The Immortal Rules (Blood of Eden #1)

OH
MY
DONUTS!!
THIS BOOK WAS FLIPPING AMAZING!! XD
It was AMAZING TIMES 2000000 OTHER AMAZINGS!
Let's get this striaght
I LOVED THIS BOOK!

(there may be some spoilers)
This book takes place in a dystopian future where the vampires are in control.
I know that most of you are saying "VAMPIRES! NOT AGAIN!!"
but this book is not like other books.
No.
It does not have stupid cliche moments
No love triangle
and the girl is not a complete weakling

It is actually the opposite


Now the people are in vampire cities believing that they are some of the last humans left and that all that is past the city walls are rabids (who are a lot like zombies).
There are two types of people in the city
Registers
and Unregistered

Registers are marked with a tattoo by the vampires and they get the necessities they need (like food) as long as they donate blood to the vampires every so often.

Unregisters don't have to donate blood but they have to fend for themselves.
As you probably guessed, our main character, Allison, is an unregistered. And she absolutely hates the vampires for treating them like cattle. But when she goes outside the walls and gets into an intense rabid attack...she comes extremely close to death.
But then a vampire comes and asks her if she would rather die or....
become a vampire.

being an unregistered her instinct is to survive so she chooses to become what she hates.
The whole book mostly consists of her fighting the monster inside her and trying to hide the fact that she is a vampire.

THIS IS A REALLY GOOD BOOK!

I have to let you know that I simply love this book. I have read other vampire books but this one has been so different to what I have read so far. I'll let you know a little about the story.
Allison was born inside a vampire city. Human population has a cattle status and registered citizens has to provide the nutritional needs of the vamps. Until now she had survived by her street smarts and audacity. She is part of a gang of kids who no longer know a home and who have found shelter on a deteriorated school. Everyday her gang survives by their scavenger ways, stealing food and looking for anything they might use. Allison takes care of herself and Stick. Stick is a kid from the gang. His efforts to help out the gang are bearly visible and Allison has become his provider. This is why Allison ventures by herself one day to find food behind the wall sorrounding the city. Looking on the ruins she finds a cellar full of food and everything that could help them get through the winter. Could you imaging to find such resources in times of scarcity? She decides to let her gang know about such bounty and in that precise moment is when everything begins to go wrong in Allison's life.What will become of these kids? What will become of Allison?
Inevitably, Allie will change. Her love for reading will be the only thing that will be accompanying her on a journey where new characters will make an impact on her way to see to world.

The author takes time building the story and its characters of this post-apocalyptic dystopian book. This made possible for me to understand the world she wanted to portray. A world order where vampires dominate sounds scary and Allison has to survive on this world. She is strong and determined. She represents revolution and change. Definitely a complete character and I have no doubt on my mind, she will be a catalyst on that society. Stick is the other character that stood out to me. I despise Stick in every dimension of his literary persona. Always portraying himself as a victim and certainly Allison is the one who enables his dependency by providing for him. I see this character as a perfect example for cowardice, he is the antihero of this story.

Finally, don't miss this book. Julie Kagawa wrote a page turner with The Immortal Rules. Whether you are looking for a new vampire book or looking for your first vampire book; this first part of Blood of Eden is your book.

Review copy was provided by Harlequin via Netgalley. This book has been reviewed according to its merits.

The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa is what I would define as a vampire, post-apocalyptic, survival-horror. Set in a world where the human population has been decimated by a plague and the attempts of a cure. Human beings have been reduced to becoming bottom links on a food chain that leads up to soulless vampires and the devolved rapids. There is no democracy, no human Government, and no civil society; what once was has now become a country filled with ghost towns and walled up cities where vampires rule the streets and rapids roam the outer wilderness.

