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THE COLDEST GIRL IN COLDTOWN by Holly Black (My Rec & A Student’s Perspective)

November 7, 2013

I was so excited when one of my students took my recommendation to read THE COLDEST GIRL IN COLDTOWN because I wanted to get a student’s perspective on it. I’m thrilled that she loved it as much as I did, and she wrote her response in such a fun way, so I wanted to share some of my own thoughts along with an 8th grader’s recommendation for this phenomenal book.

My Thoughts:
I LOVED The Coldest Girl in Coldtown. I understand it is an homage to classic vampire stories, and although I never read any of those, I can still appreciate what Holly Black did as it is so different from the other YA vampire stories that I have read. This book is SO good! I thought I was over vampire novels, but not this one. It has an intriguingly and thoroughly built world, a likeable main character, and a vampire who says all the right things. The alternating chapters of present story and flashback history/context added to the depth. The pacing and the suspense…it is cleverly written. It is without a doubt one of my top books of the year.

Title: THE COLDEST GIRL IN COLDTOWN

Author: Holly Black
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Release Date: September 3, 2013
Number of Pages: 419
Source of Book: ARC requested from publisher

          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.

The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black
is the perfect example of a vampire book with originality. This intriguing
novel is unlike any of its kind, containing a dangerous and mysterious plot.
The author, Holly Black, wrote an amazingly written story that immediately
sucked me in. This made me love the book a million times more, because there’s
nothing better than getting lost in a thickening plot. Same goes for the
characters. I was able to get lost in their personalities and traits while enjoying
every moment of reading about them. They were fantastic; it was like I was
tagging alongside on the adventure with them.  Truthfully, I think anyone interested in
vampire books should read this. Even people who don’t like vampire books should
read The Coldest Girl in Coldtown because
honestly this book has the potential to blow anyone away with its amazingly,
epic self.
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