Review: The Coldest Girl in Coldtown
19:56
By Holly Black
Source: E-book gift
Page count: 419
Genres: Young Adult, Paranormal, Vampires, Fantasy, Romance,
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.
My Review:
I went into this book with no expectations. I’ve never read a Holly Black book before, so I had no idea what to expect, apart from reading a couple of reviews on Goodreads. I’ve had a few recommendations, and I got given this as a gift, so I just thought why not give it a go? I read it while camping, meaning I’ll read just about anything!
I enjoyed the beginning. It was easy to get into, and flowed really well. I cared somewhat about the storyline because it was intriguing and the characters were interesting. And there were elements of disease from the start too which you know I love! I wasn’t addicted to the book, but I wasn’t bored by it.
My main problem with the book was the way that there was no goal for the whole book. This is definitely one where you need to keep telling yourself “It’s about the journey, not the destination”, yet I was still really wondering why I was actually reading it. I would have wanted to read on much more if I knew what I was reading to.
The characters were... good. The weren’t very original or out of the ordinary, none of them did anything spectacular. Tana was a good lead because she just got on with things and was somewhat interesting, but her personality wasn’t very bold, and nothing about her blew me away. I enjoyed reading about Gavriel, but not too much. He was unpredictable and not the typical male lead, but - like Tana - he didn’t really do anything to make me like him.
The ending was terrible. It felt way too rushed, and didn’t round anything off. It was too open ended and didn’t give me enough closure to be satisfied with the book, and to give it a high rating.
Overall, this was an interesting premise, yet it really flopped. It needed some serious improvements to the way it was written for me to be able to fully enjoy it.
My rating:
Hello! I'm D - a dog-loving feminist from the UK. You'll probably find me with my nose in a book or playing my clarinet
1 comments
Oh ono, I'm sorry you didn't love the book! Your review has completely convinced me not to read this, there's nothing worse than a rushed ending, seriously what is the point in putting in all that hard work to skim over it haha. Great review :)
ReplyDeleteCody @ Literary-ly Obsessed
Thanks for commenting! I read and respond to every comment, so make sure to check back to see my reply. Have a nice day! ☺♥