The Eternity Cure (Blood of Eden #2)

With an opening scene that promised blood, violence and death, I started The Eternity Cure with anticipation, having been really impressed by its predecessor, The Immortal Rules. I quickly realized that The Eternity Cure would be much more focused on Allie’s character development and relationships, and the odd brush with death, than with her struggles with bloodlust and the suspense of having so many humans within reach should she slip that I found so exciting in The Immortal Rules. So while I did enjoy The Eternity Cure, due to its slightly different focus I did find myself struggling with some sections thanks to less than stellar pacing.

While the plot does center around Allie’s quest to find and save Kanin, most of the The Eternity Cure’s focus was actually on her personal development since The Immortal Rules, and the relationships she built with the people she picked up along the way. With The Eternity Cure, we get to see an Allie that is much more comfortable in her vampire skin. She’s accepted that feeding off of humans will always be a part of her life, but she realizes that she can still choose whether or not that makes her a monster; whether or not that means she can forget about her humanity. That doesn’t mean it’s an easy choice though, or that keeping her humanity is the choice that always makes the most sense.

It was interesting to watch Allie’s internal struggle between her demon and her humanity, as they waged war over her actions, but the cynic in me began to question why she bothered: why not just give in to the demon inside, survival of the fittest and all that jazz? While I could appreciate the side of Allie that didn’t want to forget her humanity, a larger part of me was hoping for a little more action, a little more ferocious vampireness. And it was that side of me that found much of Allie’s internal struggles to tamp down her inner demon dull, stagnated the plot in favour of character development. That’s not to say that I don’t appreciate character development – because I do – I was just hoping for a little more action from a dark and gritty post-apocalyptic tale such as The Eternity Cure.

Fortunately, Jackal was able to break up a lot of Allie’s constant back-and-forth with herself with a little comedic relief.

"Now we’re going to save a bunch of dirty meatsacks from a bunch of dirty cannibals? Why don’t we rescue some orphaned kittens and put food out for stray puppies while we’re at it?"

His banter, which constantly hinted at slightly sinister intentions, provided a small amount of suspense as you never really knew whether you could trust him. Add in Zeke’s promise to kill Jackal for what he had done to his friends and father, and the tension was sometimes palpable. As for Zeke, I found myself wondering why I had liked him so much in The Immortal Rules. He kept trying to tell Allie things, only to be interrupted or for him to back out at the last second, and by the end of the book I was ready to strangle him! Just say it already! I also found that his presence in The Eternity Cure worked mostly as a tool of convenience; he always seemed to show up at the last minute, in the nick of time, to save Allie from certain death.

The actual plot was one that fascinated me, but that failed to live up to my expectations. I was really hoping for more insight into Sarren’s twisted mind and his true reasons behind Kanin’s lavish torture, I expected a lot of bloodlust and violence (which, to be fair, there was a lot of violence but it was of the necessary kind, the, in order to survive we must be violent, kind) and the promise of a cure kept me in suspense for much of their round-about journey. By the time the “cure” presented itself, I again found it all too convenient and the way the happily-ever-after ending was shaping up, I was prepared to be extremely disappointed. Fortunately, Kagawa still had a few tricks up her sleeve and left us with a cliffhanger that guaranteed I’ll be picking up the next book in the series!

Kagawa’s The Immortal Rules was probably the first vampire novel I actually enjoyed. I liked it enough to try out her Iron Fey series, which I didn’t like at all. And because of my bad experience with Ash and Puck and Meghan, my enthusiasm for The Eternity Cure waned a bit. Because if I know one thing about Julie Kagawa, I knew that she is prone to making plot decisions I wholeheartedly disagree with. I didn’t want to put myself through that torture. In any case, I was somewhat dreading this book.

However, the Blood of Eden series has, in my opinion, one important thing that the Iron Fey books did not: the quality of absorbing, mindless entertainment (well, the Iron Fey had that quality, too, I guess). I found that once I got started on The Eternity Cure, it was impossible to put down. And even though Kagawa had me rolling my eyes and shaking my head, I still enjoyed this book—perhaps in spite of my better judgment.

Because the thing is, I cannot, in all honesty, say that this book is a great one. Kagawa’s prose is decent but sloppy in places, her plot is one jumbled mess of trope and cliché soup, and her characters lack development as a general group.

Why, then, did I give The Eternity Cure such a high rating? Simple. It was fun. Often, “fun” is an adjective used to describe books when no other word comes to mind. It’s a stand in for “not terribly great, but worth reading if nothing else is available”. And maybe that’s what I mean with this book, though perhaps I liked this more than that. But this book was fun—enjoyable, entertaining, and dramatic. Easy to read, easy to forget. I liked this, but I didn’t love it.

As I mentioned, the storyline here is rather messy. There really is no central conflict, as thoughout this book, Kagawa would introduce one problem, have her characters run off to solve it, then once that task was complete, present another problem to solve. Personally, I tend to prefer a plot with more internal structure—a single, driving goal or mission or struggle. Subplots are fine, and some side trips are acceptable. But this book felt more than a recollection of an adventure than a plot-driven action novel, which it should have been, in my opinion.

And, when plot fails, readers generally turn to characterization for a book’s main strength. Yet while I had fun with the cast of characters in The Eternity Cure, I can’t say they were anything special.

First, everyone in this book is a walking paperdoll cutout of a common and well-known archetype. Kanin, the tortured soul who seeks moral absolution. Zeke, the self-sacrificing angel who is loyal and perfect. Allie, the strong, determined heroine who’s also charmingly naïve. Jackal, the double-crossing sometimes ally. Sarren, the vampire turned insane because of the injustices done to him in the past.

Really, there was absolutely no spark of originality in these people. Same boring stock characters, just with a vampire twist. And, especially in Zeke’s case, they were very flat and two-dimensional, showing no growth or depth at any point in the book.

It may seem, then, that between a disastrously disorganized plot and stereotypical characterization, that I have no reason to like The Eternity Cure at all. Probably, I don’t. But I enjoyed myself anyways. Julie Kagawa will probably never be a favorite author of mine, simply because I don’t see much talent in her beyond the ability to weave an addicting-yet-flawed story. But as far as entertainment on a rainy day goes, I could have done much worse than this book.