Book Review: The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa

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:
I know you’ve probably heard what I’m about to say many, many times over the last couple of weeks, but I’m still going to repeat it: No matter what you think about vampire novels, please give this book a chance. The Immortal Rules is anything but traditional, and most importantly it is GOOD. (And by good I mean awesome to the point where I had trouble doing my job because I kept telling myself to read “just one more page” on my Kindle app.)

Forget sparkles, forget vampires who can walk outside during the daytime as long as it’s cloudy, forget about the nice vampires who can choose to live from synthetic blood. Julie Kagawa has finally brought back the real vampires, the monsters who will attack you in the dead of the night, the ones who can’t control themselves around humans. And then along comes Allie. Allie despises vampires and everything they stand for, yet when she has to choose between becoming one of them or die, her will to survive is too strong. I love how Kagawa made us see that this was not an easy choice for Allie, and it made me respect her that much more.

Allie goes through many phases in this story, and I loved following her through all of them. She not only has to fight to survive, but she has to make up her mind on some big moral issues as well; will she try to hold on to her humanity, or just give in and truly become one of the monsters? And through all of it, Allie remains an incredibly likable character. I especially loved how she, despite having to rethink everything she’s ever known, always acts purely on instinct, on what feels right to her. I have a feeling that by the time the Blood of Eden series comes to an end, Allie will be right up there in the same category as Katniss, Katsa and the other kick-ass girls of YA.

My favorite part about The Immortal Rules was how every time I thought I had things figured out, when I thought I knew where the story was headed, everything was turned upside down in ways I never saw coming. (Actually, my very favorite part is that Kanin, the name of Allie’s maker, means bunny in Norwegian, so I kept imagining a bloodsucking bunny instead of a terrifying vampire. But asides from that;) But the twists and turns never felt forced, and every time the story took a new direction it felt completely natural. Which I guess just shows what an amazing storyteller Julie Kagawa is.

The Immortal Rules is the kind of book that you should read as soon as it’s released, because this is not a story that will be forgotten. This is only the first book of a series, but I have a feeling that Blood of Eden will become big. Bigger than The Iron Fey even, which is saying something. And you don’t wanna be the only one left out of that, do you?

Cover: 
It's got the right creepy vampire feel to it, but I'm actually not a huge fan.

My rating of this book:


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Full disclosure:
ARC received from NetGalley

This book can be purchased from a number of local retailers and online book stores like Amazon and The Book Depository (I'm not an affiliate of either). The latter store has free shipping to about 100 countries.