Allison Sekemoto is an unregistered inhabitant of the vampire city New Covington. She, like almost every one of her generation, is an orphan and the only family she has are the boys in her group of invisibles who survive by stealing and foraging for anything that aids in their survival. And however hard life was for Allison and her group before it’s getting harder as food becomes scarcer, winter approaches, and rumors spread of the vampires locking down the city. A problem Allison had miraculously found a solution to, but one that quickly leads to tragedy and Allison dead.

The Immortal Rules is a story starkly different from Julie Kagawa’s The Iron Fey series in both plot and format. Where the protagonist of The Iron King (the first novel in the Iron Fey series) had a clear set objective from the very beginning – save her kidnapped brother, Allison’s story does not have a clear narrative path for the reader to follow, at least not until midway through the book. I had no problem with this for the majority of the novel because I prefer character-centric stories and the story of The Immortal Rules was mainly about Allison – her struggles of balancing what she is with who she was.

“The shadows lengthened like grasping fingers, sliding over the ground.”

Julie Kagawa’s writing style, constantly filled with vivid descriptions, always did a great job with unfolding the mood for a scene or setting, especially when it came to tense moments or action scenes and trust me this is a book brimming with action.

Unfortunately, in spite of all of these highlights I can’t give The Immortal Rules a perfect rating because despite me loving Allison’s character and being intrigued by her vampire mentor Kanin I couldn’t connect or care about the other characters in the story. To me they were all mainly just there to fill a role so when it came to moments that should have gained reactions out of me I was just reading quickly to move onto the next scene despite how engrossing the current one should be.

So overall, if you want an action-packed novel about a strong, kick-ass heroine then pick up The Immortal Rules but don’t except to fall in love with the ensemble of characters or to shed a tear over them.

Review copy provided by the publisher through Netgalley

It was really interesting to see a girl turn into what she fears the most and how she deals with it. Allie bravely embarks on her own after being seperated from her vampire mentor. She finds a lost child and returns him to his group. Zeke, the groups second in command, convinces her to join the group, not knowing shes a vampire. Allie knows it's unwise to travel with humans when she doesn't have her hunger under contol yet the boy intrests her so she does. Soon she is found out and cast out. Following her humans without them knowing, she sees the group attacked and captured. Teaming up with Zeke, they try and save the group from a vampire king. The author creates such a vivid and hopeless world that keeps the reader interested. With so many dangers, the reader won't know what will happen next.

I have to admit I was literally afraid to start this book and it took me two months to finally push myself to start reading it. This was my first book written by Julie Kagawa and I heard so many good things about her and her writing that I guess I just didn't want to be disappointed. In the last few weeks I've read quite some very highly praised books that fell completely flat to me. But then I started The Immortal rules and quickly became completely engaged in the story. You can officially call me a Julie Kagawa fan.

Vampires come in so many forms, there are so many books about them and very often the stories become repetitive, always the same - innocent human girl meets a strange pale guy, long story short, they're cheesy, romantic, sweet. The Immortal Rules brings something completely different - it brings a fight for survival, it brings action, intelligence, it brings an inside battle of good versus evil. There are no sweet little girls here, there are no good vampires with tender hearts who eat bunnies and squirrels. Vampires rule the world with a cold hand of power. Cities are owned by vampires, majority of humans consists from Registered who donate blood when needed. Outside of the city walls there are rabis, vicious creatures who'll eat you alive. Very few remember what life was like before. Allison Sekemoto falls in the minority - Unregistered human who struggles to survive day by day.

If you're looking for an independent strong female lead, here you have one. Allison delivered in every single way. She knows that sometimes she has to be selfish in order to live. She has to put herself first. She stands strong behind her values - she despises vampires and blood donnors, they often use humans as their private pets and she wants to be owned by no one. Freedom means everything to her. But she discovers a hidden stock of food outside of city walls and when returning home in the middle of the night she meets a strange vampire - he actually leaves her alive and unharmed. But not everything goes according to plan, next day she returns to the food stock with her three Unregistered friends and gets attacked by rabids. The mysterious vampire saves her but her wounds are fatal, she has to make a chance - will she die and risk becoming a rabid or will she take on an immortal life as one of the monsters she always despised?

