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[katara]

The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black

Sypnosis
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:
This book takes a unique and original take on vampire lore and glamour and sets it apart from works like Anne Rice's The Vampire Chronicles. Ten years ago or so, a vampire decided that instead of draining its victim and killing them, it sets off a chain of events that lead to many vampires being created. Because of this, Coldtowns are created. Vampire life is made to look glamorous due to many feeds being put out there for all others to see. People begin to offer themselves up for the vampires to drink from and thus they are never allowed to leave Coldtown.

While there are glamourized vampires, there are also glamourized hunters. One such is a bounty hunter named Hemlock, who takes his viewers on a ride to hunt down and kill vampires.

Our female lead, Tana, knows what it is when a person goes Cold. Her own mother went cold and had been locked away in the basement of their home. Tana was subjected to the cries and screams of her mother until one day, Tana can no longer take her mother's pleading and cries and opened the door. Her father has no choice but to behead his wife to save her. Since then, her father has told her that if she ever goes cold that she will no longer be welcomed back into their home.

So, when Tana wakes up in the bathtub and finds all the partygoers all dead. She starts looking for others that may be alive when she comes across her douche of an ex-boyfriend, Aidan, tied to the bed and a boy named Gavriel in chains. She decides to save both, but the sun is starting to set and the vampires that had killed all partygoers are still there in the house. As she struggles to save them, she is cut on the leg by one of them.

Tana knows the dangers of saving people who may have turned Cold and she is not even sure about her other companion. He is cold. He is beautiful. And he is dangerous but that has not stopped the attraction Tana feels toward him.

Aidan is Tana's ex-boyfriend and, in her words, the worse ex-boyfriend she ever had. Before he went Cold, he was a terrible human being. He cheated on her numerous times be it male or female. He doesn't discriminate. Flaunting them in front of her face. He is a charmer. A smooth talker. And a douchebag. As a Cold, he is now more dangerous than ever.

Gavriel is beautiful. His tragic past lies in 1800s Russia. And now his world lives in the shadows never seeing the beauty of the sun. Gavriel falls in love with Tana because she took the moment to save him.

I loved this book. I loved the characters. The dystopian world. Although I am a huge lover of romance, there is a bare minimum of it here. It is here and there but nothing to oversaturate the story.

And the twist? Chef's kiss.

Genre:
Vampires, Dystopia, Paranormal, Fantasy, Horror, Urban Fantasy, Romance, Supernatural, Fiction, Young Adult, Contemporary, LGBTQA+, Dark


Stars:

4.7 out of 5