Holly Black’s highly anticipated novel opens with a massacre. Seventeen-year-old Tana Bach wakes up in a bathtub after a night of partying to find all her classmates dead, their bodies strewn about like bloody confetti—the victims of a vampire attack. Tana also discovers her ex-boyfriend, Aidan, tied up in a bedroom. He’s been bitten and is now infected, but he’s alive. And he’s not alone. He’s trapped with a wounded vampire, the enigmatic and dangerous Gavriel. Tana makes a quick decision to save them both, putting her life in danger and risking infection. The three of them drive to Coldtown, an inescapable ghetto for vampires and the humans who venerate them.
Once inside the walls of Coldtown, Tana gets mixed up in a centuries-old power struggle that pits her against a celebrity vampire. Tana’s only thought is to stay human and stay alive, but that may not be possible when she has a weakness for saving others.
Black treats readers to a richly woven narrative full of flawed characters with unenviable choices. Coldtown is a place of nightmares, but it’s also a place of seduction. Some humans will do anything to get inside, giving up their comfortable homes to live in squalor, all for the chance to become immortal. But Black shows that immortality eventually becomes hellish, even for those who willfully seek it. Rich in imagery and told in Black’s standout, signature prose, The Coldest Girl in Coldtown is a memorable literary feast.
ALSO IN BOOKPAGE: Read an interview with Holly Black for The Coldest Girl in Coldtown.