You can't blame her for accepting immortality, it was a way to survive. Her life changes completely, sun is not an option, actual food is out of the questions and she can't survive on drinking blood from animals. She has to be a blood sucker, she has to feed from humans. Kanin, her vampire creator, teaches her everything she has to know about the vampire world and... game on! When their ways must split she goes behind the cities walls and circumstances lead her to joining a group of humans who are traveling by night and searching for city of Eden. The struggle to fight the bloodsucking hunger is hard. What's harder? Convincing herself she feels nothing for those weak human creatures. But she does. And that's what makes her different from other monsters of the night.

The world building is simply phenomenal, the characters are all multi-layered and so nicely done. Even those I hated, I hated them with pleasure (if that makes sense). I love Allison, but my favorite by far was Kanin. I wish there was more with him and I'm really looking forward to the sequel, hopefully we get to know his story more. He seems so different from other vampires, always burying himself with guilt yet trying to remain cold and heartless on the outside. Zeke, a human boy Allison falls for, was a great addition. He fights for his beliefs and he values loyalty, honesty, he's kind of an utopian character I believe... he sees the world from different perspective, he sees the good in people. But nevertheless is a fierce warrior when push comes to shove.

Overall, reading this book was one hell of a ride. ^^

Wow. I swear that is one of the best vampire books I have ever read.

I really loved how the story was told first from the human perspective, which told us how much vampires were hated and how they used humans as blood cattle, but then it was told from the perspective of a vampire, which shed a whole new light.

I was beginning to hate the vampires for what they did and everything (which I suppose is what Julie Kagawa is trying to get us to feel) but then when Allison get Turned into a vampire, I was reeling, and came to understand the vamps. Or most of them anyway.

Allison Sekemoto is a girl living in a city ruled by vampires. Humans are their blood bags. Well, most of them. In the Fringe, doing what they can to survive, are the Unregistereds. Those who refuse to live by the vamps' rules. Allie is one of them, living with her gang, Stick, Rat and Lucas.

One day, Allison discovers a jackpot: a whole basement full of cans of food that could last the gang the whole winter. But when they all go to collect them, something goes terribly wrong. They are met by a pack of Rabids, the worst thing you could ever meet. Rat and Lucas are both killed instantly, and Allison nearly sacrifices her life to try to save Stick. She is saved by a vampire. She chooses to be a vamp over death, and begins her training.

But there is a lot to learn. And not much time for it. Her teacher is a wanted criminal and suddenly Allison finds herself all on her own. She hooks up with a gang searching for Eden. But how can she keep up this charade of being a human? She can't go without blood for very long...

This is an absolutely brilliant book which had me on the edge of my seat the whole way through. If it was possible, I'd give this book more than five stars.

I really loved how the main character was the monster, instead of one trying to escape from them. And I really loved how Allison didn't choose to succumb to the demon, instead to fight it all the way through. This truly shows that, even if you are a monster, you can still be human. You only have to choose to be.

If you are familiar with the Iron Fey series, my advice is this: Don't try and go looking for resemblance. This book is so different to the Iron fey series.

Trust is something you give only when you are sure of someone, love even more so. Because you never know when someone will stab you in the back.

BRILLIANT!!!

The Immortal Rules is an unapologetically dark and unflinching story about survival where everyone is fighting for some semblance of an existence. The characters are constantly living within a cloud of despair, but for those strong enough, the despair isn't enough to vanquish their hope for something better then merely existing. The world-building is outstandingly original and compelling, and the characters are surprising in both their resilience and fragility.

