Vampire Week: Review: The Coldest Girl in Coldtown

Vampire Week is an event hosted here at T3 to celebrate the release of Holly Black's

The Coldest Girl in Coldtown. Click the banner for more information.

Title: The Coldest Girl in Coldtown
Series: Standalone
Author: Holly Black
Publisher: Little, Brown BFYR
Genre: YA Paranormal
Pages: 419
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher/BEA
Release Date: September 3, 2013
Rating: 5 cubes of sugar! All the cubes of sugar!
Buy: IndieBound | The Book Depository | Barnes & Noble

Summary:
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.
(Taken from Goodreads)

Post-"taste" Review:
This is the vampire book I didn't know I wanted. Loved everything about it, and Holly's writing was exquisite. A must-read for vampire fans and non-fans alike.

*I received this book in exchange for an honest opinion. I was in no way paid for my review.*
Review: 
**Minor spoilers, but only for the first 4-5 chapters, which you can download as a free eBook from any retailer.**

The Coldest Girl in Coldtown starts off with the main character, Tana, waking up in a bathtub after a party. She goes into the living room, and finds the ravaged bodies of the other partygoers. Then she goes to find her shoes and phone, but discovers her ex-boyfriend tied to a bed, with a vampire chained at the foot instead. That's the first chapter. That's when I got sucked in. I know, it doesn't seem like enough, but Holly's descriptions and word choice made everything flow so nicely, I kept turning pages.

The rest of the book flowed just as well as the first chapter, even though the main storyline was broken up every so often by flashbacks Tana had of her mother (background: Tana's mother was infected when Tana was 10, and made it 37 days before Tana unlocked the door. She then attacked Tana in bloodlust, and was killed by her husband before she could do any real damage.) or other POVs. In fact, the flashbacks and POV changes enhanced the plot, as they should. I especially liked Gavriel's POV (the vampire chained to the bed), because while it was infrequent enough to keep much of him still a mystery, it did shed some light on an otherwise shadowy character.

The ending was superb! And the outcome at the end of the "final battle" was quite unexpected. I can't go into more detail without spoiling, so I'm going to leave it at that. I loved how all throughout the novel you could see that Coldtown was inspired by the short story of the same name, especially the very end. Reading those last 2-3 pages made my little fangirl heart go "YESSSSS!" Holly is quite an amazing storyteller, and I think this is my favorite of her novels, and most definitely one of my favorite vampire novels.

Today's other Vampire Week posts:
—A spotlight on Holly Black's book tour for Coldtown
—A "would you like to live an a cold town?" poll

See you tomorrow for more vampy fun!