The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black

Narrated by Christine Lakin

I saw a bit of buzz about The Coldest Girl in Coldtown – I tend to be a bit more adventurous in my audiobook listening than in my reading. For some reason, a low or no romance book can satisfy in this format whereas I’m unlikely to pick it up in print. I was intrigued about the story enough to ask Lea to request it for review. I’m glad I did. The story felt like a fresh and unique take on a vampire book and I was fascinated by the world Ms. Black created.

Tana Bock wakes up one morning in the bathtub of a friend’s farmhouse, having tied one on the night before as 17-year-olds tend to do. Turns out it was a lucky escape for her as, shielded by the shower curtain, she did not draw the attention of the vampires who came in through an open window and killed almost all of the other partygoers. The only survivors are Tana, her ex-boyfriend Aidan, and a mysterious and beautiful vampire in chains. Tana takes it upon herself to rescue Aidan from the murderous vampires who are waiting for sundown (not far away) to come and have dessert. Because the mysterious vampire is clearly at odds with the others, she rescues him too.

There have always been vampires in the world but they kept to the shadows and killed their prey, only turning a carefully chosen few. Some years before the story begins, one “benevolent” vampire, Casper Morales, decided to stop killing humans and merely drank from them instead. Unfortunately, in this world anyway, being bitten by a vampire leaves one infected (aka “cold”). If one can sweat out the infection for 88 days, all is well, but if they drink human blood, they will die and rise as a vampire. An infected person’s craving for blood becomes increasingly powerful over the course of infection and it is very rare for anyone to escape vampirism.

Thus, vampires are commonplace; reality TV has any number of vampire hunter shows and in the US, “Coldtowns” have been created. The towns Casper mainly visited were walled off by the government and anyone in town, vampire, infected or not, was left there. You can’t get out of a Coldtown unless you can prove you are not infected and have a marker. Markers out can be exchanged for vampires in. Mostly families of those stuck in Coldtowns hire a bounty hunter to catch a vampire. Instead of the bounty hunter receiving the bounty from the government, he accepts a marker and the family pays the bounty hunter the bounty in exchange for the precious marker that will free their loved one.

All but one of the Coldtowns are hubs for bloggers and live-streaming of a Coldtown event makes for popular television. The biggest Coldtown is near Springfield, Massachusetts and this is where Tana heads with Aidan and the beautiful monster, Gavriel. Tana’s mother was infected some seven years earlier and the trauma of that and Tana’s inability to save her mother motivates her to try and save Aidan, who has been infected.

Despite the fact that Aidan is her ex-boyfriend, there is no romance between the two and (thankfully) no love triangle. There is a romantic thread throughout the story between Tana and Gavriel but it is merely one part of the larger story. It is not the traditional romance book. While it has a hopeful ending, it is more of a horror/YA than a romance.

The world building is superb and the plot is skilfully woven, taking twists and turns I wasn’t expecting. Gavriel is a monster. Vampires are all monsters. Somehow he manages to be both a monster and the love interest – and it works. These vampires aren’t sparkly or particularly benevolent and there are some violent scenes, particularly involving the newly turned.

There is also clever subtext about being careful what you wish for, the consequences of one’s actions, and some truly beautiful prose about the “sin of mercy”. It makes sense when you read/listen. Trust me.

The story pulled me along more than the narration. Ms. Lakin nailed the characterisations but there wasn’t much differentiation between the characters and some of the accents faded in and out. Gavriel has a Russian background but, at times, he sounded more Irish than anything else, and other times he sounded like he was from the Midwest, or maybe slightly south as there was a definite twang to the narrator’s natural voice.

The main POV character is Tana, but there are some parts from Gavriel’s POV and also Tana’s younger sister Pearl. While it was clear whose perspective we were hearing, I felt the cues were more from the text than the narration.

I didn’t dislike the narration but I felt it was somewhat of a wasted opportunity. I recommend the audio as is, make no mistake. It is a high quality production, with effective use of music without it being overpowering and, as I said above, Ms. Lakin does nail the characterisations. But it is one of those stories that could have benefitted from perhaps a dual narration akin to Karen Marie Moning’s Fever series, where the male POV/lines are performed by a male (with good accent skills). Or, even with a narrator who could differentiate the accents more strongly. I feel a bit mean saying that because Ms. Lakin did a good job and the atmosphere of the story was delivered absolutely but I just think there was a chance to do something truly special that was perhaps missed.

I would say this is more Tana’s story than anything else and she felt older than 17 much of the time. She is heroic and brave and scared and fearless at the same time. I thought the ending was perfect – but I’m not going to tell you what it is – you have to listen for yourself to find out.

If you like scary vampire stories with a kickass heroine and a dash of romance; if you like stories which resonate and which, no doubt, will reveal more and more layers the more you listen/read or think about it, this is a must have.

Kaetrin

Narration:  B

Book Content:  A-

Steam Factor:  You can play it out loud

Violence:  Escalated fighting

Genre:  Fantasy Horror (YA vampire with a touch of romance)

Publisher:  Hachette Audio

The Coldest Girl in Coldtown was provided to AudioGals for review by Hachette Audio.

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