The Immortal Rules, by Julie Kagawa

- Blood of Eden #1
Release date: April 24th 2012
Published by: Harlequin Teen
Genre: Young Adult
Rating: 5/5 stars
Source: Netgalley
Find it on: Goodreads, Amazon



ARC provided by Harlequin Teen and Netgalley, for review purposes. 







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.

My thoughts:

Dystopia + vampires. Two genres that aren't usually mixed, but the market is full of them already. I've read tons of vampires, and dystopian novels this year. I was surprised to see Julie Kagawa, one of my favorite authors, writing about something so... common. I should've known that she'd amaze me, yet again. Having read, and loved, the Iron Fey series, I was positive, or at least hoping, that Julie would write a good book. Still, I was hesitant. 

Julie Kagawa introduces us to a world in which the humans are blood bags at worst, food at best. Vampires have dominated everything, and with them, the rabids came along - people that got sick with a special virus and turned into starving monsters that would basically do everything to get their claws on a human. The world-building, just like I thought it would be, was solid, and gave us a realistic view of what a dystopian society overthrown by vampires would look like. Fantasy aside, I could imagine myself walking those streets, always running and hiding. It's no secret the world-building is my favorite aspect of a dystopian book, so I was pleasantly surprised. 

A tough story like this requires a tough heroine as well, and that's where Allie fits. Just like Meghan Chase, she's strong, brave, and yet very human and sentimental, even after she was turned. I loved her, to be honest. Her point of view was objective, but when facing an obstacle, or even in the middle of a dialogue, there were moments of emotion that made me feel sorry for Allie. I cheered, laughed, and cried right along with her. A remarkable character, indeed. 

Allison, though, is not the only good character in The Immortal Rules. Zeke, the love interest, is yet another dose of balance between duty and emotions. The romance isn't introduced right in the beginning of the book, which lets us get a feeling of who Allison is. Only then, we meet Zeke, who, to be sincere, added a wonderful element to the plot. A good romance was what the story needed to explore the characters' personality even further. Allison and Zeke were two sides of a coin, different, but unable to stay apart. They just fit together, and not in a senseless way. Julie knows how to build a love story. I loved it. 

The Immortal Rules, however, gave me a sense of reality that I've never experienced before. The characters' emotions, the dialogues, even the fight scenes, were so wonderfully written I felt like I was there, inside the pages. Maybe that's Julie's writing, or the world itself, that was so well built, but I couldn't shake the feeling that I was reading something that had actually happened. Everything was so real. 

All that said, it's impossible for me not to give The Immortal Rules five stars. Julie Kagawa, yet again, made me love her book. I'm deeply in love with the characters, the dystopian world, the romance, and the ending. Yes, the ending left me open-mouthed, and now I'm eagerly anticipating the sequel, but what can I say? I loved The Immortal Rules.