Book talk: Imagine a vampire outbreak begins to spread across the world. What would you do? Hunt them down? Start stock-piling canned goods? Or would you lock them all up in contained cities and turn them into fodder for reality TV? It's hard for the camera or the public to resist vampires' unnaturally good looks and outlandish antics. At first when vampires were revealed to society it was terrifying, but now people are used to them. Beyond taking a few simple precautions, most go on as normal. Many are rabid fans of the live streams from cold towns where the vampires live. Some are even tempted to venture into the cold towns themselves. They are allowed in, but they rarely come back out. Tana knows more about the dangers of vampires than most of her peers: her mother was turned years ago and the disease caused her to attack her own daughter. Tana still bears the scars. But it isn't extra caution just pure, dumb luck that keeps Tana alive when she wakes up after a party to find all her friends slaughtered. She doesn't know how they got in, but her ex-boyfriend is the only other person still alive, and he has been infected. She saves him with help from the most unlikely source and together they venture to the nearest cold town knowing they may never come back out again.
Rave: I love the premise of this novel: that vampires reveal themselves to humanity and humanity makes them into reality television. Tana is an excellent lead willing to sacrifice herself to do what's right but carrying her own baggage and flaws. I like that she saved her ex-boyfriend despite all he'd done. I don't see a lot of books centering around relationships between exes so it was a new dynamic to see play out. Gavriel is a half-crazed, misunderstood, possible psychopath but I was surprised at how such a seemingly cliched set up of bad boy vampire and good girl human was able to avoid cliche and seem fresh and compelling. The characterization was great overall including characters with minor roles. The way vampirism is handled in the novel is interesting from the way people turn to more philosophical questions of whether it changes a person's nature or simply exaggerates it.
Every book its reader: I'd give this to 8th grade and up looking for a new twist on vampire stories.
Topics and trends: vampires, LGBTQ, romance, fantasy, reality tv
Extras:
The author has a website and at tumblr and the book has a trailer (embedded below)
Bonus Quotes:
“I promise I will repay you.”
“Oh yeah?” she asked, looking at him, with his bare feet and plain, dark clothes. “With what?”
The smile stayed on his lips. “Jewels, lies, slips of paper, dried flowers, memories of things long past, useless quotations, idle hands, beads, buttons, and mischief.”
“If she was going to die, she might as well die sarcastic.”
“Even from the beginning, that was the problem. People liked pretty things. People even liked pretty things that wanted to kill and eat them.”
Source: kobo ebook
The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black: buy it or check it out today!
