Book Review: The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black

Title: The Coldest Girl in Coldtown
Author: Holly Black
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Date of Publication: Sept. 3 2013
Source: bought, paperback, YA, Horror,




Book Synopsis:

Tana lives in a world where walled cities called Coldtowns exist. In them, quarantined monsters and humans mingle in a decadently bloody mix of predator and prey. The only problem is, once you pass through Coldtown’s gates, you can never leave.
One morning, after a perfectly ordinary party, Tana wakes up surrounded by corpses. The only other survivors of this massacre are her exasperatingly endearing ex-boyfriend, infected and on the edge, and a mysterious boy burdened with a terrible secret. Shaken and determined, Tana enters a race against the clock to save the three of them the only way she knows how: by going straight to the wicked, opulent heart of Coldtown itself.
The Coldest Girl in Coldtown is a wholly original story of rage and revenge, of guilt and horror, and of love and loathing from bestselling and acclaimed author Holly Black.

My Thoughts: 

The Coldest Girl in Coldtown is really fantastic!  It delivers so much more than just horror but it also gives us a big dose of that too!  I am pretty much loving this book and could read it over and over again.  

It encompasses every facet of what we love about the old vampire classic books, while still adding something new and original to the mix.  And if you read the acknowledgments, you will see that Holly Black gives thanks to all the masters of vampire literature and this book is somewhat of an ode to them.  
As you read, you will notice the similarities with the classic authors but Black does add her own voice to this masterpiece and we get something wholly different and terrifyingly perfect.   The way that Black interprets vampire culture was an eye-opener.  She showed us the love affair that this society has with the vampires; but then gives us the grisly side of them also.  It makes us take off our rose colored glasses and see what is really there- monsters.  
And in doing that, made the story a thousand times better!  I loved the gritty raw side to it all.  There is gore and there is destruction and it just enhances the story so much more.  

Black takes our society right now and our fascination with the undead monsters and adds an supernatural element to it.  She gives her story the perfect setting and a strange and frightening alternate universe.  The nightmare, then, has come to life.  

I am also a huge fan of Holly Black's writing style.  She uses pretty awesome phrases that tend to give the reader a couple of different ideas as they read.  For example, her use of the word "orgy" was a plus for me, because I haven't heard it used in this way:

"orgy of grief"

"orgy of death"

In using such phrases, I can really feel the intensity of the scenes she is trying to convey to us.  She also introduces us to more symbolism in the story.  I love how she personifies Death and makes it the main theme of the book.

"Every night in Coldtown, people die. People are fragile.  They die of mistakes, of overdoses, of sicknesses.  But mostly they die of Death."

page 247

Death seems to be almost as important as our main character, Tana, is.  In fact, it seems all of the characters share a few traits with each other, like their being flawed, but they also seem to have Death shadowing them everyday.  Some of their flaws are simple and some are so strange and frightening that it makes them seem so disconnected from society.  

   And of course, I can't forget the many beautiful and hypnotizing poetry that she puts at the beginning of each chapter.  I am huge fan of poetry, so I was literally writing down poets I loved so I could learn more about them.  

Besides all of this, there is this morbid and creep chill factor that sets the scenes in all of their horrific glory.  It is pure macabre and I was in love every minute as I cringed and eagerly wanted more and more.  And what added to this display of terror was the foreshadowing in the novel.  Like this one here that just makes tingles run down my spine:

"The clerk took a long look at Tana.  

"You're never getting out, honey.  So don't you worry about it."

page 152

Is this a dire warning or is it just the prejudice of a mundane character?  I don't know but that just really gives me the creeps.  There is no hope in that person's outlook.  Sad.  

Through all these wonderful additions to the story, there is an even more important detail to the book and it is the plot.  While reading The Coldest Girl in Coldtown I was thrown for a loop so many times.  There are many of twists and turns that I wasn't expecting in a million years, but am glad that they were there.  

Simply put, Holly Black is one of the most fantastic, most amazing, and decidedly one of the best storytellers this generation is lucky enough to read.  I look forward to more from her and I am in awe of the creativity that was put into this book.  Hands down this is a five heart book!

