Mini Reviews: When the World Was Flat & The Coldest Girl in Coldtown

Author: Ingrid Jonach
Released: September 3rd 2013
Publisher: Strange Chemistry
Hardcover, 272 pages
Buy: The Book Depository

Looking back, I wonder if I had an inkling that my life was about to go from ordinary to extraordinary.

When sixteen-year-old Lillie Hart meets the gorgeous and mysterious Tom Windsor-Smith for the first time, it’s like fireworks — for her, anyway. Tom looks as if he would be more interested in watching paint dry; as if he is bored by her and by her small Nebraskan town in general.

But as Lillie begins to break down the walls of his seemingly impenetrable exterior, she starts to suspect that he holds the answers to her reoccurring nightmares and to the impossible memories which keep bubbling to the surface of her mind — memories of the two of them, together and in love.

When she at last learns the truth about their connection, Lillie discovers that Tom has been hiding an earth-shattering secret; a secret that is bigger — and much more terrifying and beautiful — than the both of them. She also discovers that once you finally understand that the world is round, there is no way to make it flat again.

An epic and deeply original sci-fi romance, taking inspiration from Albert Einstein’s theories and the world-bending wonder of true love itself.

There are very few people who can tell me to go read a book without offering any further details and expect to be obeyed, and Ann Aguirre is definitely one of them. So when she told me to read this book because it made her feel all the feels, I didn’t hesitate for a split second – I ordered the hardcover that very same day. I knew in my heart she would never steer me wrong.

When the World Was Flat is one of those books that sneak up on you while you’re busy looking the other way. It starts with a series of tropes, a small town setting and a girl that doesn’t quite fit in. But let me tell you this: never has the new-boy-in-school trope been used better than in this book. I wish I could spend a day in Ingrid Jonach’s head, it must be a real wonderland in there.*

If I tell you that Ingrid Jonach is Australian, will that make things clearer for you? Yes, I bet it will, this is pure Aussie magic at work. Going into the details would ruin the experience, it’s best to read this without any prior knowledge about it, but suffice it to say that I fell in love with the details and unexpected developments in this book.

The science part of this story is flimsy, stretched far too thin, but I don’t think Ingrid Jonach had been trying to write a science fiction novel. It is a romance, and if you read it as such, you won’t be bothered by much of anything, especially not the theory of relativity.

I trusted a dear friend and ended up a richer person for it. You can now choose to trust me and do yourself the same favor. When the World Was Flat (and we were in love) is a book with a soul. You may end up not liking that soul, but at least you’ll know it has one. And if you decide to pick it up, please let me know whether it made you cry.

*And I will, in fact, be spending a day in her head, we all will. She’ll be at The Nocturnal Library with a guest post for Something Wicked Returns very soon.

Author: Holly Black
Released: September 3rd 2013
Publisher: Little, Brown BfYR
Hardcover, 432 pages
Source: Publisher for review
Buy: The Book Depository

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.

I’m afraid my good fortune didn’t continue with Holly Black. Everything When the World Was Flat was –different, memorable and heart-wrenching – The Coldest Girl in Coldtown completely failed to be. After the huge success of The Curse Workers, I expected something spectacular from Black, or at the very least something memorable. Instead, The Coldest Girl in Coldtown is a book that tries far too hard – to be original, creepy and captivating – and simply doesn’t succeed.

The same applies to Black’s heroine Tana. This is a girl who wants to be a rebel at all costs, but only succeeds in being bland and uninteresting. I got the distinct impression that Black tried too hard to make her seem different and cool and instead ended up with an undefined, flat and slightly irritating character. Unfortunately, the same stands true of all the other characters – from the mysterious vampire boy Gabriel to Tana’s freshly bitten ex-boyfriend Aidan.

Although I would very much like to tell you differently, The Coldest Girl in Coldtown is not a book I can in good conscience recommend. I found it dull and incredibly hard to get through, and while I can’t say that there weren’t some very good moments (the opening chapter being one of them), there certainly weren’t enough of them to make this book worth your time and money.

A copy of this book was kindly provided by the publisher for review purposes. No considerations, monetary or otherwise, have influenced the opinions expressed in this review.