'The Coldest Girl in Cold Town' Review

Jan 26, 2014 19:05

Why Holly Black almost entirely redeemed teen vampire fiction for me...


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Comments 5

prophetkristy January 26 2014, 21:15:03 UTC
So you're talking about vampires, not angels, which possibly makes me a jerk for making this comment, but since you read YA: have you read my friend Cindy's Unearthly books?! They're awesome.

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falafel_musings January 26 2014, 21:54:40 UTC
Usually I don't read supernatural books at all, especially not supernatural romances. But thanks for the rec!

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bessiemaemucho January 27 2014, 14:35:01 UTC
Yay, Coldtown! I've never been a big vampire fan either, but I'll read whatever Holly Black does. I think she's always great at deconstructing & deglamorizing tropes and I thought Coldtown was no exception.

I thought Gavriel was interesting as a ~tortured romantic vampire~ for being actually pretty unstable. More of a Drusilla than a Spike, as it were.

Oh, and I loved Valentina! I always love the diverse way Holly Black populates her books.

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falafel_musings January 27 2014, 18:22:46 UTC
Yeah, I liked that Gavriel was kind of insane, yet...Gavriel being psychologically unstable should make him even less of a good prospective boyfriend (you know, if being a vampire isn't off-putting enough). The Gavriel/Tana romance felt a bit like Holly Black was trying to play both sides, especially with the 'choose your own ending!' aspect that allows the possibility that the main pairing did end up being vampire lovers, even though Tana makes it clear that sweating out the infection and getting out of Cold Town is her main goal ( ... )

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bessiemaemucho January 28 2014, 04:38:33 UTC
The Gavriel/Tana romance felt a bit like Holly Black was trying to play both sides, especially with the 'choose your own ending!' aspect

Hmm, I actually see that as a strength rather than some kind of flip-flopping? I think something Holly Black does in a lot of her books is shows the unglamorous side of a lot of things that seem desirable (fairies, magic, vampires, unicorns) but sometimes people still buy into the hype and make bad choices, because... well, in real life, sometimes people buy into the hype and make bad choices. So if at the end of Coldtown, readers still want to imagine an Edward/Bella relationship... sure, they can, but they have to base it on a very different set of rules than Stephenie Meyer did.

Also I'm just a total Holly Black fangirl ♥

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