Book Review: The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black

Book Description:
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.
My Thoughts:
Let me just start out saying that the writing was FABULOUS. I was impressed with the writing of Holly Black. This is the first book of her's that I've read and I found myself enraptured by her story! I couldn't find any fault in her writing.

The story itself is nothing really new. Vampires. Hey at least there wasn't any half naked werewolves running around all the time! I was still interested because this book is not a small book but is also a book you can't put down! From chapter ONE you meet the main character Tana who wakes up in a bathtub after a wild party to find all her friends dead, drained of blood. As she tries to escape she comes across her ex-boyfriend tied to a bed, bitten. Plus a vampire tied up next to the bed. And she decided to save them both. Adventure begins!

In is book vampires are just that. Vampires. No sparkling going on, just thirty blood suckers that have no feelings except...hunger.

The story held me captive till I was done, and I was a fabulous story. One I enjoyed completely.

Now let me tell you the things that drove me nuts:

In the story Tana her travels with her ex-boyfriend who mistreated her in a way that completely turned me off from this book. A boyfriend who was "faithful" but liked to play games with Tana and see how far he could go with another person (with boys & girls) that I found revolting. But to whom Tana is just powerless against. This ex-boyfriend spends the entire novel manipulating Tana into doing what he wants. It's weird, she can kill centuries old vampires, but when it comes to seventeen-year-old boys, she just melts.? Is it because he wasn't fully turned into a vampire? Or because she had a past with him? But when she finally seems to get over her ex, another (slightly older) boy comes around who she just can’t control herself around, even though she knows he will probably kill her! HUH?! This strong female character who is crazy bad A giving up her strength for "forbidden" kisses and being pressured into awkward situations, just bothered me.

Oh, and what's with some of these side characters? A random character who plays a small role (not necessary I believe) and who is a trans-gender? huh? what? why? what was the point? I don't get it?! It felt useless and not necessary, it played no real part in having to acknowledge that a character is in love with a boy but may think that the reason the boy doesn't like her is because she wasn't born a girl. what does that have to do with ANYTHING IN THE STORY?! It just felt over dramatic and not needed. Did the author need word count or something?

Overall I loved the story, the writing, it captured me till the very end but found somethings pointless and stupid.

Sexual Content: moderate (PG-13 scenes of make outs and same sex kissing)
Language: moderate (PG-13...I think....I don't remember but there could've been some serious language)
Violence: Heavy (vampires killing, talk of gruesome deaths)
Drugs/Alcohol: moderate (underage drinking at parties)