Book Review: The Immortal Rules - Julie Kagawa

Title: The Immortal Rules (Blood of Eden #1)

Author: Julie Kagawa

Release Date: April 24th 2012

Publisher: Harlequin Teen

Source: NetGalley

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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.

As I've mentioned in this review, I didn't enjoy the prequel novella to this book, but thank heavens The Immortal Rules, although not as good as I'd hoped it would be, was still better.

The Immortal Rules was divided into four parts. The first dragged on with some clutter which I found hard to get past—like, I get it, Allie has a hard life, let's get a move on. Thankfully, the reprieve came in the second part, when Allie Turned. This triggered more action and suspense, and honestly, I had no idea where the story would go after this part, which was very good because I love unpredictability in my fiction.

Sadly, as all reprieves do, the thrill was cut short with the third part when Allie hid her true self to join a band of humans who were looking for Eden, a place said to be free from vampires. The plot went on aimlessly, lengthening the book unnecessarily (almost 500 pages). But as part four kicked in, the story picked up again, although I still had a hard time finishing it.

But what the pace lacked was made up for by the world-building. It was thorough but just enough to never feel like an info dump, and Julie Kagawa created a future Earth so violent and deadly that it could drive everyone, both vampire and human, to become the worst version of themselves. Add to that the vampire-zombies called "rabids", and this is certainly a world I would never want to be transported into.

Aside from that, I also loved Allie. She was fierce and determined, even before she became a vampire. When she Turned, she was on a constant struggle to keep the monster in her under control, and, save for a few slips, she succeeded. She chose to keep every little bit of humanity she had left, and I really admired her for that. She was also realistic and practical, never making me facepalm.

An inevitable romance was sprinkled in the last quarter or so of the book, but it was developed really well so I have no qualms about that. The last 20% of this book saved it for me, and I'm satisfied with how it ended. And even though I wasn't awed, I'm still looking forward to reading the sequel next week.

MY FAVORITE PART was the ending.

RATING:

(cover and blurb from Goodreads.com)