Review : The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa

Summary (from Goodreads)

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.

Personal Thoughts

Like so many other readers, I fell in love with Julie Kagawa's Iron Fey series. When I first heard that she was releasing a new series based on vampires, I was so hyped to start reading it ! Then, I saw the cover and I knew that I would have to read it. I love how eerie and mysterious, it makes the book look. Fortunately for me, this wasn't one of those books that had a pretty cover, but crappy content.

Allison Sekemoto is an Unregistered living in the Fringe, which is the outer circle of a city where Vampires reside. Being an Unregistered means that Allison doesn't donate her blood to the vampires on a regular basis. Instead, she has to beg and scavenge for food. For personal reasons, Allie despises vampires. However, one night while scavenging for food, Allie is deeply wounded and is on the verge of dying when a vampire proposes to either let her die or turn her into a vampire. Desiring to continue living, she chooses the latter. From this point onwards, the book is basically about Allie learning to accept who she is and trying to survive.

Allie was a wonderful main character who was easy to like. Kagawa always manages to give rise to main characters who are emotionally and physically strong. Characters who refuse to bow down no matter what hurdle they face are a favorite of mine. Not only was she a brave character, but Allie was also smart and feisty. Before taking any decision, she thought about the consequences that her actions would have. Moreover, when she came across any kind of trouble, she never once crossed her arms and waited for someone to find a solution for her. No. She actually took care of her own problems in her own way. After turning, Allie went through a dilemma of a sort. She was confused and at times she felt regret for deciding to turn into a monster. Yet, she underwent a lot of growth in the book. Eventually, she learns to accept what and who she is. Allie refused to belittle herself because of what she had become. She didn't allow the prejudices surrounding the vampires rule her life. In fact, Allie stood out as an individual. She was also fiercely protective of the people she cared. Although she refused to admit it at first, it was very clear that she was the sort of person who easily formed bonds with people. I really admired her for risking her life to protect those she thought deserved to live even though people constantly stabbed her in the back.

The secondary characters in this book were excellent. All of them were very well developed. I don't think there was one character I disliked in this book. Even the villains were so fabulously written that you cannot help but love them as well.

However, my favorite secondary character in The Immortal Rules was, like many other readers, Kanin. He was the vampire master who turned Allie. He only appears in the book at the very beginning for a short period of time, but even then I truly liked him. He was mysterious, secretive and loyal and I was dying to learn more about his character. From the final chapters of the book, it's pretty clear that he will have a bigger role in the next book in this series and I'm really excited to see what Julie Kagawa has in store for his character.

Zeke, the love interest of the book, was also an interesting character. I think what really drew me to his character was his fierce loyalty towards the members of his group. I also loved the fact that he saw Allie for her personality and not for what she was. His sweetness, his faith, his generosity and his humbleness make you really fall in love with him. I, for one, was really glad that Zeke wasn't the typical bad boy who is so common in YA books these days. While guys with bad-boy attitudes can be attractive, I do think that nice, down to earth guys can manage to be that attractive as well.

The Immortal Rules was very light in the romance department. The relationship between Allie and Zeke developed at a very slow pace. As a reader, I got to see why the two started to like each other. The whole process was really cute and heart-melting. In my opinion, Zeke and Allie made a great couple. They weren't overly sappy, constantly professing their love to each other and definitely not co-dependent. No. They shared a perfect healthy relationship that you cannot help, but find cute. Overall, the romance doesn't drown the whole plot line, but it is present throughout the book.

My favorite aspect of The Immortal Rules were the vampires. They were so freaking good. The vampires were hungry, disgusting and gruesome creatures, especially the rabids. I loved how the author actually managed to keep them as a constant presence throughout the 400+ pages of the book. While the whole ideas of vampires may be overused, Julie Kagawa was successful in making them original in her own way.

The entire concept of The Immortal Rules was original. I loved the plot. It was suspenseful and action-packed. The book kept me on my toes the entire time and I couldn't wait to find out more because of it's fast-pace. Julie Kagawa's writing was, simply put, excellent. Her world-building was simply remarkable. I've read some dystopian novels where the author doesn't really explain the whole world that the story is set in. Julie Kagawa did a great job at showing and describing this truly gruesome, yet exciting world that she has created. She is a genius at executing action, death and disturbing scenes.

In addition, her writing style was so addictive that all I wanted to do was continue reading. I was pretty upset when the book ended, but it left me satisfied. Seriously, Julie Kagawa is a fabulous author whose writing style keep me glued to her books.

Truly, this book does live up to all it's hype. With it's well-developed characters, excellent world building, cute streak of romance and breakneck pace that will take your breath away, The Immortal Rules was a phenomenal and gripping start to a series that will undoubtedly blow your mind away.
 

Rating

 
Cover : 4/5
Plot : 5/5
Characters : 5/5
Writing : 5/5

Big Thanks To Harlequin Teen for providing me with an ARC of this book.