Reviews with content warning for Death - Нежный холод

I normally love Tamaki's work, but this one was just a miss for me. Maybe because I'm used to her stories being in graphic novel format, which means that there's more room for show and less for tell. I think that Tamaki struggled to figure out how to show things without pictures, and used Todd's ghost as an alternative. Todd's portions seemed to only exist to tell us what was happening with characters other than Georgia. We didn't really learn anything about him and I think that impacted the story - I knew nothing about him and just found I didn't care about him.

Anyway, I was disappointed to see that Tamaki's style just didn't translate well to this kind of format, but I still hope to read more from her in the future.

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february_friday's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I have loved Mariko Tamaki's graphic novels for a very long time. So since I heard she has also written a couple of novels, I have been really excited to try them out. This one is a dual POV novel about the murder of a teenage boy. One of the narrators is the ghost of the boy, and the other is Georgia, a girl who has nothing to do with the murder but ends up getting involved in her own investigation.
This book was more of an exploration of the experience of being a queer teenager, which in parts got a bit triggering for how accurate it was. Tamaki's characters always feel extremely real, almost like I was watching security camera footage I wasn't supposed to see. It also has a bit of a plot, making the story's pain bearable. On that same note, this was a great murder mystery! Even though that wasn't the main goal of the author, I found myself as surprised as the main character when she found out what actually happened.
I must admit that the book may not be for everyone, but if you are the type of reader who enjoys character studies that also discuss relevant topics, I think you will love this one.

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libscote's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Told in alternating view between Georgia, an outcast queer teen, and Todd, the dead teen in question, this story outlines the murder of a boy and the steps that led to that conclusion. It didn't go the way I thought, which was a fun change. It is a book with another dead LGBTQ+ individual, but the author acknowledges why they did it in an author note at the end which I found helpful.

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therewillbenewsuns's review against another edition

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sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

A quick and "enjoyable" read. It's about a murder and I appreciated how there was not too much running around when it came to solving the whodunnit. I read a lot of murder mysteries, and this was the first one that felt the most realistic when it came to its conclusion. It's fiction-- of course it doesn't need to be realistic, but I felt satisfied at the end because the narrative wasn't so drawn out only to be wrapped up last minute. Tamaki has been behind some of my favorite YA books, especially Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me, but this was the first time that I felt like I was not reading from the perspective of a contemporary teenager; instead, the dialogue felt like it was from an early-2000s teen film: a bit outdated and predictable. I could have done with more character development, especially for the relationship between Georgia and Carrie, as well as

Todd and Mark

as the former's memory starts to return to him.

I did feel taken aback by Carrie and Georgia having sex. It felt like a wild jump from sharing gum to having sex to Carrie confessing her role in Todd's death. I do understand it as a last grasp at intimacy/connection with Georgia before Carrie forever changes the course of their relationship, but there was not enough intimacy/connection established before this happened to justify it. I also did feel that Mark's involvement was very predictable, although predictable doesn't mean bad. I did not predict Shirley's involvement at all or the extent of Carrie's involvement, and I did feel like there were really interesting levels of nuance re: bystander effect.

Would I recommend this book?As a quick-read for mystery-enjoyers? Sure. Not before recommending any of Tamaki's graphic novel work though.

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asparagusisreading's review against another edition

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dark mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Thank you to Netgalley, the author, and the Fiercereads team for this e-arc to read and review.

Cold by Mariko Tamaki is a young adult mystery following the perspectives of Todd Mayer, the ghost of a teen that was recently found dead, and Georgia, another teen that has decided to start her own investigation and find out what happened to Todd. Along the way, there are more connections between Georgia and Todd than she realized. That premise is intriguing and was what really drew me into the story however, the execution of it did not keep me interested. For starters, I did not understand what Georgia’s motivations were to investigate. She really had no connections to Todd (that we knew of.) Then when the investigation started, she really wasn’t investigating. She was living her life like normal, picking up on some suspicious behaviors, and the mystery was told to you. The last 20% went really quickly where all of the remaining information was thrown at the reader, again told not solved. It felt like more of the investigation was done on Todd’s end who really wasn’t looking, it was like he just happened to overhear conversations and remember the last few days before his death. I don’t think the shorter length of this book worked in its favor. If there were another 50-100 pages, it would have helped the pacing of the story and allowed for more character development.

The title of this book is Cold. I think this word, this title, works really well for the book for multiple reasons. For starters, the book takes place in the winter the main character that is found dead is cold. As you know, dead bodies are cold to the touch as cold as ice. if I remember correctly, he froze to death or parts of him was frozen after his death. Some chapters are told in his perspective, and they do feel a bit cold as you would assume and feel reading from a ghost perspective. The story itself feels a bit cold, in terms of feeling detached and disconnected from the characters while reading. Even though I wanted Georgia to continue the investigation and find out the truth, I wasn’t necessarily rooting for her or holding my breath in fear, suspense, or concern for what could happen next. Despite the story and murder investigation being centered around Todd, I felt like I didn’t learn many details about him. It was like watching a documentary about his murder where I may feel sympathy, anger, etc about the case but no real connection to him. There could have been some commentary on how this boy died and no one is effected or seems to care, how cold and cruel people were to him before and after his passing but that didn’t really happen.

There was a sex scene between two characters that lost me. Not only did it feel out of the blue but it felt wrong. Both characters and been drinking, one talked about how drunk she is, one cried, and neither really seemed happy to have been intimate.

Some of this I noticed has been mentioned in other reviews and I feel conflicted about it. This could have been intentional writing on the author’s part and if so, it was good I would give it a higher rating. But if it wasn’t, instead being a book where it fell flat for me and I lost interest since I like more of character/emotional driven story, then I’d rate this lower. Overall, Cold had an intriguing premise but I felt it was lacking in some aspects, 3 stars.

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