The Coldest Girl In Coldtown
By: Holly Black
Published: September 3, 2013
Source: Library
*I won't judge you guys if you want to skip this paragraph since its pretty long, I tend to go on and on about something I really like x.x But I applaud those who read this cause it'll be worthwhile I hope! 8D*
This book.. is really really something I've never seen before. It wowed me! I didn't really expect to see it but I saw Lady and the Tiger mentioned in this book a couple of times, like in the beginning and finally the end of the book. Wow, I may be wrong but I feel like maybe the book was based on the short story The Lady and the Tiger. This short story was one that I actually read and wrote a report about for English class my freshmen year and may I say *if the author really got the inspiration from the short story* that she has done an amazing job incorporating this story into the book. In the short story, there is a king and his beautiful daughter, the king ruled over the land and would punish people who he deemed where doing bad things. When he caught the people who were doing wrong, he would always bring them to the arena to be judged. When they are at the arena, they are presented with two choices, pick the door on the right or the door on the left. Simple right? No. The hard thing about this is that you wouldn't know which door held what, one of the doors would hold a tiger who would eat you alive in the arena and the other door held the most eligible and most beautiful girl in the land and you would get to marry her. This was a heinous judgement but the citizens wouldn't care since it was a source of entertainment to them. Now here comes the part where it involves the "Lady", don't forget the king had a daughter, and what father isn't protective of their daughters? Well the thing is, his daughter went and got herself a boyfriend who she was really in love with right under his nose and when he found out he was furious. He immediately separated his daughter from the man she so very much in love with and brought him to the arena to be judged. The princess who desperately wanted to get her lover out, resorted to do the thing her father, the king, would never think. She betrayed him and went to find out which door held what. So when the day of the judgement came, she told her lover which door held what and he trusted what she had said and chose a door. Hm.. somethings missing! I forgot to mention she has motive to lead the man she loves to his death! Why you may ask? Well its because as I said earlier if you pick the door that doesn't have a tiger behind it, you get to marry the most beautiful girl in the land and you guys guessed right! The princess hated that girl with a passion, she'd seen the way the girl looked at her man and she didn't like it. So yes in the end of the short story it doesn't tell you what happens after the boy picks a door because they want to leave it up to people's imagination. For me I personally think she lead her lover to his death because she couldn't bear the thought of her lover loving anybody else other then her. Psychotic? No, not really, nobody would want their lover to marry somebody else so why wouldn't you chose the option? But then again maybe it is, since she is basically saying "IF I CAN'T HAVE HIM, NOBODY CAN!! MWAH HAHAH".
Whew I felt like I was writing my English report all over again, which by the way I aced. xD Though I feel like this would've been maybe a tad better. Well anyways I really liked this book! It was amazing and I loved her character development. Tana was faced with two choices, leave the possible vampires who could totally suck her dry, or risk it all to save them. She chose the latter and it changed her life, LITERALLY. The moment she did that, she in a way chose the door to the Tiger or I guess the Vampire. I guess the two doors in this story would be Human, or Vampire. Tana's development in this story was seriously amazing, she had seen so many things but toughed it through and never changed. She never wanted to be a vampire but maybe in a way she did and her fate was sealed the moment it collided with Gavriel's. I mean you gotta love him, mysterious? Check. Total hunk? Check. Sane? A bit questionable but Check! Sarcastic? Check! He's got everything I love. ♥♥ One thing, I kinda wanted more in this story was more of Gavriel's background. It was really interesting learning about him, especially about his old life with Lucien. I really would've loved to see a chapter in his narrative. So yeah I kinda wanted to see more of his past, if Holly did like a side story with Gavriel as the main character and it's in his p.o.v and about his past that would be awesome! But alas I don't think that will happen.
So until then, Cindy x)
