Sunday, June 22, 2014

Book Review: The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black

Book: The Coldest Girl in Coldtown
Author: Holly Black
Rating: 4/5 stars- dark, tense, exciting, yet makes me wonder if I'm being really generous with this one?

Synopsis (as found on Goodreads):

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.


Review:

Where should I start.

I had a somewhat of a decent expectation going into The Coldest Girl in Coldtown. I LOVED the cover, and I've heard good things about it before going in.

(Wait sorry Human by Christina Perri just came on and now I'm choking from the irony)

I was cruising through the first third when it was then I realized: I was done the first third.
I was confused.
At around the first third... I still felt like we were in the basic set-up and world building. The plot hasn't ACTUALLY started moving yet.

This when I started going through the rest of the book with somewhat lower expectation and curiousity in what and how it's going to happen.

While the second third was a little dragged out, the last third was most definitely the most the enjoyable part.

I enjoyed how the plot wrapped up and turned out at the end and how everything came together. Even though I said, the second third of the book was a bit dragged out, it built up the image and feel of Coldtown really well. Everything was dark, tense, and exciting.

BUT.

Although I was emotionally invested into the plot of the book, I didn't care for about... almost every character. It's like watching a TV show and you're excited about the mystery they've presented in the show, but you don't really know the characters.

I feel like I don't know Tana that much. OK, I know her backstory. But do I know the little things and who she is on a deeper level? I can tell through her actions that she's courageous, loyal, etc. but it kind of pans a little. I felt like Holly Black tried to show us that and it didn't click with me. And that I was kind of spoon fed her backstory.

The ONLY character I liked was Gavriel. There was an air of mystery to him and I liked how HIS backstory unraveled and became relevant to the plot and just rounded him out a little instead of just knowing him as "sexy hot badass vampire dude".

Everyone else I kind of hated. Midnight? ANNOYING. The only reason I tolerated her existence is because she kind of helped out the plot. Pearl? DOUBLE ANNOYING. Honestly that is the most annoying little sister you can ask for. I feel cheated that we wasted three chapters AT LEAST on her. Honestly we could just do away with her in the book and it would make no difference.

 photo tumblr_msom3i4Nwj1rq7g3jo1_500_zps3f5987d6.gif
Aidan was OK.

I liked the others but again, I don't really know them.

I don't mean this in an insulting way, but I felt like this story would've done better at another author's hands. I felt like with better writing invested in character development would've pushed this book to a full five stars for me. I really think you can get rid of a couple characters (e.g. Pearl). Holly Black's writing isn't awful but I felt like it didn't do the story justice. It's such a great premise and such a great story and world and EVERYTHING, I just wish I had some emotion invested the characters as well.

Overall, I wouldn't say The Coldest Girl in Coldtown isn't not worth reading. It's like a good TV show you watch but it's never going to be something you'll diehard fangirl about. Enjoyable, but maybe not entirely memorable.


Sunday, June 15, 2014

Finals

So..
hmmmm...
something's wrong...
.
..
...
....
......

OKOK I know, I didn't do a June list I HAVE COMMITTED A CRIME.
(I also locked myself off tumblr for three weeks somehow)

So if you didn't realize from the title by now... yeah um heh I took a giant hiatus because of finals.

I KNOW I KNOW I TAKE HIATUSES ALL THE TIME EXCUSES EXCUSES

But honestly, as lazy as I am, finals are actually something pretty serious to buck down for (reason why I haven't seen The Fault in Our Stars movie UGGGH LIFE WHY YOU HATE ME) so I took a hiatus because, well, I needed it.

When I started this blog, I made a promise that I would update as frequently as possible, but at the same time, my blog would not be something that trapped me, forcing myself to write something for the sake of writing something. I don't want to a post a review for the sake of posting a review. I don't want to make myself do this as a chore- this blog is meant as a place for me to express myself, and that's what most important to me.

I will NOT be making up the June list though- it's a very short one anyways, so no point.

SO EXCUSES MADE, what's next?

Well, I opted out for summer school this year, so I have a lot more free time. That means more time to read, blog, watch dramas, etc. So definitely I will be posted a LOT more.

Also, I might do something fun for the summer. I've been thinking of changing some of the tags that go through BookTube (Youtube for books) to a more blog friendly style thing so maybe that. But we'll see.

Obviously, this means this time again next year, I'm going to stuck in the same situation. I hope you guys understand... cause failing school = BANNED FROM BOOKS
and Internet

so yeah.

ok baai.
 
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