The Coldest Girl in Coldtown - Book Review 📚
Read: 10/23/25 - 10/26/25
Reviewed: 10/26/25
Holly Black and vampires? Sign me up! The Coldest Girl in Coldtown was an incredible read, following a young Tana Bach and she navigates a newfound tragedy, waking up amongst a massacre, faced with continual life-and-death situations as she just tries to do what’s best by her and the people in her life. Within this world, vampirism is a contagious thing, spread via bite by reckless, untrained, recently turned vampires. It’s an epidemic, entire cities quarantined in what are called Coldtowns. Starting as a way to control the vampire population from spreading, it soon became so much more than that. All manner of content is streamed live from these Coldtowns, and while vampires are meant to be feared, they become what we would now call influencers. Spinning such fantastical, decadent, elaborate views of Coldtown, humans flock to them, giving up their entire lives in the hope of being turned or chosen. While vampirism is a disease that can be beaten, the process – called going Cold – is so grueling that very few survive. They either die a permanent death or are raised as a vampire, if they give into their thirst for blood. Tana, faced with these choices, makes her way to Coldtown alongside a vampire named Gavriel and her ex-boyfriend who is going Cold, Aidan.
Alright, with that background out of the way, I just have to say how cool the premise of the story is! Vampirism, in the novel, works on so many different metaphorical levels; it works as a metaphor for addiction, disease, self-harm, class differences, racial differences, mental health, self-image, lust, and so much more. Honestly the entire novel is rife with detail pertaining to a wonderful analysis, though to fully organize all my thoughts on the matter in anything less than a full essay would be far too difficult. Each of the characters seem to represent one or more of these different metaphors, pulled every which way and seeing vampirism in their own ways. So many of the characters struggle with the addictive tendencies that vampirism pushes, and in fact those who succumb to the disease are much like addicts giving into their addictions; furthermore, these addictions are tied intricately into their mental health and self-image, or the way that other people view them. But for now, I’ll just leave it at the fact that Vampires, within the novel, represent the Other in a myriad of ways.
Now, to move onto the characters.
I really loved Gavriel, the vampire that Tana ends up traveling with. He is immediately a tragic, Gothic figure backdropped into the modern world. There's something of another era in him, mingled with his crazed ramblings and odd chivalric moments. We learn more about him as the novel progresses, getting a handful of chapters that showcase his past and show how he became what he did. I don’t want to give any spoilers, but just know he’s one of my favorite archetypes; he’s a tragic figure, who tries to do good, but carries around a lingering darkness that he can’t help but give into time and time again. I love a morally complex character and Gavriel fits that. He is referred to many times as a psychopath yet is also routinely shown to stand by his principles and try to do good, at least at times. He’s led an incredibly awful life, yet some part of him remains gentle and kind. I just really love characters like that.
Now Aidan? Hate that boy. There’s no way around it and he’s honestly a large part this book won’t ever get a full 5 stars. Portrayed in a way where we’re supposed to at least like him, even feel for him at times, I just hate him. He does many things to Tana that I simply cannot get past, though for spoilers sake I won’t get into it in detail beyond that fact it’s all his fault that Tana ends up in the circumstances she does by the end of the book. But his worst crime? He is annoying. I can appreciate any character for what they are unless they are annoying or boring and man is Aidan annoying.
But Tana? I really liked her, I think she was a great choice of protagonist. While Gavriel might be my favorite, Tana could also easily take that crown. She is an utterly determined individual and I can’t help but admire her fierce determination throughout the novel. She’s kind, at the end of the day. She won’t leave others behind when she knows she can help them. The entire novel is, honestly, just her saving herself and others. Whether the outcome is her forming allies or enemies, Tana can’t help but try to save them all. She’s fiercely determined to protect both Aidan and Gavriel, from different threats both seen and unseen, and even when she hits setbacks she doesn’t let it keep her down. That’s not to say she’s always successful or always does the right thing, she isn’t and doesn’t, but she does what she thinks is right no matter what. It’s admirable. I liked her a lot!
Now, maybe it’s because I am squeamish, but wow was this novel appropriately creepy given Halloween is in less than a week. It was quite macabre and at times graphic, but it was so awful in the best way. It wasn’t glamorous – or, rather, if there was glamour it was undercut by decay and death and gore. People – ordinary people, vampires, it doesn’t matter – were awful and cruel and horrific. Coaxed into truly awful things – torturing people, cutting them up, killing people they love, casually sacrificing innocent lives or seeking to end one, and so much more – with very little convincing, I really appreciated how truly gross and awful some of the characters were. How ugly they were, even while they were at their most physically beautiful. It was really well done.
Honestly, I have so many more thoughts on this book that I will one day put together in some semblance of an analysis, but until then I just wanted to say I loved it a lot more than I thought I would. Very well written – with a few cringey late naughts/early 2010s moments – this book just further proves why I love Holly Black so, so much!
