Monday, April 30, 2012

The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa

The Immortal Rules
Julie Kagawa
485 pages (hardcover)
Harlequin Teen
Source - Publicist/Netgalley
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.
In a world where vampires rule, Allison Sekemoto tries scrape by without drawing any attention to herself. So, when she's faced with an unthinkable choice, she chooses to become a vampire. Suddenly, Allison finds herself trying to learn the rules of immortality while attempting to keep what little humanity she has left. Her stubborn yet dedicated and caring personality becomes more endearing with each page, and Allison eventually becomes a vampire heroine readers will root for.

The Immortal Rules is what a vampire novel should be - exciting, dangerous, and yet surprisingly relatable. Allison's actions in her human life proved she was brave, but Allison's actions in her vampire life brought out more facets to her personality. The more Allison struggled with her emotions and her Hunger for human blood, the more intriguing the story and her character became. Kagawa paints a bleak picture for the world Allison lives in and for the vampires who inhabit this society, and yet Allison's character makes readers question a human's negative view of vampires. Entertaining, frightening, thoughtful, and even amusing,  The Immortal Rules  is a definite hit.

Highlights: Kagawa's view on vampires and rabids was interesting, as was the history this vampire-ruled world. Everything in this novel was fully realized, from world building to character development. The dilemma between good and evil was fascinating. The surprises and twists kept this book exciting and difficult to set aside. Plus, Allison's katana sword was very, very cool.

Lowlights: While the beginning had some exciting moments, it did not grab me the way the latter half of the novel did. It was a struggle to get past those beginning 100 or so pages.

Rating: 


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13 comments:

  1. Great review, Lea! I haven't read anything by Julie, yet and have been wondering if I should start with this. If I do, I'll be sure to press on through the first 100 pages, even if they're a little slow!

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  2. This does sound like a very different take on vampire fiction. I read a book last year about vampire hunters but it disappointed me with all its angst-filled romance thrown in. The Immortal Rules sounds like a much better book. It doesn't sound like there is a love triangle which would put it a notch above the Iron Fey series too. Thanks for your review!

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  3. Glad you overall liked it Lea :) !! I can't wait for my copy to arrive in my mailvox and read about Julie's new take on vampires :)

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  4. eeep glad you enjoyed this book, I agree that the last half of this book was the most gripping part. FOr me it was a killer. Great review girl <3

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  5. the first 'book' of the four is definitely the least exciting. glad you liked it!

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  6. With this, Julie mananged to go into such a different direction that what she wrote before, yet it's still awesome! She's truly a genius and I love her writing and her complext characters! Glad you liked and got past the first pages!

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  7. Fantastic review Lea, I loved this one too! I agree completely with what you said about Allison, it was definitely interesting to learn about her as she learned about her new vampire self. Can't wait for the next book!

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  8. I've read the first two or three chapters of this one, but I've fallen a bit behind on my blog reading, what with the end-of-the-semester crunch and all. Still, I can't wait to get some free time to finish this one!

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  9. The last 3/4ths of the book definitely made up for the first 1/4th. Still, I was intrigued about the creepy world they lived in, so I didn't lose interest in the beginning.

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  10. I can't wait to read this myself. I just read another vampire book with a human who's pretending to be a vampire so this is kind of the opposite.

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  11. I just ordered this today from amazon (anyone from the UK, this book is just over £3.50 at the minute - bargain)and so I am looking forward to reading it after seeing all positive reviews for it.I wasn't overly keen on the Iron King series but thats because I'm not big on that genre, it was still nicely written,this is right up my street though, I've been wanting a new vampire book for a while.

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  12. I think pulling off a vampire novel today is quite difficult. At this point, we've probably all read our fair share of vamp stories, but I was excited to see Julie Kagawa tackle the genre nonetheless. I haven't read The Immortal Rules yet, but I know I will. Fantastic review!

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  13. I wasn't expecting to like this one as much as I did, but I completely agree about this one being a vampire novel that works. Despite the slow beginning, the rest of the novel was pretty interesting and exciting. I think Alison and her katana sword would look great in a movie action scene and on a movie poster!

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