Friday, June 22, 2012

The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa [REVIEW]

      
The Immortal Rules
(Blood of Eden #1)
by Julie Kagawa
Summary 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.

Rating:

Ladies and gentlemen... Julie Kagawa has done it again! Wow! Let me just add up to all the other readers there fan-girling over this book! *commence intense screaming and squealing*

I’ve been reading a lot of dystopian novels in the past few months and this is, by far, one of the few that FULLY satisfies my needs and wants as a reader. It is AWESOME!!!

Now to give you a quick glimpse on the Immortal Rules (if you don’t mind a little spoiler that is; if you do then just skip this paragraph). In Allison Sekemoto’s world, ever since the massive decrease in human population because of the deadly Red Lung virus, vampires have ruled over humans. Humans can either choose to follow and serve the bloodsuckers in return receiving rations of food and living as “comfortable” as possible, or choose the life as a squatter and live as if you don’t exist among the “higher” society. That is until you get caught stealing food (which you don’t get any since you refuse to be ruled by a vampire lord), and you end up getting hanged to death as punishment. What’s worse is you can’t go beyond the city walls in search for food, unless you want to be killed by Rabids (zombie like creatures who were former humans bitten by a lower type of vampire).

Allison would rather starve to death than be part of a society she unequivocally hates. Besides, Allison is a survivor. She can handle herself pretty well. I really like Allison; she’s a very distinct character even though at first I thought she was rude. But as the book progressed I began to realize where all the angst and bitterness came from. Not to mention she’s actually struggling to survive every day of her life, I don’t think I’d be in any happy mood at all either if I were in her shoes.  Anyway, I got to know the lighter side of her when she became a vampire, trained and learned to live as one, then came across Zeke and his company. I have to say it was a totally different side of her and yet I still get a glimpse of the old Allison.

Speaking of Zeke, I guess you can say he’s added to the long list of fictional crushes that I have *giggle*. The love story between him and Allison is just cute! It’s not all incredibly mushy but gives those little sweet gestures that make you want to route for them.  I’m a little confused over Kanin’s role though. I’ve been seeing signs of “Team Kanin” from some blogs but I always thought Kanin was a sort of “father figure” to Allison given the situation they were in, but I guess I’ll find out if he’s a rival for Allison’s heart...err, in this case, whatever part of her conforms the love emotion or something, in the next books to come from this series.

I can’t really say that the Immortal Rules is one of the best vampire books, considering I’ve stayed away from them after all the hype Twilight has incurred, but I for one LOVE this book. This is one of the most interesting stories I’ve read with regards to vampires. As much as it stuck to the traditional details of a vampire’s persona and the whole lot, Julie Kagawa was still able to create her own twist in the tale that’s unique and refreshing, which fortunately also doesn’t make you cringe at how awkward that creation has been *cough* Insert irritating vampire book *cough*.  LOL.

Now if you’re up for a Kate-Beckinsale-vampire-role-in-Underworld kind of story, I would strongly recommend that you give the Immortal Rules a shot. It has all that... and more!