Don´t know since when I wanted to read this. But the hardcover edition looked terrible and back then I wasn´t very familiar with the author, so I kept it somewhere in my mind but not on my shelf. Well, that changed a few months ago with the new paperback edition. That cover kind of jumped me and I knew I had to have it. Fine, I always prefer a hardcover, though they are a lot more expensive than a paperback. But in this case, the paperback is way better – at least in my eyes.
The Immortal Rules
by Julie KagawaBlood Of Eden #1
Publisher Harlequin Teen on April 1, 2013
Genre Vampire
Pages 443
Format Paperback
Source Purchased
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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 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 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.
Story
Allie lives in a time and town, where the world has changed completely. Almost 20 years ago an epic virus killed nearly all of humankind and Vampires took over control. Allie hates them since they only provide protection and some kind of a good life to those humans who get marked and serve the Vampires and let them feed on them. For Allie something she doesn´t want. So she and a group of others live outside the center, every day a struggle to survive. That changes when Allie underestimates the strength of some of her fellow group members. They get caught, some of them brutally killed and she has to choose between life and death.
Style
This story is brought to the reader through the First-person perspective by Allie. This way the reader gets to know how she sees things, how she feels about the others, and why she does what she does the way she does it. This perspective gives the story some kind of intensity, lets you hold your breath the moment she has to decide whether to live or to die and it is actually some kind of funny when she holds something in her hands the reader is only too familiar with it.
The Immortal Rules is structured into four parts. Each of them shows the state Allie is in and what she does to cope with her situation. The author doesn´t use many words to create various figures. She lets them become visible through their actions, their behavior, and how they talk or keep silent. And in combination with some scene descriptions and the landscape Allie lives in or later walks through, the whole scenario comes very close to a dystopian book. A great combination, if you ask me.
Characters
Allie grew up in a destroyed world. Animals, books, or what a TV or PC is she knows only from the stories her mother used to tell her. A functional car is as much unlikely in her life as what to do with a USB-stick. She knows how to hunt, where she can steal things to trade them hopefully into food and that she has to avoid being at night in the city. But when she has to make a life-changing decision and come to terms with it afterward, she starts to realize that the life she knew until then was not everything. The world is bigger and there are more people out there than she could have ever imagined. And they don´t like what she´s become. Julie Kagawa created with Kanin, Allie, and Zeke (among others) some very different and opposite characters. Each of them has it´s dark past, its burden to carry, and each of them wants to do only what´s best for their kind and themselves.
Conclusion
Definitely a wonderful Vampire story with a bit of a dystopian touch. And after that end, I am more than curious to read the others by that series. If you don´t know Julia Kagawa at all, this is a great way to get to know her. If you do, keep reading!
Happy reading
Julie Kagawa
Julie Kagawa was born in Sacramento, CA. She moved to Hawaii at the age of nine. There she learned many things; how to bodyboard, that teachers scream when you put centipedes in their desks, and that writing stories in math class is a great way to kill time. Her teachers were glad to see her graduate. Julie now lives in Louisville, KY, with her husband and furkids. She is the international and NY bestselling author of The Iron Fey series.
I'm so happy you enjoyed this one, Vi! I'm a huge Kagawa fan, and I absolutely loved this series. I agree with you about the characters all showing their true colors through their actions, and how they speak or stay silent in certain situations. Great review :)
ReplyDeleteLexxie @ (un)Conventional Bookviews
Aaah thanks a lot for your kind words. Guess after that book I can consider myself a huge Kagawa fan as well. Those books are different in their story from her Talon Saga but a great read in their own ways. Thanks for stopping by.
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