Review: The Coldest Girl In Coldtown by Holly Black

Publication Date: September 2013
Publisher: Little Brown Books
Source: Borrowed from library

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Blurb: 
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.

So I know y'all gonna hate me, but I've never read a Holly Black book before this one! I know, I know... I picked this book up from my library because I've heard a lot of hype around holly Blacks books and thought this would be a great spooky read for October. 

So this book takes place in a world where vampirism is a disease that had spread throughout some places in the world. The infected people and vampires are quarantined into "Coldtowns" where they are cut off from society. These coldtowns are broadcast on TV 24/7 as a reality TV show for the population. The novel kicks up a gear when Tana, our main character, has to enter a Coldtown. 


The book was quite good. I did feel it was very well written, the plot was written at a great pace and the setting and characters were vividly written - reading it felt like watching the movie of it in my head. The setting of the novel was quite interesting and I found the idea of quarantined coldtown's to be a quite refreshing addition that I had not read yet in a vampire YA book. 

The characters of the novel were really enjoyable but I felt there could have been more character development over the course of the story. Tana was an interesting character, you learned a lot about her life and her emotions. She was a hard on the outside, soft on the inside character. I really liked her relationship with Gabriel and wish that was more fleshed out. I also really enjoyed the character of Aidan and his character journey over the story. 
Another aspect about this novel I enjoyed was that the side characters were incredibly memorable and well written. I loved reading about the other vampires and the people who lived inside the Coldtown. Also the journey to the Coldtown and the people they met along the way. 

Although the novel was well written, I did feel that there was something missing. I felt that the characters could have been fleshed out more and have had more of a character arc over the course of the novel. I also felt the end of the novel was slightly rushed. The novel could have been another hundred or so pages more and it would have possibly allowed the plot wrap up to be better paced. 

Overall, a refreshing take on the vampire novel with great characters (and also there's some trans rep here too!). Highly recommend reading this, you won't want to put it down. Super fun read with lots of LGBTQ representation and social media references.