Pick up a copy of The Coldest Girl in Coldtown:

Amazon | Barnes & Noble |

Connect with Holly Black:

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Audio Review: Girl of Nightmares by Kendare Blake

Title: Girl of Nightmares
Author: Kendare Blake
Series: Anna Book #2
Publisher: Tor Teen
Audio Publisher: AudioGo
Audio Publication Date: August 7, 2012
Format: mp3, 10hr 4 min,
Source: received from AudioGo for my honest opinion of it.
Get Your Own: Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Synopsis: It’s been months since the ghost of Anna Korlov opened a door to Hell in her basement and disappeared into it, but ghost-hunter Cas Lowood can’t move on.
His friends remind him that Anna sacrificed herself so that Cas could live—not walk around half dead. He knows they’re right, but in Cas’s eyes, no living girl he meets can compare to the dead girl he fell in love with.
Now he’s seeing Anna everywhere: sometimes when he’s asleep and sometimes in waking nightmares. But something is very wrong... these aren’t just daydreams. Anna seems tortured, torn apart in new and ever more gruesome ways every time she appears.
Cas doesn’t know what happened to Anna when she disappeared into Hell, but he knows she doesn’t deserve whatever is happening to her now. Anna saved Cas more than once, and it’s time for him to return the favor

-goodreads blurb 

 My Thoughts:
I would like to say thank you to AudioGo for sending me Girl of Nightmares on mp3 for review.

I absolutely loved the audio version of Girl of Nightmares!  I wasn't too keen on the narrator, August Ross, while he read the first book, but he came back in full stride and really changed my opinion of his skills in this one.  As soon as I turned it on, I just leaned back, closed my eyes and found myself swept away with Ross' chilling narration.
Character Development- Cas is this crude, gritty, tough hero that has a soft side hidden deep within himself that he finds surprising when it surfaces out.  He tells people how things are and doesn't really care if it puts him in another light.  He is brutally honest and I love him for it.  Cas really grows throughout this series and learns a lot about himself, his friends, and his ability to love.
Thomas is a darling.  I have to admit, besides the main protagonists, Thomas is one of my favorites.  The voice August Ross gives him is part hippie, part surfer dude.  And it fits his personality.  Thomas is so laid back, hardly getting too worked up over situations.  He always tries to find the silver lining, even when there is darkness everywhere.  The scene where Cas and Thomas go visit Thomas' Finnish aunt is extremely spooky and extremely funny.  I had to gag a little thinking about the cookies Thomas sucked down.  (Not giving anything else away-just read it! :) )
I have always liked Ana.  She is this cursed soul that has been put through so much, never being able to really live, and still has this spunk to her that makes me smile.  She is definitely a good match to Cas' attitude.
We have a lot of the same characters here, including Carmel, and we also meet a lot of new characters.  These new people help Cas reach his goal and help tie everything together in the end.
Plot-  Girl of Nightmares is so, so , so good!  It is a dark story but it does have these snarky comments thrown in, to help lessen the stress, if you will.  I really enjoyed the fact that Blake could write a scene to scare the hell out of me, but even then, still throw in a joke to let me laugh the fright off a little.

He smiles at me like he is Yoda and I'm just a dumbass without the force,"

There is action in this book but Girl of Nightmares is more of an emotionally charged book, showing Cas so broken and sad to seeing him realize the power he has within himself.  Kendare Blake did an exceptional job of painting such imagery that the reader can feel Cas' heartbreak, Ana's pain, Thomas' power, and Carmel's insecurity.
Blake also does a really wonderful job of world building, especially in Girl of Nightmares, when our "ghostbuster" team has to travel to many different places.  The Suicide Forest was the scariest thing I have ever heard (and dummy me, I listened to it at night, with all the lights off, and everyone else asleep).
The pacing was just right. I didn't find myself bored with it at all.  I liked learning more about the athame's past and why it does the things it does.  Yes, it is much more than just a knife.
Blake's interpretation of Hell was so interesting and very scary and breathtaking.  It was a different take, yet based on a lot of classic examples.

"This place exists in the wake of a scream..."

