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.
Rating: 3/5One 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.
Genres: YA, Fantasy, Paranormal, Romance
There were enough unanswered questions and wishes for more information that while I enjoyed this novel, I still wanted more. The plot Black had in mind fit very well for a stand-alone, but there was potential for more—especially because of how little the characters developed but how intense some relationships between them became. Which isn't to say that development needs to happen for relationships to work, but people naturally change, learn more about themselves and others, and that's how relationships become stronger. So it was all a bit jarring and a whole lot of skeptical.
The pacing and scene cuts first of all were awkward—I felt like there were more background and flashback scenes than there were present ones. It could be an exaggeration since I didn't actually count the number of present and past scenes, but it's still an issue if it felt like it dragged that much. The traveling that happened felt more like aimless wandering even though there was a destination in mind. And strangely enough, even with all that, it still seemed too rushed. Things would slow down, then pick back up going twice as fast in present scenes. It's all a bit hard to explain, but expect some pacing issues if you read it.
The best thing about this novel is the vampiric world Black made up. The biting and turning process is different than the usual ones we see in novels, and the small pieces of the vampire world discussed also make it unique. The influence it had on the present human world was intriguing and creative as well; Coldtowns are an interesting concept, and I'm still not completely sure how I feel about them. But it seemed like it was a cool setting to play with since it was fun (but a bit horrifying) to read.
Lastly, I wanted to talk about Tana. She was a well-flushed out character, and we were given lots of scenes to understand how her personality came to be, but there wasn't much change that happened past that. So I wish we could have seen more of how Tana changed after all that happened, especially after the last chapter, but I still appreciated her character. She's loyal to her family and friends, tries to be tough on the outside but is scared at heart, and that's something I've always found appealing in a character. It really shows the perseverance of a person, and I'm always interested in how an author spins that character trait in their own way.
Overall, the creativity and the Black-style of flowing and magical writing helps the novel tremendously, but there were a lot of other aspects that were lacking. I would recommend this to anyone who wants a new take on the vampire genre.
