Review: The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin Teen for providing me with an e-galley!

Genre
YA Paranormal

Publication Date

April 24th, 2012

Publisher

Harlequin Teen

Available At

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

Formats

Hard Cover

Ebook

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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 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
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

First, take a gander at the cover, doesn't it make you want to take a peek inside? For me, it instantly drew me in, rendering me incapable of passing The Immortal Rules up.

The bar for YA female protagonists has been risen. To my delight, I've noticed that more and more of them are rising above the whiny brats that you would shake if you could. Allie, the female protagonist in The Immortal Rules, is no exception. She has risen to the top, but let's be honest, she probably hacked her way to the top with her ever-present katana. Yeah, she's a sword wielding bad-ass! In vampire books the reader is usually introduced to a human, but in The Immortal Rules, we get to see the first-hand struggles of a newborn vampire. One that fights against all odds to try to keep her humanity intact, a struggle that was brought to life by the first-person perspective. You all know that I'm a lover of first-person, it allows us to see into a character first-hand. Know what they are thinking and feeling at all times, it lends us an insight that is sometimes lacking in third-person. I am so glad that Julie Kagawa wrote this book in first-person, it wouldn't of had the same drive with anything less.

The Immortal Rules is split into three parts, each part takes on a different tone as the story progresses and little revelations are untangled, leading Allie in a new direction in her life. There isn't a huge amount of mystery, but there is still enough to slide the story along without it coming to a stand still. What pushes this story above is the dystopian/post-apocalyptic setting. The descriptions of the crumbling buildings and overtaking wildlife add the perfect touch of desolation. There's a lot of fighting and blood(duh!), but it never overpowers the story, if anything it pushes it another step forward. The sweet budding romance brought a lighter touch that balanced out the destruction. Sometimes the lighter romances can hinder instead of adding, but that was not the case. It's a slow build, with tantalizing teasers that will have you wishing the next book was already out. Each different aspect was a perfectly chiseled puzzle piece that fit into the bigger picture, bringing forth a vampire tale that will take the YA reading populace by storm.

If you are looking for a vampire book, pick this up. If you like zombie(or zombie-like creatures), pick this up. If you like dystopians with a post-apocalypse twist, pick this up. Just do yourself a favor and pick  up The Immortal Rules.