The best part about this novel or series, is that the point of view is from our male protagonist, Cas.  I feel like we don't have enough YA books from a male p.o.v and it is refreshing to get a book that can pull it off this well.  He is gritty, curses when the need arises, sarcastic as hell, and doesn't question his feelings for Ana.  He embraces the love he has for her and it shows with the very depth he is willing to take to save his beloved Ana.
Narration-August Ross has really stepped his game up in narrating Girl of Nightmares.  I wasn't really impressed with his style in the first book, but he has totally turned my opinion around in this second book.  This guy has so many great accents hidden up his sleeves; southern, Scottish, Finnish, English, and of course, Carmel's voice.  Sorry that is the only one I had a tough time with.  Other than that one, Ross sounds like a completely different person.  He is also superb at conveying the intensity of the situation, capturing you with the fullness of his voice.
I had to give Girl of Nightmares five hearts, more if I could!

Contact Kendare Blake:

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Review: Red Rain by R.L. Stine

Title: Red Rain
Author: R.L. Stine
Publisher: Touchstone Books
Date of Publication: October 16, 2012
Source: purchased, hardcover, 384 pages
Genre: Adult fiction, horror
Get Your Copy: Amazon | The Book Depository | Barnes & Noble

Synopsis:

R.L. Stine, New York Times bestselling author of the Goosebumps and Fear Street series—the biggest selling children’s books of all time—delivers a terrifying new adult horror novel centered on a town in the grip of a sinister revolt.
Before there was J.K. Rowling, before there was Stephenie Meyer or Suzanne Collins, there was R.L. Stine. Witty, creepy, and compulsively readable, he defined horror for a generation of young readers—readers who have now come of age.

Travel writer Lea Sutter finds herself on a small island off the coast of South Carolina, the wrong place at the wrong time. A merciless, unanticipated hurricane cuts a path of destruction and Lea barely escapes with her life. In the storm’s aftermath, she discovers orphaned twin boys and impulsively decides to adopt them. The boys, Samuel and Daniel, seem amiable and immensely grateful; Lea’s family back on Long Island—husband Mark and their two children, Ira and Elena—aren’t quite so pleased. But even they can’t anticipate the twins’ true nature—or predict that, within a few weeks’ time, Mark will wind up implicated in two brutal murders, with the police narrowing in.
For the millions of readers who grew up on Goosebumps, and for every fan of deviously inventive horror, this is a must-read from a beloved master of the genre.
-goodreads summary

My Thoughts:
Cover design- Everyone knows I do love a good cover.  One that conveys the theme of the book, while hooking us with the descriptive imagery that it plays upon the mind.  This cover design does just that.  The red drops of rain is on the forefront but hidden in the background is small shadows that have a huge impact in the story.  What can I say?  Anything that has to do with that much blood-like things and scary little child size shadows gets my blood pumping.
Character Development- I remember when Mr. Stine was explaining a little about this novel, he said he wrote the adults as very trusting, very mature, and yet not very smart.  This is so true!
Lea, the travel writer and mom of our main family, is nerve-wracking to me!  She was the complicated one for me.  She is well educated, successful, and dedicated to her family..most of the time.  But she had this ability to let her emotions play too strong a part into her life which caused her not to think at all.  Half the time I wanted to scream at her, the other half I had to refrain from speaking out aloud, "I told you so."  Don't get me wrong, I didn't hate her; I just felt sorry for her.
Lea's husband, Mark, was also not the brightest adult out there. Actually, Mark was more of a contradiction than anything else.  He was charismatic, though, and brought a lot to the story, even if it was at his expense.  You just can't help but expect more from him, especially being a psychologist, but there are times he actually did try to get the right point across to his wife.
The secondary characters all add more to the story to help us enjoy it more.
Oh my goodness the villians?  These guys are the most cruel, persuasive, and cunning antagonists that has been introduced in a long while.  I don't want to talk too much about these guys and give anything away but just let me tell you that R.L.Stine can write an evil character very well.  He is able to convey the very wrongness of the twins, from very early on, and yet because they are beautiful and look angelic, you try to fight your instincts.
Plot Development- This is a chaotic novel of terror, mystery, horror, and underneath all of this, love.  Yes, there is love in there somewhere; it is more the love of a mother and the love of a wife that blossoms out.
There were times it felt like I was amassed  in a swirling black hole of chaos but this idea actually fits the central theme of the novel.  There is chaos but it does have a point.  There is so much that is going on in the story but everything ties together and you are left speechless at it all.  I felt like this story put much emphasis on appearances.  What we see on the outside could be far different from what we find on the inside.