The world Julie has created is dark and twisted, with danger lurking behind every corner. The death or disappearance of a loved one is a mere fact of life, and at the end of the day, it's every person for themselves. If that means leaving someone behind, to risk the few in order to save the whole, then so be it. With the complete hopelessness of their situation, it was surprising to see such resilient characters; characters who were not just looking to make it another day, but hopeful for something better. The history of the Red Lung disease, and how it mutated with the introduction of vampire blood to become the disease which caused the Rabids was fascinating. The rise of vampire cities was so logical, the overwhelming presence of Rabids forcing vampires to protect their food source from extinction, that I didn't once doubt it. And after seeing how frail humans are when faced with a Rabid, I also didn't doubt why humans would choose to live within the relative safety of a vampire city, even with the knowledge that they would be used as blood banks for their whole lives.

I absolutely adored Allison. Her life as a Fringer has made her strong, but not unemotional; betrayal still hurts, cutting deep like a knife. Her compassion for others, especially considering how she grew up, is admirable, as is her internal struggle to come to terms with her new-found monster within. She doesn't give herself more credit then she's due, she tries to be as honest with herself as possible, so she's always aware of her limits and when she was becoming a threat to the group she was quickly beginning to see as friends. She knows that she is a monster, but she doesn't let that define what kind of monster she has to be.

"The thought of hunting sent a thrill through me, but I was also scared that I would turn into that snarling, hungry creature from the night with the Blood Angels. I was afraid I wouldn't be able to control myself, and I would end up killing someone. And, deep down, a part of me didn't care. That was the scariest thing of all."

Her strength in overcoming her bloodlust and her inner demon's innate response to see humans as mere food, was fascinating and added an almost-constant element of suspense - would this be the time when she lost all control?

The secondary characters were all really well done as well. I appreciated that Kanin, an assumingly hundreds of years old vampire, had little patience for Allison's tantrums or questions that didn't concern her. His dedication to teaching her about life as a vampire, and his insistence that she embrace her inner monster rather then pretend she could continue to treat humans as anything other then food, was exactly the kind of cold, calculating logic I would expect from a vampire of his status. I couldn't stand Ruth, mostly because she never warmed up to Allison, and I was constantly hoping that Allison would just act on her vampire instincts to remove the smug smile off of Ruth's face. I loved Caleb and his innocence that only comes with childhood. And as much as I knew it would never work, I wanted Zeke to find a way to overcome his prejudices about vampires and accept Allison for who she is. I wanted him to be the person who proved her wrong, who showed her that her actions were worth more then whether she had a beating heart or not. I wanted them to overcome the odds and find a way to be together. Which surprised me, because Allison was constantly reminding herself to keep him at a distance, for fear of what might happen if she let him get close.

"Crawling into my tent, I pulled the blanket over my head and tried to sleep, to forget Ezekiel Crosse. His touch. His warmth. And how badly I wanted to sink my fangs into his throat and truly make him mine."

For being an almost five-hundred page book, the pacing was brilliant. I was constantly on the edge of my seat in fear of a Rabid attack or that Allison's secret would be revealed. I loved the twist at the end involving Jackal, and I'm excited to see how that effects events in the next two books. I did find that the fact that the group only travelled at night to be a little too convenient - and Zeke's explanation as to why didn't make too much sense to me. I also found Allison's complete change of thinking to be a little unrealistic. As a Fringer, if someone fell behind, she took the loss and kept going in order to keep herself safe. As soon as she met the group of humans however, she was constantly sticking out her neck to keep them safe, regardless of her own life. It just went against her desire to live, considering she chose to live as a vampire then die as a human, even though she despises everything vampires stand for.

The Immortal Rules kept me fully engrossed from page one. I became attached to almost all of the characters, and desperately hoped that their search for Eden wasn't an act of futility. I loved watching Allison grow and learn to accept her new life as a vampire, and I'm excited to see what happens in the next instalment!

This book is set in a truly bleak future where most of the remaining humans are enslaved to the vampires, who use them as a sort of food source. Everything about this book is eerie and very creepy: Vampires, rabids, diseases and ghost towns, this book was beautifully terrifying for the faint of heart.

