The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black

The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black

Goodreads Synopsis
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.

This was just kind of meh to me. I am always a little skeptical about vampire books because they tend to go in the way of Twilight instead of Buffy and this one leaned more towards Twilight than Buffy. Which was disappointing. I do like good vampire novels but I don't qualify this as one.

The beginning was great. Tana wakes up after a party and has to escape with her ex boyfriend and a vampire, Gavriel. The world building was pretty good, but the plot was ... lacking. It was difficult to follow and wasn't really that good. The idea of Coldtown ended up having a lot of holes and inconsistencies that were not easy to comprehend. The vampires in this novel don't really break any mould, but it was well-conceived enough. And the vampire mythology made enough sense that it didn't make me hate the book.

Overall, the reason why I disliked this story is because of the characters. I did not like Tana at all. She was foolish and knew how dangerous Gavriel was (since he told her MULTIPLE TIMES that he was dangerous) and STILL went through with taking him along. Yet she does this ALL THE TIME. Literally every decision she makes is a bad one that puts her and her friends in danger.

Aidan is literally the worst person ever. He is manipulative and treats Tana like shit. I was like excited that he was bi, but he used it as like a way to control Tana which I did not like. I was glad he was an ex boyfriend but seriously do not date someone like this. If someone manipulates you into doing something you are not comfortable with, please tell them to go suck an egg and leave them in the dust. Aidan also literally tries to to rip out Tana's throat, but she literally does nothing about this?? He says something semi clever and witty and she laughs and is like "oh no big deal."

And then...Gavriel. This amazing, beautiful, old as balls vampire who just randomly falls for Tana. Because she saved him. He is super overdramatic. And he is weird? He like doesn't speak to people just makes statements at them. He also wants to kill people and Tana is like "okay cool how can I help!!" It is weird.

I didn't like the love triangle that wasn't really a love triangle. That was unnecessary and I also didn't like how instant it was. There was just so much I didn't like. And the stuff I did like (the mythology, and the premise [minus the vlogging]) did not outweigh ... everything else. Especially the people who wanted to become vampires. I don't know. I didn't like it.

Overall: 2.5/5 stars, it could have been better written and maybe not so much romance that didn't fit.