Review: The Coldest Girl In Coldtown

Title: The Coldest Girl In Coldtown
Author: Holly Black
Published: September, 2013
Publisher: Little, Brown

The opening chapter of The Coldest Girl In Coldtown is shocking.  Our heroine, Tana, wakes up in a bathtub after partying a little too hard, to discover that everyone at the high school soiree she's attending has been slaughtered by vampires.

How does she know vampires are responsible?  Because years earlier, these creatures of the night were unable to contain the transmission of vampirism and outbreaks erupted all over the world.  Now, infected humans are sent to live in quarantined cities called "coldtowns" in a desperate attempt to corral the violence.

But, vampires still flit around outside of coldtowns, and now a pack of them has murdered Tana's peer group.

In shock, she's searching amid the bodies for her coat, when she stumbles across a left-behind vampire, chained in a bedroom.  His name is Gavriel, and they've barely met when the vampires return for their bound comrade.  Gavriel and Tana — and Tana's ex-boyfriend, miraculously alive — escape, but not without Tana getting grazed by fang. Infected, Tana decides to drive to a Coldtown and turn herself in.

Are you intrigued yet?!?!

 I mean, what a way to hit the ground running! Holly Black has proven herself (especially with her Curse Workers series) to be a capable, sophisticated writer.  The Coldest Girl In Coldtown isn't a perfect book, but it does manage the kind of well-written, creepy, original, distinctive book that makes for a cult classic.

In regards to our heroine, Tana is a principled character with a strong voice.  She earns our regard from the get-go for being so determined and resilient.  Tana's experiences have given her a bleak outlook, but her will to survive also give a surprising buoyancy to her tone.  She doesn't stand out as an iconic YA character, but she definitely has two legs to stand on.

The premise of the book is another huge plus.  The Coldest Girl In Coldtown has a fantastic hook, and part of the pleasure of reading the novel is seeing how Black's imaginative scenario plays out — I was both eager and terrified to see the inside of a coldtown.  The pacing of the book is steady and free of major lags; this is a book that a reader can blow through quickly.

I do have some qualms.  My main complaint regards the heavy emphasis on modern technology and live streams in the book.  I felt as if Black was trying to make a point about modern overexposure and voyeurism, but I'm not sure that her message was successfully conveyed.  Instead, I thought it made the narrative a little crowded, and not as stream-lined as it could have been.

Overall, though, this is a poppy, spooky read that I've re-visited a number of times.  (The audiobook, in particular, is a favorite of mine.)  If you're in the mood for something a little dark but not depressing, with a kick-ass heroine who has humanity to her, and with a slow-burning, mature romance, The Coldest Girl In Coldtown is calling to you.