I loved how the main character was the monster, not the one trying to survive from them. Even through all the things that happened, I love how Allison didn't succumb to the monster within her, she fought on. She has a spirit that never vanished through all the pain and death, she was forever strong, and very human.

The author painted a very real picture in my mind. She must of thought a lot about this, before she wrote, because everything that happened could be very real, we can only hope so...

This book is truly about what it means to be human, even when you are a monster, you can hold on to your humanity, but only if you chose to.

The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa is a story to be found in the rain and shadows and ash. It’s a tale of devastation and agony, full of wrenching betrayal and cold philosophies in a world full of people whose humanity is slipping in favor of the harsh survivalist mentality. True trust is a gift not given often because it more than likely will not be returned in the same token. Love is elusive amongst a broken people desperate to go on, who would do anything to continue to live, becoming the user or the fighter, but a nearly emotionless survivor all the same. In this world born of Kagawa’s versatile talents, Kagawa labors to bring in shocking view a bleak, shadowed place that belongs in the darkest fringes of our vast imagination.

Allison Sekemoto is one such survivor, a far from rundown Fringer occupied with basic needs and looking out for her ragtag group of friends. Borderline starvation and a cruel fate of utter poverty, a censored lifestyle does not stop Allie from being a ruthless scrapper with an almost impenetrable heart. Though she secrets her compassion from others, letting so few draw close, Allie has been hardened by her way of life and we find that we’re torn between sympathy and antagonism. No way would we so carelessly shrug off kidnappings of good people or the hangings of fellow Fringers were we in her shoes… or so we’d like to think. But Kagawa vividly paints a grueling, severe reality that forces us to see the monsters within when pushed to a very pronounced and miserable brink.

At first, characters are just people that come and go, too quickly gone to form any real attachments to. And yet, that part of us that reaches out when another is in trouble or reaching a gruesome demise, the anguish of lives lost is so keenly felt. Bounced from her Fringer family to mysterious vampire maker with a troublesome and quite shocking past to a family that genuinely cares, bonded together with steel and determinate and heart at the foundation, the people Allie comes to meet are a roadmap to the various points of Allie’s life as she transitions from vampire-hating, hardcore survivalist human to self-loathing, self-controlled equally BAD ASS vampire who comes to accept the hand she’s been dealt. Kagawa doesn’t just tell a story of a girl who merely turns into another vampire, but paves and cements a road that leads to the definition of humanity. Allie’s story is about working out the definition of each of those terms—human, vampire, life, death, and the shades of gray in between, the choice between heartless loner who always finds a way out no matter the sacrifice or being the outsider that is slowly welcomed into the fold and grows to love and be bonded with.

Death is the predator always hanging back and waiting for the opportunity to swoop in and take, and is never far behind in The Immortal Rules. We become so accustomed to lives vanishing as suddenly and unexpectedly as we grow to care for whether they do live or die. The characters cease to be open secrets with no leverage over our hearts and we feel ourselves give in to connecting with each one, much the same as Allie does. And with Allie letting go of her better instincts—the ones that shout to stay aloof—romance strikes swiftly and softly, despite all the unyielding hardness of their world, the stabbing situations they encounter, because Allie and Zeke’s meeting demands an answer which begs the question: is the love between a vampire and human as doomed as the rest of the world and all its tragedy?

It’s unnecessary to be a lover of vampire novels to enjoy Julie Kagawa’s The Immortal Rules, although fans can expect the traditional route with an overlying freshness that very much has to do with her chosen setting. All it takes is the ability to appreciate the characters and their determination and will to fight, to press onward, the valuable subtle lessons learned by Allie herself, and the action-packed life-or-death situations that accompany those moments of clarity and learning and loving. Despite the daunting length of the book, the pages sweep by in a rush that will leave fellow readers surprised, and, once it’s over, Allie’s journey still feels unfinished, but in an anticipatory way that doesn’t leave us hanging in a rudely shortened moment. It’s unquestionably obvious how much more Kagawa has to give for this darkly satisfying up-and-coming series, and the questions taunting our lack of awareness won’t rest until we receive an answer.

