Carniepunk: The Cold Girl

By: Rachel Caine

Narrated by: Candace Thaxton

From the mesmerizing Carniepunk anthology, a vampire short story from New York Times bestselling author Rachel Caine—the author who brought you the immensely popular Morganville Vampires series.

When Kiley learns firsthand what evil lurks in the heart of her boyfriend, he’ll learn about the Cold Girl, and her penchant for retribution.

Loved it

Would have loved for this to be a longer story.
I was hooked at the beginning

great short story

I read this in the anthology. I liked it so much I purchased it. Amazing story!

Chilling

*spoilers*

TW: Sexual Assault, Murder, Death, Necrophilia acts, Child Abuse

The best way to describe this story is "chilling." Kylie goes from being a spineless wallflower (spoken from a Wallflower myself) to thirsting for revenge, and part of me kind of hoped she stayed with the circus, but in a way she recieved poetic justice. By living again, by Matt falling through and showing her that there are people who do care, that will cause a riot if she asks for help. A very traumatic cautionary grim tale.

Needed more shiver up my spine

The creepiness here was more for the boyfriend’s repugnant behavior rather than the chills and thrills of the horror plot. Kylie is also too much of a doormat for me, able to become a force to be reckoned with only by virtue of external forces. Even then, the impact was only mildly goosebump worthy.

⛔️ Themes of domestic violence and sexual abuse on top of the usual violence found in horror books.