The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black

Pages: 419
Intended Audience: Teens
Genre: Paranormal / Romance / Thriller
Notes for Parents: Has graphic violence, and some drinking, drug use, and coarse language. Also, dying and becoming a vampire is strongly romanticized.

The Back Cover

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. And 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 wicket, opulent heart of Coldtown itself.

What the cover doesn’t tell you:

This was an Amazon Best Teen Book of the Year, a School Library Journal Best Book of the Year, and included in Kirkus Best YA Books and YALSA’s Best Fiction for Young Adults, and was one of the YALSA Top Ten Amazing Audio Books.

What’s good?

While this tale has plenty of the traits of a classic vampire story, there are also many new and imaginative ideas of vampirism. The plot is straight forward but the mythology is complex as the main character tries to avoid giving in to the bloodlust while falling for an ancient vampire. There are several great characters, especially supporting ones. The writing is strong and expressive, the pace is fast, and the action is intense and quite bloody.
Best Part: “If you’re proposing a duel, I believe she gets to pick the weapon. I hope she picks me.”

What isn’t good?

The idea that the world would accept and glorify vampires is inconceivable to me. I understand the appeal of “a bad boy,” but romanticizing vampires—creatures who kill violently and with little conscience—to the point where the average person is dying to be one, didn’t sit well with me at all. Likewise, the romance part of the story fell flat because I couldn’t relate to the character’s attraction.
Worst part: The romance.

Recommendation þþþoo

This was definitely more “True Blood” than “Twilight,” with lots of blood and violence. This story will appeal to readers who like their vampires broody and their stories dark.

Black, Holly. The Coldest Girl in Coldtown. New York: Little, Brown, & Co., 2013.