Trigger Warning: Drugs, gore, blood, violence, mild language, death.

4.5 So when I first picked up The Coldest Girl in Coldtown, I was not expecting to like it. I was not expecting vampires. Some of the author blurbs were making me think: "Eh, if they liked it I won't." I never expected to love a book about vampires. Frankly I went into this book with little and low expectations, and was blindsided.

The last Holly Black book I read, [b:Valiant|266607|Valiant (Modern Faerie Tales #2)|Holly Black|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1332713354s/266607.jpg|588218], did not impress me. I was worried that this one would not either. But this did (duh). The characters were great, the plot was awesome, Coldtown is the coolest, creepiest, weirdest, ect setting that I have read about in a while, maybe even forever. It had so many layers to it. Not only that, but how it and vampires were precised by people on either side of it was so different. It made me think about the internet and news today, how everything is sensationalized and warped into something different than it actually is. To people on the outside, Coldtown was like a glamorous, 24/7 party with a chance to earn immortality, but in reality, it was dirty, dank, and unfriendly.

The characters seemed plausible. One of the most annoying things I read in books that take place in our world is how dumb or implausible their actions and reactions are. It bugs me beyond belief and can completely ruin a story for me. Tana's actions did not. It made sense with her history and background, and her actions were felt natural, not odd or staged for the plot. And they moved the plot forwards. Another pet peeve is when everything but the main character moves the plot forwards. Now one thing Tana's sister Pearl did sorta bugged me

Spoiler

when she sent the text to Tana saying "have fun fun fun fun [...]" (not sure how many funs there are)

. It made me roll my eyes and think "Who does that?" along with a bunch of other things, though I guess it can be credited to her age and the perception of Coldtown as I said above.

These aren't the only thing Holly Black did right in Coldtown. She made me like a vampire novel. Usually, vampire novels are either trying to scare me (I'm to visual for books to scare me, it has to be a film) or are deathly romantic. This was neither. It had the right element of creepiness and logical romance (seriously, no one writes logical romances these days). Plus, the romance stayed as a side plot. It didn't take over halfway through the story. It let the plot be the plot.

And finally, Black's writing was great. It wasn't outstanding, but it was rich and exciting. Here word choice was brilliant. Each character had their own voice and I loved the little blog excepts. They were in the right places at the right times, as were the flashbacks. They were relevant; they were what readers want and need to see from the story.

In all this was just a great book. Not the best thing ever, but something I will remember and recommend for a very long time!