The Immortal Rules Review

TITLE The Immortal Rules (Blood of Eden #1)
AUTHOR Julie Kagawa
PUBLISHED April 24th 2012 by Harlequin Teen
PAGES 504 (hardcover edition)
READ April 14 - 23, 2012
BUY IT Amazon / Kobo / Chapters.Indigo

SYNOPSIS 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.

A copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

 

This was a tough one for me. There were parts of The Immortal Rules that I loved, but there was so much filler in between. I'm all for filler, I know that it needs to be there, a story can't be all action all the time. But there was just so much walking! All the elements of a really great story are there, I just felt that this one could have been a lot shorter.  I won't deny that it is a good novel, I just have issue with the length. I put it down and read something else 3 times before I made it to the end.

The characters of The Immortal Rules are what really stuck out to me. I loved that Julie Kagawa gave us vampires that make us cringe and scared to go to the bathroom at night, the rabids were all kinds of creepy awesomeness.  Allison was a seriously kick-ass girl, she had her head on her shoulders and she was completely independent.  The visuals of her wielding her katana and cutting through hoards of rabids were absolutely stunning. Her love interest Zeke was also interesting to me, his inner struggle with his teachings versus what he came to find in the real world was an engrossing journey. There are numerous supporting characters that are nicely developed and that I connected to as the story went on as well.

When the pace picks up in The Immortal Rules it delivers with a bang! But then they walk, and walk, and walk. Then it picks up and you get sucked back in and Allison kicks butt, and rabids attack and it's awesome! And then they walk.... and you check what page your on... and they walk... and you check the page number again... then you wonder how in the world they can still be walking...

This is not just another vampire book, it gives vampires some new, fresh twists that leaves me wanting more.  Though I have my qualms with this one, I will definitely be interested to read the sequel.