Review Arc: The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa

Title: The Immortal Rules (Blood of Eden #1)
Author: Julie Kagawa
Expected Publication:  April 24th 2012 by Harlequin Teen
Arc taken from 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.


My Thoughts:

“Hunger flickered, always there, but I pushed it down. I was a vampire. Nothing would change that. But I didn't have to be a monster.”


Before I start with my review, I just want to say that it’s been so long since I’ve read a novel because of my schedule. I would usually slip a short story here and there but the time to actually stop and pick all the novels I’ve been buying every now and then eludes me. That’s why when I suddenly had the time to actually read one novel, UnseelieNerd, gave me this. I was not expecting much because to tell you the truth I haven’t heard Julie Kagawa’s name before. I chance upon the Iron Fey series before but haven’t really saw the author’s name nor have the time and money to buy it. To add to it, I can really read almost anything once it piques my interest.

And now to start my review…

When I first read the summary of the novel, I can’t help but think, ‘Oh, it’s another vampire novel.’ As fellow readers, I know you’ve notice the boom in the vampire story genre after all that Twilight craze. You would find at least one book in your local bookstore that has a vampire slash werewolf themed novel sitting in the bestseller table. That’s the reason why I thought that people would exhaust every vampire story they could think of. But Julie Kagawa proved me wrong in so many levels.

You see I’m the type of reader who would not stop reading once the story hooked me in and that results to me staring in my Kindle or book the whole day like a bum and only stopping to eat. That’s one of the reasons why it’s been so long since I last read a book because I don’t want to start something then suddenly stop. I just feel like my link to the story would suddenly break.

And The Immortal Rules did just that. I finished this book in one sitting, a whole day immerse in the world of Allison Sekemoto, the books’ heroine.

Allie is now one of my most favorite heroines of all time. She’s not your typical helpless girl. She’s stubborn, loyal to the point that she can even sacrifice everything for the sake of her pride and honor. Although at times, I want to shake her back to her senses because of these characteristics. But it still made me happy because that’s what makes her a great heroine in my opinion, it’s because I don’t want a character all strong and indestructible to the point that she’s ‘perfect’ or what we all know as a "Mary Sue" Character. Even though she became a vampire, the predator, the top of the food chain, she still has her flaws that many can see as the story progresses. She has her lapse of stupid decisions that made her still human in spite of what happened to her.
And to tell you all the truth, I absolutely adore every character the author threw in the story no matter how small their involvement is. You can still find distinct features that makes you remember all of them.

Now, looking on the romance side of the story. I’m actually a sucker for a good romance novel and this just quenched my thirst. Ezekiel Crosse or otherwise known as Zeke is the yang of Allie’s yin. He’s like the boy next-door type of guy, if he’s not in the world where creatures hunt you for food.  I like the way he and Allie met with no hint of attraction at all. It’s not love at first sight but rather a love built with time. Zeke for me is the right guy fit for Allie. He is a guy full of promises for something better in the forsaken world that surrounds them. The only major hurdle in their love story is that Allie is now a vampire, a being that Zeke was taught to hate the most. How they surpass that and how they would continue what they started? Well, I’ll leave it to you guys to actually read the book and wait for the next one with me (as patiently as we can get).

Lastly, one character I really really love is the vampire that turned Allie. Kanin is the one that gave Allie the choice to die or become a vampire. He’s also the one who taught Allie anything she needs to know to become a vampire. He may stand as an aloof and someone who doesn’t care but beneath all that you’ll see that he’s one of the remaining vampires who are good. He’s like the anti-thesis of everything that he is teaching Allie. There are times when you feel like he also abandoned his humanity like he told Allie numerous of times but his subtle advice makes you think otherwise. Although, he did create some decision that resulted to the current problem in the book (I would let you read it to know what he did) but I think he did what he deem was right at that time. I’m not sure what will happen to him in the next book or if I would change my opinion regarding him but I really like his character so far.

Now the only problem, I have for this book is the lack of Kagawa’s description to her characters. I sometimes had a hard time picturing Allie or Zeke. I know Allie’s Asian, about 5ft tall and has a long black hair but the trailer of the book doesn’t fit my idea of her. I actually thought she would look a bit Japanese or maybe I was wrong. A little bit more description would help a bit to draw a clear picture of the characters but nevertheless maybe she did that to have the reader create their own version of the character’s face to fit what they deemed their imagination would create.

Overall, I adore this story very much. And I’m actually aching to have the next book as soon as possible. I’ve actually only read a few novels with a dystopian genre and this did not fail to leave me in awe. I can’t wait to read more and I’m off to read Kagawa's other works like ‘The Iron Fey’ series.

I give these book 4.5 whales.