The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa

Title: The Immortal Rules
Author: Julie Kagawa
Series: Blood of Eden, #1
Genres: Dystopian, Urban Fantasy, Young Adult
Publisher: Harlequin Teen (Imprint of Harlequin)
Date Published: April 24th, 2012
Edition: Paperback
Source: ARC (Provided by Publisher)
Rating:

Allison Sekemoto survives in the Fringe, the outermost circle of a vampire city. By day, she and her crew scavenge for food. By night, any one of them could be eaten.

Some days, all that drives Allie is her hatred of them. The vampires who keep humans as blood cattle. Until the night Allie herself is attacked—and given the ultimate choice. Die or become one of the monsters.

Faced with her own mortality, Allie becomes what she despises most. To survive, she must learn the rules of being immortal, including the most important: go long enough without human blood, and you will go mad.

Then Allie is forced to flee into the unknown, outside her city walls. There she joins a ragged band of humans who are seeking a legend—a possible cure to the disease that killed off most of humankind and created the rabids, the mindless creatures who threaten humans and vampires alike.

But it isn’t easy to pass for human. Especially not around Zeke, who might see past the monster inside her. And Allie soon must decide what—and who—is worth dying for.

My Review:

The much-anticipated new series from Julie Kagawa is a must read for vampire and dystopian fans alike. It stands apart from her Iron Fey series and proves that Kagawa can write wonderfully about anything she sets her mind to.

The Immortal Rules is a mixture of vampire urban fantasy set in a dystopian, semi-post-apocalyptic, world where vampires rule and humans are constantly hunted not only by their rulers, but also by rabids, which are essentially vampire-zombie creatures. The world itself is increbile and in a market where we get dystopian after dystopian that all start to sound much-alike, this book definitely stands out from the crowd because of the added paranormal elements.

Our main character, Allie, is a huntress at heart. She’s strong and brave and a survivor to the core. But what makes me like her even more is that despite these characteristics that can sometimes make a heroine feel cold and callous, she genuinely cares about people and fights hard for those she loves. Which makes things interesting of course when she secretly wants to take a bite out of them too.

As for the story itself. There’s a sweet love story, and not so much of a triangle in sight yet (although I’m sure there will be). The story shifts throughout the book, separated by parts, to different phases in Allie’s life and transition into being a vampire. What I like is that the transitions are smooth and yet each section of the book is also very different and contain unique settings and feelings that go along with them. I really loved this actually because it really makes the book and Allie herself feel more dynamic and layered.

Overall, a great book for vampire fans. I enjoyed it thoroughly and I look forward to the next book. I’m really excited about the story setup for the sequel because it brings back a character that I’m intrigued by but also didn’t play a huge role in the second half of the book.

Psst…Come back tomorrow for a chance to win my ARC copy of The Immortal Rules!