The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa

The Immortal Rules

Blood of Eden #1

author : julie kagawa [also wrote the Iron Fey series]

pages : [hardcover] 485

memorable quote :
You don’t dwell on what you’ve lost, you just move on.

favorite characters : zeke & allie

summary :

“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 :

I fell in love with Julie Kagawa’s writing style and fantastic world building as soon as I first picked up The Iron King, the first book in the Iron Fey series. Ever since then I knew that I was hooked, although this is the first of her novels that I actually own. Until now I’ve either gotten them from the library or through NetGalley, but I finally decided I needed something from one of my all-time favorite authors in my collection. While I wasn’t entirely certain I would be as captivated with The Immortal Rules, the premise seemed awesome and I haven’t read a good vampire book in ages. I figured it was a solid guess thinking I’d like it . . . But I was wrong.

I love it.

From the beginning, Allie had me wanting to be her best friend. She’s a survivor through and through, making decisions that she never thought that’d she’d make until she’s faced with the actual decision, knowing that she wants to live on above all else. But unlike some of the other street kids, she isn’t cruel. She still has some sense of humanity inside of her, which comes out at first when she’s helping Stick, a kid who can’t seem to survive on his own. While he annoyed me to no end, I was proud of Allie for putting up with him.

I knew where the book would be headed toward during the first hundred pages or so. In a nearly five hundred page novel (I had no idea it was this long when I ordered it!) that still leaves a large chunk of space for anything to happen. I loved facing the unexpected, seeing the challenges as Allie faced them and not knowing who might be a friend or foe.

I also appreciated how inquisitive Allie is. I usually dislike it in a book when they’ll give you a hint of some secret and the character with all of the information will say that it’s unimportant at the moment. We’re able to see glimpses of the world as it once was, how it collapsed, and what it’s become now. We can see what has survived and what is slipping off into ruin. And we can see the new prejudices among people and creatures, the challenges the human race has to face, and overall we’re led to think about what it really means to be human. Because what if the bravest, kindest, or most selfless person isn’t a person at all?

Don’t be deterred by the fact that this is a vampire novel. It’s fantastic. It’s dystopian. It’s different and unique and amazing.

5/5 stars