I loved Red Rain very much, however, I did feel like R. L. Stine was trying too hard.  Maybe trying too hard to make it a very mature adult novel.  For example, I have no problems with cursing in a novel.  In fact when it is called for I think it adds to excitement overall.  But I found myself wishing he would have toned it down a bit. The curse words seemed to be tossed around easily and freely in almost every other paragraph.  It was surprising that this would bother me but it just felt like it wasn't needed in some places and could have done without it.
Other than that, R. L. Stine did a great job of scaring the adults instead of the kiddies this time. Red Rain was a frightful thrill ride mixed with gore, sinister children, and more twists than you can imagine!  The twists alone will have you completely rocking side to side in shocked awe.
I gave Red Rain four hearts.

Connect with R. L. Stine:

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Book Review: Ten by Gretchen McNeil

Title: Ten
Author: Gretchen McNeil
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Date of Publication: September 18, 2012
Format: hardcover, 294 pages
Source: Bought
Get your copy:  Barnes & Noble / Amazon

And their doom comes swiftly.
It was supposed to be the weekend of their lives-an exclusive house party on Henry Island.  Best friends, Meg and Minnie each have their reasons for being there(which involves T.J., the school's most eligible bachelor) and look forward to three glorious days of boys, booze, and fun-filled luxury.
But what they expect is definitely not what they get, and what starts out as fun turns dark and twisted after the discovery of a DVD with a                  sinister message: Vengeance is Mine.
Suddenly people are dying, and with a storm raging, the teens are cut off from the outside world.  No electricity, no phones, no internet, and a ferry that isn't scheduled to return for two days.  As the deaths become more violent and the teens turn on each other, can Meg find the killer before more people die?  Or is the killer closer to her than she could ever imagine?
-Goodreads Summary

My feelings:

Well we all know how much I do love my covers, right?  This is a creepy cover indeed.  It makes me think of that mini-series called Harper's Island where it was a big wedding party that pretty much had a killer running around.  Well this has a very similar approach except this is teenagers instead of adults.  
Our main protagonist, Meg, is more or less forced to be there because her "best friend" wants to go.  Meg is charismatic; everyone seems to like her right off and she gets along with most everyone there.  
Everyone else you root for but aren't sure if they will make it-but some you are secretly hoping they get the ax; so to speak.  One person I couldn't stand at all was Meg's bff, Minnie.  UGH! This girl just ticked me off to no end!  She has no concept of friendship because she basically looks at Meg as her slave more than anything else.  
All of the other characters were decent.  T.J. was a pretty cool dude.  He wasn't portrayed as the typical football jock and I actually liked him even more for it. 
The secondary characters felt just like that-secondary characters.  We get a little background on them, but a few came after the fact.  It was hard to get attached to anyone because you didn't know who would be taken out quickly or not.

You are pretty much thrust into the whole creepy factor right away.  This I totally loved!  The videotape was such a nice added "scare the hell outta you" feature.  I did feel, though, people were too hesitant to believe what was happening.  A lot of folks kept second guessing themselves until it was too late. 
I liked all the small details that Ms. McNeil added to keep the scare factor in the story going.  One scene involving the neighbor's house had me pretty freaked out.  
There were times that I had figured out a few parts of the plot early on but I never guessed who the killer was until the very end.  I wasn't even going in that direction at all!  
And of course throughout all this chaotic killing frenzy and terrible storm, there is a small romantic factor playing within the other plot lines.  
My biggest pet peeve with this book was Meg's unfailing way to second guess herself.  I felt like she was very astute, sitting in the background studying everything and everyone else, and I just didn't like the way she didn't have enough confidence to believe in herself.  

Other than that, I really liked Ten!  Fans of movies like Scream, I Know What You Did Last Summer, and Urban Legend will get much delight in this creepy entertaining thriller.