3.5 stars, I think 
 Initial Impressions 4/22/14:Enjoyable but still felt like an amalgam of most of the vampire books I've read. Maybe I'm just tired of vampires? I think in order to stand out nowadays, it just needed something a little bit more. 
 Review originally posted on The Book Addict's Guide 5/21/14:I felt like I had heard quite a few good things about The Coldest Girl in Coldtown before I started so I had high hopes going in but of course, I was still hesitant about "another vampire book". I hadn't read a vampire book since Vampire Academy and Bloodlines and those series were ones that I really enjoyed for its ability to sort of stray from the "vampire stereotypes". I think after a supersaturation of the genre, it was only natural to be hesitant, but I still went into the book with high hopes. 
 I thought the book started out with a bang. Sort of "bad girl", Tana wakes up at a party to find that everyone else who was there is dead. Mutilated, drained, and ravaged by a roving pack of vampires and somehow she's the only one left alive. If I was unsure what was about to come, the very first chapter of the book surely set it up for me. Holly Black is not afraid to let the gore fly and honestly... It was kind of awesome. I still cringe at gory descriptions but I also liked that she didn't shy away from keeping it real. I feel like that was a big purpose of the book -- for Tana (and others) to know that being a vampire isn't always glamorous like they portray it to be on the internet and TV -- and so I really appreciated how it served a real purpose in the book as well. 
 I really enjoyed the relationships in this book. Tana has complicated relationships with quite a few people and it only gets worse after the night of the "incident". Because of the events of that night, she ends up deciding to travel to the nearest Coldtown -- a city or section of a city that has been zoned off for vampires or people who have been infected and not yet turned. She ends up reconnecting with an ex-boyfriend who is now infected, a mysterious vampire who seems oddly helpful, and a couple of kids who are heading to the Coldtown because they have been dreaming of being turned into a vampire. Then she still has her sister and her dad back home to think about and still try to protect, even if she's not sure she'll ever make it back to them. I loved how each relationship was just so unique and Tana really had a different connection with each person. Even the people she meets inside of the Coldtown were fascinating and I loved the connections she made with them as well. 
 While the characters were great and felt very vivid, I just couldn't get into the plot as much as I had hoped. I liked the history of how the vampire sort of "outbreak" started and even how it had affected Tana and her family before the night of the "incident", but the plot as the story progresses just didn't reel me in. I was anxious to see what the Coldtown would be like, but it all felt very much like an amalgam of all of the vampire books I've read to date and for me, it just didn't feel like it was anything new. I actually listened to the acknowledgements once the audiobook was over and I almost feel bad for saying that because it sounded like Holly Black had always wanted to write a vampire novel and it was something that shaped her as a reader and a writer so I'm sure producing this book was an amazing life-long goal of hers. I guess for me personally, I'm finding my way out of the vampire trend and was hoping this book would say, "Don't worry about trends! If the book is good, it can still knock you off your feet regardless!" but unfortunately, I just didn't find it here. 
 THE COLDEST GIRL IN COLDTOWN was still a good read and I did enjoy it, but it didn't hold the "amazing" factor that I was hoping for. There was a bit of a lull in the middle for me after the fast and exciting beginning and the ending was good and action-packed, but still felt like the other vampire books I've read before. If that's what you're looking for, I definitely think you'll find it here, but if you're feeling tired of the vampire trend, you may notice that a lot as well.