The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa Publisher: Harlequin Teen (April 24th, 2012) Reading Level: Young Adult Hardback: 485 pages
Source: ARC from Publisher Series: Blood of Eden #1
Rating: 4 of 5 stars In a future world, Vampires reign. Humans are blood cattle. And one girl will search for the key to save humanity.
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.
Review:
The Immortal Rules is such a complex story — the characters, the world-building, the plot — all so intricate and well designed. Oddly enough, it had been a while since I had read a vampire book. Yes, shocking! I was ready to jump back into one, especially one set in a dystopian world.First, the vampires in this story are not the kind we see nowadays. They are vicious, heartless, and cruel (most of them). There is nothing swoon-worthy going on here. People avoid the vampires at all costs. The first thing that grabbed my attention with this book was the world-building. This was my first experience with a novel by Julie Kagawa and wow, she has mastered this setting. I could picture this dark, deadly place, where vampires and rabids lurk in the dark and the people on the fringe just hope to scavenge some food each day. The kids grow up without parents and a person would rip your head off for a piece of bread. Yes, it's gruesome and real. Julie Kagawa did not shy away from exposing the real death in this story.
Allison is an Unregistered, which means she doesn't exist. Like many others, she has not been tagged by the vampires and doesn't have to give her blood to them. The downside is that she doesn't get their food or help either. But Allison is willing to risk this. Along with a few of her crew, she is forced to live off of very little and fight for survival. Then one adventure puts her on a completely new path.
Once Allison changes she learns way more about the vampire society than she would have thought possible. At the same time, she learned how strong and powerful she is. I truly admired Allison's courage and independence. It took an enormous amount of strength to get through what she had experienced and she never gave up.
She meets quite a few people on her journey and some prove to be challenging for her. One that she can't seem to keep her mind off of is Zeke. Zeke is kind, considerate, and loyal. He seemed to see a part of Allison that she didn't even know existed.
The plot of this book is full of twists and turns. There is a lot of intense action, heart-breaking moments, and blood-- lots of blood! My only complaint is that this book is long, super super long. Due to this, some parts were a little slow to me. Somewhere around the middle I lost focus and had to put it down for a while.
Julie Kagawa has created a fascinating story where vampires are not the good guys, and the humans are the cattle waiting for their slaughter. In this dystopian world, a young girl may have to fight everything she is in order to keep her humanity and compassion for others. The battles are deadly, and the heroine never back down. Julie Kagawa now has a new fan.
Recommended: People looking for an old-fashioned vampire tale with a brand new dystopian spin. Complex and full of action, with a plot that will keep readers intrigued.
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