Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Publishing date: April 24, 2012
Format: Hardcover, 485 pages
Blurb
from goodreads:
"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.
Review (spoilerfree):
If humanity was
wiped by a virus in the near future, leaving vampires free to step in and take
control, this is how things would play out. The
Immortal Rules is realistic, the world and writing authentic and not trying
to sugarcoat anything. From its killer opening to its conclusion, I didn’t want
to put this book down. For some people’s taste, the pace might be a bit slow in
the beginning, but I enjoy getting to know and connect with the characters
before the action goes down.
Allie lives in a
decrepit, crumbling school building in the Fringe, a stretch of town between the
inner and outer walls of her vampire city. After her mother’s death, she fell
in with a gang of other kids around the same age, and together they try to
scrounge up enough food to survive and defend each other and their territory
against other gangs. Since she’s Unregistered, she doesn’t get foodstamps or
healthcare and must be completely self-reliant. In return, she doesn’t have to ‘donate’
any of her blood to the vampires living in the glittering Inner City. The
practical consequence: she is constantly starving and spends her days
scavenging for food and other practical items.
Allie is a strong
protagonist; she knows the rules of the system and does her best to make use of
the loopholes in order to survive on a day-to-day basis. When a scavenging trip
to the ruins outside the city ends in disaster, she is given the choice: to die
of rabidism (humans/animals gone crazy with the virus, a constant menace in the
wilderness outside the city) or to have a shot at becoming what she hates most
in this world. Allie chooses to live – in a manner.
The first rule of being
a vampire? Drink human blood, or go mad. When a mistake forces Allie to
separate from her sire and leave the city, she experiences a new kind of
hunger. Fighting her own nature, she tries to blend in with a group of humans
on the road to a city which might or might not exist. Trying to keep her
secrets, Allie is constantly torn between her lingering humanity and her
predator nature, especially when she starts to develop feelings for a certain
member of the group…
The world-building
in this book is phenomenal and unique. Julie Kagawa avoids the initial infodump
and lets the readers see and figure out a lot of the basics by themselves, but
not in a way that is overwhelming or confusing. The main characters were
well-rounded and the plot engaging. Allie’s struggles against herself and her
surroundings, as well as the different ways people try to deal with the
situation, kept me turning the pages. I also enjoyed that while some romance
was present (and it was great!), it wasn’t the main focus of the novel. The
ending rounded the book off well, but it also left enough questions open to
make me anxious for the sequel!
One minor point of
critique: while the main characters were fleshed out, some of the minor
characters only had one or two actual character traits and were primarily
functional devices. It wouldn’t have hurt to add a layer or so more to them.
However, this didn’t really bother me while I was reading. All in all, the book
definitely lives up to the hype!
More personal and spoilery thoughts:
I knew Julie Kagawa
from her Iron Fey books (I’ve only read the first 2 so far) and really enjoyed
the fairy-world she created there. I’m glad to say that she writes vampires
just as well if not better.
I really enjoyed
the section of the book that focuses on Allie’s training with Kanin, her
vampire sire. She can satisfy her desire to read and learn in a world where
most of the population is illiterate. I liked Kanin a lot, and I wished he’d
been present for more of the book. He’ll definitely be in the sequel, though.
Also, Asian girl
protagonist with a samurai-sword? Count. Me. In!! The fight-scenes were
phenomenal. I loved the theatre-setting for the fight against the people who
keep Allie’s group imprisoned. In general, Old Chicago must be one of my
favorite book-towns ever. It was really interesting to see how different its
organization was from that of New Covington, the city Allie comes from!
Another thing
about Allie that I found interesting is that sometimes, I had the feeling she
was harsher as a human than as a vampire. She wanted to protect the group she
travelled with and was dead-set against leaving anyone behind if it could be
helped – something she wouldn’t have thought twice about as a human (unless it
was a gang member).
I was a bit
surprised by the structure of the book. From the blurb, I had expected Allie to
be a vampire already, with the parts of her human life being flashbacks. I was
surprised the human-part lasted as long as it did, but it was a good way to
show the workings of this dystopian society and how radical her transition from
prey to predator really is – even though also there, she remains in an in-between
state and has to keep hiding.
I think I have to
stop my prattling now – all in all, I wolfed this book down when I was reading
and kept wondering about what would happen next when I wasn’t. Whether you like
vampires or dystopian novels or both – this is the book for you!
Have you read this first book of the Blood of Eden series? What did you think of it? Let me know in the comments :)
