If I were to
summarise this book in one word it would be WOW. Because wow, this book was
amazing.
You know how the
Paranormal genre is overflowing with vampire books and most of these books have
roughly the same kind of plot, the same kind of protagonist and the same kind
of vampires. The Coldest Girl in Coldtown really stands out in this genre of
bland books.
First things
first, Holly Black is a writing goddess. Her writing is epic. It does not have
short, stupid sentences that leave you wondering WTH? It does not have overly
long, overly poetic sentences that again leave you wondering WTH? It’s slightly
lyrical, slightly poetic and flows together very smoothly.
The book
begins with Tana Bach waking up in a bathtub, completely hung-over, and finding
all her friends/classmates/fellow party-goers dead. The only living person is
Aidan, her ex-boyfriend, who’s been tied up along with a vampire, Gavriel, by other vampires who were basically
responsible for the carnage. After a successful rescue mission by Tana the three proceed to the Springfield Coldtown, the nearest center for vampire activity, and engage in epic adventures.
This book is
morbid. This book is gory. Vampires are not just beautiful, sparkly creatures,
they’re actual bloodthirsty monsters. Yep, there’s plenty of violence and blood
and death.
Another
thing I appreciated was the variety of
humans and vampires shown. There are some humans who are enamoured with
vampires, there are some humans who want to be vampires, and there are some
humans who want nothing to do with vampires. Similarly there are vampires who
are pure evil and then there are those who are not so evil. Oh and there are
also vampires who are completely crazy. Variety, see?
You know
those books with dumb, clueless protagonists? The ones where you figure out the
entire mystery 200 pages before the main character does and then you have to
endure 200 freakin pages of the main character stumbling around in the dark? Well,
The Coldest Girl in Coldtown definitely
wasn’t one of those books. Tana is, hands off, the coolest, bravest,
kindest and cleverest of all YA protagonists.
And then we
have Gavriel who is equally enamouring in a crazy, poetic kind of way.
More things
I loved about the book?
I loved how
each chapter started off with a quotation on death. I loved how the book
alternated between modern day America and 19th century Russia and
Paris. I loved how we were provided the characters’ back-story to help
understand them better.
The world
building was very interesting, but there were a few plot holes that really
bothered me. I’d normally be okay since most plot holes are solved in the
sequels but I’m not really sure this book is going to have a sequel. Heck, I’m not even sure if I want it to have a sequel. On one hand I’d really love to read more
about Tana and Gavriel, on the other hand, though, the ending was just perfect.
Suffice to
say I’m a newly converted Holly Black fan and I can’t wait to get my hands on
her Curse workers series.
No comments:
Post a Comment