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."


 Let me start this review off by saying yes, this is another vampire book.

But it's not just another vampire book.

It took me a while to decide to pick up this title after browsing the Nook book section on Barnes and Noble for at least an hour an a half. It's a tie between the name and the cover of the book that initially made me interested. So, I read some reviews on it just to see if it would be a good pick up. I can't remember a single positive review that I came across on this book. Well, there may have been a few, but there were more negative ones than positive. I was bummed, but allowed myself to pick it up and decide my feelings on it myself.

I made the best decision ever by picking up this book.

The story is about a 17 year old girl named Tana who wakes up in a bathtub after a Sundown party at a friend's house. Everyone around her is dead- killed by vampires. She stumbles around and eventually finds her ex-boyfriend, Aidan, tied up and infected, and a vampire chained up on the floor. She saves them both, and they make their way to the Coldtown- a quarantined section of the city where vampires and infected humans live separate from the rest of humanity. I won't give the rest away as I really believe you have to read it to experience it yourself.

Out of all of the characters in this book, I enjoyed Tana the most. Maybe it was because she was the main character, or maybe it was because she was someone that I aspire to be: brave, smart, and super sarcastic with a bit of spunky-ness in there. She got herself into some crazy situations throughout the story, but not because she was stupid. Every bad thing that she fell into was because she was trying to help someone else. Many reviews I read stated that they felt that Tana was stupid, and that they would rather read Twilight three times over before picking this book up again. I feel she was one of the bravest main characters I've read about in a long time. Not only did she survive against vampires, but she did it while keeping those she loved safe.

Tana may not be a super sparkly vampire with pretty powers, but she's certainly better than a whiny, obsessive, reckless Bella Sawn. At least everything she did, she did to keep others safe.

Now, I did see a small plot hole within the story but once it was closer to the end of the book, it became somewhat clearer as to how it was possible. Once you're in a Coldtown, you cannot be let back out. Ever. Especially if you're a vampire. There are markers, tokens granted by turning in vampires to the city, that will allow an uninfected human to get out, but that's it. When the book began, the party had been crashed by vampires. Who can't be let out of a Coldtown? Vampires. I figured they were just a couple of new rogue vampires that hadn't been brought to a Coldtown yet, no harm done. But when it was explained who they were, that's where I was lost. I suppose for some of the older vampires, they have ways of getting out of the city undetected, but it still kinda left a hole where the rule was stated and then just kinda broken. But it didn't bother me too much, as the story was amazing even with the minor hole.

I'm incredibly happy with this book and I'm very glad that I decided to forget about all of the negative reviews and just dive head first into it. From beginning to end, I was hooked, and I finished it in just a few hours total. It really is a refreshing take on the vampire story, one that doesn't glamorize them (well, maybe a little) or make them sparkly and let's face it, lame. Vampires are ruthless, brutal creatures that are all about blood and gore, and Holly Black brings that to this book right from the very start. Plus, two of the characters heavily reminded me of Louis and Lestat from Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles, so that was a huge plus for me!

If you're looking for a romantic tale of a whiny, obsessive human falling in love with a vampire who looks constipated and sparkles in the sunlight, you won't find that here. Instead, you'll find blood, gore, bravery, sarcasm, and heroism. Maybe a bit of romance, but it's something you'll probably find yourself shipping almost instantly, so it's good romance! I highly recommend picking up this book if you haven't read it already! I took a chance on it, and I will be re-reading it as soon as possible!