The Immortal Rules(Blood of Eden)Publisher: Harlequin Teen, 2012Genre: YA Post Apocalyptic
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.
Allie Sekemoto is an Unregistered, a human that doesn’t have to participate in the monthly blood donations made to the vampire king and his subject vampires who rule the city. Allie hates the vampires, and living outside the city walls would definitely be better, except that out there live the rabids—animal and human abominations result of the plague that come out after dark. After a rabid attack that leaves her on the brink of death, Allie gets offered a choice: to die or to become a vampire. Choosing life, Allie sets out to train and learn about the vampire world with the help of her creator, a vampire named Kanin. But her master has a dark secret, one that has kept him on the run from the vampire community for a long time. Allie soon finds herself on the run too, and is forced to travel outside the city walls, only this time she’s a predator too. Outside unknown terrors roam the land, a band of humans searches for the city of Eden, and a boy with blue-eyes and an easy smile maskes Allie believe that the monster inside of her can be tamed.
Julie Kagawa has won me all over again! In these times where vampires have turned sparkly and romantic, Kagawa goes old school bringing us a dark and gritty post apocalyptic world ruled by vampires who burn in the sun, cry blood, and have an insatiable thirst for blood. Action, violence, and a whole lot of scary kept me turning the pages of The Immortal Rules!
Allie is such a strong heroine, and though she’s a bit callous at times I could never disagree with her because she just wants to survive. What I liked the most about her was that even as an Unregistered without food or security, she still believed that humans could do better. That they should do anything they could to better their situation. When she’s becomes a vampire, she clings to her old life, something that her master is constantly telling her is pointless now that she’s a monster. It takes a long time before she comes to terms with this, and still Allie fights becoming a complete monster refusing to see the humans as mere food. I loved Kanin’s teachings, he also might seem a bit heartless at times but you’ll see what I mean when you read this. He believes it’s not about being a monster or not, but about what kind of monster she chooses to be.
You are a monster. You will always be a monster-there is no turning back from it. But what type of monster you become is entirely up to you.
This choice becomes a constant struggle when Allie joins the band of traveling humans outside the walls, where temptation to bite someone and quench her thirst is hard to resist. What sweet torture to fall in love with the food! From the moment she laid eyes on that boy she was doomed. Ezekiel “Zeke” is sweet, kind, funny, and caring to her, a complete stranger in their traveling group. Though he doesn’t know what Allie really is, she’s still moved that someone could can be so good in a destroyed world like theirs. That he is interested in her is another test to her self-control.
There were many great characters, including the villains. Let me tell you, I usually don’t like the villains. They’re just for hating, right? Wrong! Though I did want Allie to just rip their throats out, or like she says in one occasion rip one “open from sternum to groin,” I also wanted to see more of them. I have a hunch that one of them will continue spewing creepy poetry in the next book, since that’s where Allie is headed.
The Immortal Rules is so different from The Iron Fey, yet Julie Kagawa still brings the creativeness, flawless writing, and amazingly wrought characters that I’ve come to associate with her. Julie almost didn’t give this story a chance because according to her she didn’t have anything new to add to the vampire world. If you read this Julie, know that I believe you’ll always have a LOT to say about whatever topic you choose to write! Lovely bloggers this is no simple vampire story. No. This is a Julie Kagawa style vampire story. Dark, bloody, fun, and with a hint of romance, I can honestly tell you it’ll be hard to go back to reading about romantic vampires after this!
PS: This ARC included a special excerpt of chapter one of The Lost Prince, book one of the new Iron Fey trilogy!!! All I can say is WOW. Little Ethan is not so little anymore. He’s grown into a very smart, handsome, and unapproachable looking young man. Not that he wants to be unapproachable, but he has to protect the people…from THEM. Mwuahaha and you know who they are. I’m so excited for this!
*I received this book via Netgalley from the publisher*
Favorite Quotes:
~Evil and Creepy~
“Evening, little bird.” His voice, soft, raspy and somehow very, very wrong, made me shiver. “Out for a midnight flight, on wings of blood and pain? Like razor blades across the moon, they cut the night and make the sky bleed red.” He chuckled, sending chills down my back. I drew away, and the stranger cocked his head at me. “Oh, don’t mind me, love. I get a little poetic sometimes. The moonlight does that to me.” He shook himself, as if shaking off the crazy, and rose to his feet.
~In complete darkness~
“Say something,” he murmured at last, cupping my cheek like he couldn’t bear to pull back. “I can’t see you, so…I don’t know what you’re thinking. Talk to me.”
“And say what?” I whispered.
“I don’t know. Just…” Zeke bowed his head, his voice quietly desperate. “Just…tell me I’m not crazy,” he whispered. “That this…isn’t as insane as I think it is.”
