The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black

In a world where vampires are real and have become open to the public, Coldtowns have been raised.  Here it is meant for containment sake, Coldtowns are destinations where people infected by the vampire-virus or wanting to be infected can go but they can never leave.  These are the gripping treacherous towns of Holly Black's new novel The Coldest Girl in Coldtown. 

The novel jumps immediately to our heroine, who after going to a party and passing out there wakes up to a disturbing scene of the corpses of the previous night's party goers.  Instantly alarmed, Tana looks around the house and finds her ex-boyfriend, in the process of turning vampire, tied to a bed and a vampire chained up in the same room.  Some where in the house there are other vampires, searching for the one chained.  Tana decides that she cannot leave Aidan behind, so she finds a car and parks it as close as possible to them so that Gavriel (the vampire) wouldn't get sun damage... oh right, she saves the vampire as well:

"Maybe it was that nearly everyone else was dead and she felt a little bit dead, too, but she figured that even a vampire deserved to be saved.  maybe she ought to leave him, but she knew she wasn't going to."

Our heroine has had some issues with the whole vampire virus, or going Cold as it is stated in the novel.  Her mother had been turned and was no longer alive, leaving Tana feeling guilty for her death.  Throughout the novel she tries to save Aidan from getting blood in order to stop the process (apparently if you lock yourself up for a certain number of days, there is a chance you might get better), and she will not stop helping or thinking about Gavriel.  They are on their way to Coldtown, but with each passing step the journey becomes more dangerous and equally thrilling.  There are twists that perhaps one can see coming, but towards the end.  I really appreciated some of the humor and mostly the bantering between Aidan and Tana.  Gavriel is the dark, mysterious, gorgeous character that has become synonymous with vampires in YA, but he also had the "I am a monster and that's my nature... I'm a killer and I'm good at it" persona.  He's not an Edward Cullen, not a pretty little threat.

I won't say I love it, but I can't say I don't like it.  I will say that I appreciate some of Holly Black's books and that if you do as well you will appreciate this one.  Thank you Edelweiss.

3 out of 5 stars