story, I was a bit surprised by how they came into the story quite a ways in, became extremely important, and then completely disappeared another halfway through. It was just a little strange, but it worked well with the story nevertheless. I really loved Winter; he's the kind of protective brother character I always get on well with. Midnight annoyed me quite a lot because she really was stupid and too stubborn for her own good. But in a way I also kind of pitied her - and I also got so angry with her because I wanted her to do well and be okay. And stupidity just generally annoys me.
The story literally starts from the first page. We end up being given a situation we don't quite understand right away, which raises all kinds of questions and grabs the reader, making them want to read on. Then, in alternating chapters, we get to learn about Tana's history, and we start to understand little details and parts of the character's personality as we go through. In this way, it was almost like a mystery, since we were getting little snippets throughout the entire book, that in the end all drew together to make sense. The great thing about this was that the pace was consistent: even without action or drama all the time, the reader's mind was always working in order to link all the little things together and make a perfect story.
I loved The Coldest Girl in Coldtown. I knew I would, and I was not disappointed. The thing I especially love is the fact that is a teen vampire romance - but it's still so good. I know I am very critical when it comes to Young Adult romance, even more when it involves vampires, because, from experience, I know that a lot of people get away with writing similar stories and making money because it's what teens 'like' - meaning the quality falls and keeps plummeting. But authors like Holly Black regain a little bit of my faith and encourage me to keep looking for good Young Adult authors; they really are out there.
I would recommend this book to anyone who loves a bit of paranormal fantasy; romance; dystopian. There's some good action in there, and the characters are generally easily accessible to many people.
Image Source: http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1367312471l/12813630.jpg
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