The Coldest Girl in Coldtown

The Coldest Girl in Coldtown
by Holly Black
Published September 3rd 2013 by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
419 pages

Summary: (from Goodreads.com)

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.

Review:
I thought it was interesting that the book started out with a "wow factor"; a girl is one of three people left alive at the party. The weird thing about this to me is, this book is about vampires. They can smell blood. They can hear heartbeats. Why would they just happen to skip a girl who fell asleep in a bathtub? Despite that one thing that irked me through the entire book, I thought it was pretty interesting as far as vampire fiction for teens goes. The main thing I liked about it was Tana was a strong lead female. I also liked that romance was NOT the main theme of the story, only a fragment of a side theme (and even then it wasn't really interesting). 

I pretty much felt blah about this whole book. The plot of the story was rather boring. It got good for maybe the last 5 chapters(?) and then it was just sort of up and down from that. I'd actually be more interested in a sequel if there was one since Ms. Black already has the characters and the setting already fleshed out so she could spend more time on a better story line and I would like to see how the character relationships turn out.

SCORE: 3/5

Friends with Boys

Friends with Boys

Faith Erin Hicks

Published Feb. 2012 by First Second

224 illustrated pages

Summary:

A coming-of-age tale with a spooky twist!

Maggie McKay hardly knows what to do with herself. After an idyllic childhood of homeschooling with her mother and rough-housing with her older brothers, it’s time for Maggie to face the outside world, all on her own. But that means facing high school first. And it also means solving the mystery of the melancholy ghost who has silently followed Maggie throughout her entire life. Maybe it even means making a new friend—one who isn’t one of her brothers.

Review:

This graphic novel follows Maggie, a homeschooled teenager, and her immersion into public high school. She has a challenge: making a friend that isn’t one of her 3 older brothers. Kookier still, is a ghost that follows Maggie around through various points of the story. Not only does she have to deal with High School but a ghost as well.

Hicks does a great job putting you in the shoes of Maggie. Each page is richly illustrated with backgrounds and there is a lot of feeling behind character’s facial expressions. It’s surprising how she uses body language and expressions to say things that are unsaid, like the animosity between her eldest brother and one of her new friends.

The novel sometimes feels like a slice of life comic, with no particular plot line. It seems to gain more of a storyline near the end of the book, and I’m hoping for something a bit more structured in book 2.

I’m also still a little unclear on why the author chose the title she did for the series, but I assume that in the original drafts the storyline pertained a bit more to the title.

Fans of the Scott Pilgrim series will most likely enjoy Friends with Boys.

3.5/5