Originally posted at Paranormal Indulgence, 4/18/12

When I picked up The Immortal Rules, I thought I knew what I was getting into. I haven’t read Julie Kagawa’s highly praised Iron Fey series (YET), but I gathered from the reviews that Ms. Kagawa is a great writer with engaging characters. I also knew that The Immortal Rules was a vampire dystopian, so I was prepared for kind of a Hunger-Games-meets-Twilight book.

Um, no.

I probably should have gathered from the creepy cover (that I still don’t like, even though I now understand it) that this book was going to be darker than that. It makes The Hunger Games look positively mild, and the Twilight vampires would be reduced to trembling granite-hard puddles of sparkly fear in the face of the beasties in The Immortal Rules.

A better mashup comparison would probably be Interview-With-a-Vampire-meets-I-am-Legend. It’s the internal struggle between man (or in this case, woman) and monster, set in a world where plague has decimated humanity and horrifying creatures roam the planet.

The Plot

In a future world where plague has wiped out most of the human population, vampires rule supreme. Allison Sekemoto lives on the fringes of a vampire city, struggling to survive from day to day with no parents or food.

One day, desperate from hunger, Allison ventures outside the walls of the vampire city in search of food. Venturing outside the walls is dangerous and possibly deadly, as the open area surrounding the city is haunted by rabids — once-human creatures turned insane and bloodthirsty by the plague. If the rabids notice her, they will tear her to pieces.

But Allison’s risk pays off when she discovers a huge cache of untouched food. She hurriedly brings the rest of her small gang back to scavenge it, when it all goes horribly wrong.

They are attacked by rabids. Allison herself is mercilessly ravaged, to the point of death, when suddenly a mysterious figure appears. A vampire. He offers her a choice: Die a human. Or rise a vampire.

Allison chooses a new existence as a vampire. And then she is forced to deal with the consequences of that decision.

Her situation is further complicated when she is driven from the city to wander the wilderness alone. She meets up with a small group of humans searching for something impossible — a city without vampires. As she hides her true nature from them, she struggles between her desire to retain her humanity and the Hunger that threatens to consume her, always conscious of the fact that if she denies herself human blood for too long, she will go mad.

My Thoughts

First off, this book is dark, people. D-A-R-K. There is a lot of death. A lot of violence. And the feel of the world that Ms. Kagawa has created is bleak and hopeless and terrifying. I would not recommend this one for the faint of heart.

That said, I actually loved this book. I know it seems kind of weird that I’d love something I just described as “hopeless and terrifying,” especially since I’m not normally one to go for that sort of thing. But the writing is vivid and engaging, and had me sucked in from the first page.

The world is extremely well planned and developed. I understood the intricacies of the vampire mythology, and how the world came to be this way. I really felt like I was there in the dirty city, and then out in the open wilderness with Allison.

Allison is a bit of an anti-hero, in that she spends the majority of the book struggling to avoid killing everyone around her. Her internal struggle between the kind of person she wants to be and the monster she realizes she is, is fascinating and heartbreaking.

There are moments of bittersweet tenderness followed directly by heart-pounding (or…not…in Allison’s case) action. There is a love story (not a triangle, thankfully) that is sweet and impossible and heartbreaking. There are characters that you want to hate that you kind of like, and characters that you want to like that you kind of hate.

It’s a nuanced and fascinating book, creating a frighteningly believable world where darkness rules, and clinging to even a small glimmer of hope and happiness seems naive. It makes most other YA dystopians seem downright utopian.

And yet, even though Allison is a monster, she fights to be human. Even though the humans are searching for the impossible, they continue to search. And even though hope seems foolish, we do it anyway.

The Immortal Rules is the first book in a new series, and I will be very interested to see what happens next in Allison’s journey.