Monday, April 23, 2012

The Immortal Rules ~ Julie Kagawa (eARC) review

The Immortal Rules (Blood of Eden #1)
HarlequinTEEN
April 24, 2012
485 pages
add to Goodreads/buy from Book Depository/or Amazon

Allison Sekemoto lives in a future world where vampires rule and humans are kept as their cattle to provide them with food (blood) - and slaves to do any menial labor they don't wish to do. As an unregistered, Allison lives in the Fringe, not forced to scheduled bloodlettings, but also scavenging for food and struggling for safety.

With the near constant threat of being killed, being eaten by them, it's no wonder Allie hates vampires like she does. It's all she has some days.

But then she's attacked and given one final choice: die or become one of them. And she makes a decision she never thought she would. The girl who's always fought for survival isn't done yet.

Now, one of the things she's always despised, Allie must learn their rules in order to survive. The most important one of all: go too long without human blood and you'll go mad.

Allie's new life as a vampire will take her to places she never thought she'd go - places she never dreamed existed . . . now if only she can survive them and herself.



The Immortal Rules kicks off with leaps and bounds of tension and suspense and only builds on it. The tension lets up at times, but it never fully disappears, bringing readers on for quite a ride as they follow Allie on her journey. Or, at least, this phase of it.

Anyone who thinks vampire books are just trying to be another Twilight really needs to pick up The Immortal Rules. Kagawa takes us back more to how vampires need to be. Allie does still have some humanity in her but there are also really, really nasty vampires. They refer to themselves as monsters (and not in a self pitying, give-me-a-hug way, either) and do bite people and people die. They're not sparkly Twilight vamps . . . they're not even quite Buffy vamps.

The Immortal Rules takes places about sixty years after a plague has wiped out most of the humans, leaving  the vampires now in charge of  the majority of those that are left. Adding a sort of post apocalyptic dystopian with a vampire story was definitely unique - and having people aware of vampires (obviously) was also a new twist I liked.

Allie's story reads more like Resident Evil or a great kick-butt action movie with a female lead. She's a fantastic fighter. She's got this mission . . . all while fighting with what it means to be a vampire but not be like the ones she spent all those years growing up hating. (That the book came across that way is great actually, since the series has been optioned for a movie!)

Can't wait to see where the next book takes things - even more so after reading the first one and knowing the basis for everything!


Rating: 9/10


Other books you might like:  The Saga of Larten Crepsley  books by Darren Shan and Aftertime by Sophie Littlefield

thanks to Harlequin and NetGalley for the egalley of this title to read and review



and don't forget to visit the fantastic Blood of Eden website:

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