I know what some
of you might be thinking. “Another vampire book?” But trust me, Holly Black’s latest
novel, The Coldest Girl in Coldtown, should not be missed.
After a typical night
at a sundown party with friends, seventeen-year-old Tana Bach wakes up alone in
a bathtub, hungover and confused, with the sense that something is very wrong.
Her fears are confirmed as she discovers someone left a window open during the
party – and something came in. In
spite of the garlic hung on the lintel to ward them off, vampires crawled through
the window in the middle of the night and massacred every one of Tana’s friends
-- except, she discovers, her charming, immature ex-boyfriend Aidan and mysterious the
vampire Gavriel, both of whom have been tied up and need Tana’s help to escape.
The only
problems with this mad plan? Well, Gavriel, while handsome, is dangerous,
secretive, and slightly - or more than slightly - unhinged, and Aidan has
already been bitten by a vampire and is turning Cold. On that note, this is one
of the best descriptions of vampirism I’ve encountered in fiction, not only the
change from human to vampire, but also the hungry, insatiable nature of
vampirism itself.
Once a human is
bitten by a vampire, they turn Cold (infected with vampirism) and
bloodthirsty. If they drink human blood, the transformation will be completed
and they will die to rise again. But it is also possible to stave off the
change, if one is strong enough to resist the siren call of blood for long enough
(about 88 days). Officially, the government requires people to report all cases
of infection so that those who are Cold can be quarantined, along with
vampires, in their local Coldtown, to prevent the further spread of vampirism. Yet
those who enter Coldtown almost never leave, so many families attempt a
self-quarantine of infected family members. Tana knows what it’s like to try
to restrain the Cold – when she was a child, her father locked her Cold mother
in the basement, and the consequences were tragic.
That’s why Tana
and her two companions embark on a journey to "the wicked, opulent heart of Coldtown."
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| Holly Black, I'll allow a smirk since you wrote another kick-ass book. |
Are you hooked
yet? I was! The
Coldest Girl in Coldtown grabbed hold of me and would not let go till I was
done. The plot is non-stop action (I mean it, like, when does Tana sleep?), and
Black offered up a few plot twists that surprised me in their cleverness. After
being involved with a string of series this year, I also appreciated that this
novel works nicely as a standalone. The novel was jam-packed, for sure, but
every moment was necessary to the unity of the whole, and by the end of the book, all plot threads were concluded to my satisfaction.
Part of the
reason why this story about vampires doesn’t feel tired is because Black brings
a peculiar, unexpected modernity to it. So often, vampires are portrayed as
quaint and old-fashioned, given their eternal lives. But in Black’s vision, American
pop culture is perversely fascinated by vampires; reality TV series follow
vampire bounty hunters and broadcast feeds of Coldtown’s never-ending party for
vamps and vamp wannabes, the Eternal Ball. Tana’s friends speculate about her
disappearance by Twitter and text message and a reporter offers her money for
an exclusive story. And at various times, Tana questions the justice of the
Coldtown system that is willing to lock people up and throw away the key,
simply for the sake of convenience and the illusion of safety for those on the
outside. It reminded me uncomfortably of Japanese internment camps during WWII
or the forced relocation of Native Americans. The Coldest Girl in Coldtown
offers what feels like a realistic look at what would happen if vampires
stepped into our world today.
 |
| No sparkling here, gents! |
Holly Black’s The
Coldest Girl in Coldtown is a not-to-be-missed, highly original vampire
story that offers up some wickedly dark, scary, sexy moments at a pace that won’t
give you a second to catch your breath. It uses the vampire theme to ask some
important questions about the nature of identity and paints a compelling
portrait of how our modern American life, even without vampires, may not be so
far distant from Coldtown already.
Rating:
Badges:
-Meg
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