Friday, September 6, 2013

Review: The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black

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.



Review
Thank you Hachette Book Group Canada for the amazing finished copy!

My goodness!! Wow! Okay. I was excited to read this book but also a little skeptical. I mean vampire books....meh. I never really had luck with it. But this book blew me away!

The key thing about this book that just made it AWESOME was the fact that it was...

UNPREDICTABLE!!

For most YA books I could follow the plot lines. It always became just an eye-roll fest for me. But this book was jam packed with surprises for me! I just didn't know where the story was going! This made it a breezy read. I was half way through the book before I knew it. But it wasn't suspenseful. Sure, you didn't know where the story was going but it didn't leave you breathless with anticipation. If was almost the "Okay, I'll see where this lead" kind of thing.


Furthermore, I loved how Holly intertwined the back stories and what was happening in the present. It just worked. After a big reveal, Holly jumped quickly to another scene but also quickly jumped back. This made it work. It was a break to give more sneaky info but not long enough to let us forget what happened before with the big reveal/cliffhanger.

At first I didn't like Tana because she was annoying and kind of stupid. She even said it to herself: "If there's trouble, I go straight for it". I just didn't get it. Why?! I guess that's why I'm not the main protagonist type of girl but I found it dumb of Tana. But then much later on in the book was a BAMF!!! She would be sassy, strong, fierce! Everything was right with her! She didn't complain or whine, she just went for it. She kicked serious vampire butts! Just think Resident Evil (but a little more toned down).

The person I felt most for was Pearl, Tana's sister. She was never the center of attention and yet she suffered all the same. Every time Pearl was mentioned I felt sad and this SUFFERING feeling coming out of the page. I can't really explain it. I just felt pressured, compressed into a box, hard to breath. Living with a "crazy" dad and having no support. I could tell that Pearl either was going to be one messed up kid grown up or one hell of a strong kid that told inspirational stories in the future. In general, her life sucked! But I think Holly copout with Pearl at the end of the book. >.>

As for the romance it was SUPRISING! I mean from the synopsis, I thought there was going to be a love triangle but NO LOVE TRIANGLE!!! *throw confetti and happiness around* There was just a bit of romance here and there. No "I touched his awesome-super-muscular-most-sexiest-shit-alive body and I shivered" kind of thing sappy shit. >.> Thank God!


So in conclusion......
  • The plot was amazing for a vampire book: unpredictable, different, fresh and new! There were many layers to it.
  • The only "bad" thing (if I can even call that) was that I couldn't connect with most of the characters. But pfftt, who cares?!
  • I only connected to Tana and Pearl.
  • Tana was a kickass BAMF at the end.
  • And  last but not least, there was no sappy romance!!! 
  • Give it a try! I hope you like it :D

Note: I have to say that this book was great but not to the extend of me "FANGIRLING LIEK CRAP ADN TO A POINT WHRE I CSNT TYPE STRIAGHT" ;P It didn't give me the rush of wanting to go crazy or wanting to tell everyone about it.


5 comments:

  1. ooh I love that you said this book is unpredictable. That is such a huge selling point for me. I am able to figure out what is going to happen in so many books that they lose some of their appeal but this looks like something I really want to read.

    Thanks for the great review! :)

    Michelle @ Book Briefs

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Michelle, thank you so much for stopping by! I totally agree with you! I always seem to figure out the plot for so many books that it just becomes so boring for me. I hope you will find this book unpredictable as me. :D

    ReplyDelete
  3. I want this book sooooooooo bad!!!!!!! The cover is so gorgeous & the synopsis just sounds amazing!!! Your review is making me drool more ;)

    New follow via Bloglovin!!

    Crystal @ Crystal in Bookland
    http://crystalinbookland.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hiiii Crystal!! :D <333 I hope you get your hands on this book soon. I'm glad you are excited! Thank you for stopping by.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Honestly, I didn't expect the sort of ending it had, but thankfully I was pleasantly pleased! Couldn't ask for much more!

    Arizona Pet Shipping click here

    ReplyDelete

Total Pageviews