Title: The Immortal Rules (Blood of Eden #1)
Author: Julie Kagawa
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Publication Date: April 24, 2012
Genre: Vampires // Dystopian // Young Adult // Romance
Format: eBook
Source: Purchased (Amazon)
To survive in a ruined world, she must embrace the darkness
Allison Sekemoto survives in the Fringe, the outermost circle of a walled-in 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 dies and becomes one of the monsters.
Forced to flee her city, Allie must pass for human as she joins a ragged group of pilgrims seeking a legend—a place that might have a cure for the disease that killed off most of civilization and created the rabids, the bloodthirsty creatures who threaten human and vampire alike. And soon Allie will have to decide what and who is worth dying for
again.
Enter Julie Kagawa's dark and twisted world as an unforgettable journey begins (goodreads).
Dark and gritty, Julie Kagawa takes an old vampire trope and makes it her own.
Plot: The Immortal Rules opens with Allison watching the hanging of two teens who were caught stealing food. Yeah, that's how it starts so you know what kind of ride you're in for. Allison leads a pitiful life, she is lives off of the bugs and rats that she can find and must evade being grabbed by a vampire, or worse, a Rabid. When Allie must decide between a Life and Undeath, Allison takes her chances and becomes the monster that she curses. I liked how The Immortal Rules opened, Julie Kagawa teased us with information about how this world came to be and I felt really connected to this dystopian world. It was when Part II rolled around that I started to feel disconnected. A lot happens, and then again, and I felt stretched thin with the different directions that The Immortal Rules started to go.
Characters: Allison has a chip on her shoulders for a very good reason. She's an orphan and already responsible for taking care of herself and those in her group. When that comes to pass, she has to adjust to a complete new "lifestyle" and learn how to balance her new predatory instincts with Human Allison, and it is clearly a struggle. I'm not 100% of how I feel about Allison's love interest, Zeke. The Immortal Rules is by no means a case of instalove, they're relationship builds quite naturally and is not the focus of The Immortal Rules. I don't know if I like the idea of Zeke and Allison being together.
World Building: The City was so vividly explained that I could easily imagine it, I only wish that Kagawa had fleshed out the vampire capital. For a vampire book, this one was missing a lot of vampires, but I assume that this will all be covered in the following installments.
Short N Sweet: The Immortal Rules was not quite what I was expected, but I loved Julie's Kagawa vampire lore along with the pitiful city and its inhabitants.
Labels: 3.5 stars, blood of eden, book review, harlequin teen, Julie Kagawa, review, the immortal rules
