Author: Julie Kagawa @Jkagawa
Genre: Young Adult, Vampire, Dystopian, Post Apocalyptic
Page Count: 480 pages
Publish Date: April 24, 2012
Book Type: Kindle galley from Netgalley, Signed Hardcover
Publisher: Harlequin Teen @HarlequinTeen
ISBN: 9780373210510
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.
My Review: The cover model isn’t exactly how I pictured Allison Sekemoto to look, but I like how it’s essentially black and white with only the red accent. Plus, I read this book in two days--which for a 480 page book is pretty good for me. It was a pretty hard book to put down!
Julie Kagawa did something really smart here. She combined two of the most popular Young Adult genres: dystopian and vampires. This may seem like overkill, but it actually worked really well. I was starting to get sick of vampire books because they all seem to have a very similar Twilight-esque formula. This is why I absolutely adored the addition of the dystopian society.
The registered and unregistered humans in The Immortal Rules reminded me a lot of my favorite Young Adult vampire series, The Morganville Vampires, by Rachel Caine. This made me really excited and added an extra element of danger to the world Kagawa created. Kagawa is an amazing world builder and a master of character development. In all of her books, I can picture everything vividly. It makes the reading experience that much more enjoyable.
I really enjoyed the characters in The Immortal Rules. Allie was an excellent protagonist and pretty badass. Zeke was a complex character who made some very interesting choices. I want to get to know Kanin more because of his extremely rich history. I have a feeling we will get to know more about him in future books and that makes me so excited. The rabids in the book were pretty genuinely terrifying. I definitely wouldn’t want to face them.
Overall, this is one of the best Young Adult vampire novels I have read in a long time. I’m impatiently waiting for the sequel!
Side note: The excerpt from the next Iron Fey novel was kind of awesome!
I normally avoid vampire books as they don't usually work for me but I gave this one a try after seeing all the buzz and I am so glad that I did because as you noted, it was awesome! I really think the addition of dystopia made a big difference in how good this was.
ReplyDeleteI know--I hope people that normally avoid vampire books (like you and, to an extent, me) give this one a shot. I think they will be pleasantly surprised! It probably also helped that the vampires actually acted like vampires! :)
DeleteCongratulations on the hoodie win! That is pretty darn awesome :)
ReplyDeleteI have heard great things about this book, I am so glad that it appears to be a total winner! I hope the wait for the sequel isn't long :)
I was so excited about the hoodie.... plus a signed Julie Kagawa book! It was amazing. I hope you enjoy this book when you get a chance to read it. :)
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