The Coldest Girl in Cold Town by Holly Black

by:  Holly Black
published by:  Little Brown Books for Young Readers
publish date:  September 3, 2013

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.

So I thought I was done with vampire books.  I didn't think there was anything thing left that was worth reading in the entirety of the vampire genre.  I'll say I was wrong on that one.  I ended up liking The Coldest Girl in Coldtown, although, I don't like the title.  The title alone put me off reading this book.  It gave it a very immature feel and the book itself was definitely at the older end of the YA spectrum.  The relationship that Tana and Aiden had was a bit racy for YA.  

There are two older vampire characters in this book, Gavriel and Lucien,  that are at odds with each others.  Their relationship to each other kept making me think of the characters Louis and Lestat from Anne Rice's Interview with a Vampire.  If you like that sort of vampire novel and a bit of post-apocalyptic mixed in, you'll like this book.

I liked this one as well.  I also agree with Autumn that I would put it at the older end of YA.  I thought a there were some gruesome parts to the book.  These aren't generally nice vampires.  I liked Gavriel.  He was the only vampire that I liked in the book, besides Aiden.  The other thing that I liked about the book was the parts from Tana's sister's point of view.  I don't think a YA book could be more perfect for a lesson in how what you see on TV isn't usually reality.  I think a lot of the characters got that lesson in this story.  Finally, I have to say that I loved the ending.  It was just perfect!

Autumn and I both listened to the audiobook.  The narration was good.  However, there was music sprinkled throughout the book I think in an attempt to give the listener a better listening experience.  The problem was the places that the music was used was inconsistent   It was like someone threw a dart at the book and wherever it landed, they put in music.   It did get annoying after a while.