The Immortal Rules (Blood of Eden #1)

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!!!

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.

I am one of the many people who fell in love with Julie Kagawa’s storytelling and writing in her Iron Fey series. This newest book is completely different from that world and takes a new and inventive look at vampires.

I know what you're thinking. Vampires? Really? Trust me I know how you feel. But Julie Kagawa makes them new again in The Immortal Rules, and its not just a world with vampires, there are humans and rabids as well. I personally found the rabids creation story to be fascinating.

The vampires are the ruling class in this post-apocalyptic world. Which was a twist that I found interesting, and it affirmed the fact that vampires are DANGEROUS and not to be messed with. I also really liked how Allie struggled to keep hold of her humanity, it made her easier to relate with and made you feel for her even though she is a vampire.

Also Allie is a bad-ass before she gets bitten, which I appreciated because I am not a fan of weak female characters. There is also a little romance, but it is not a big thing that consumes the whole story which I really liked.

I liked so many things about The Immortal Rules but my absolute favorite was learning the mythology behind Julie Kagawa’s vampires. The way they were created and how their bodies work made so much sense to me, and I loved learning about it.

Even though The Immortal Rules is a pretty size-able book I was able to finish rather quickly and I never got bored. I totally recommend it for fans of vampires and those who are a little tired of them as well. And if you fell in love with Julie Kagawa’s Iron Fey series I think you will like this as well! I cannot wait for the next one!

This has definitely been one of the books everyone has been most excited for this spring. Honestly, I was looking forward to it too, although with a bit more hesitation than most, even after watching the compliments roll in. Kagawa's Iron Fey series is immensely popular, but I am in the minority that doesn't think it lives up to the hype. I liked the first book, but quickly got frustrated as more and more YA tropes appeared, eventually giving up on the series entirely. I would have given up on Kagawa, but she wrote a dystopia, and those I just can't resist.

Pretty soon into my reading, I became convinced that The Immortal Rules is a far cry from Kagawa's Iron Fey seiers, which, for me, was definitely a good thing. If you like the lightness of the faerie books, be prepared for something totally different. There's not a ton of humor, and what there is definitely constitutes black humor. This book definitely would fall under the horror category. Seriously, I have never been more terrified of a deer.

Also, rabids...they're freaking scary. I'm not kidding at all. They're like a mixture between reavers from Firefly and velociraptors. Basically, they're crazy vampires that have no interest in anything but nomming people and they hunt in packs. No thanks. I think I would rather starve in the city than face those guys outside the wall!

I definitely agree with something iLive, iLaugh, iLove Books said in her review (I normally try to avoid them - because I hate spoilers and to keep my review my own untempered reactions -but I skimmed hers before entering the giveaway): Stick is completely obnoxious! I mean, I totally appreciate that everyone cannot be a badass and awesome at survival. After watching The Hunger Games movie, my friends asked how I would survive, and I responded that I wouldn't. My plan would be to die as quickly and painlessly as possible, because I'm slow and squeamish. I basically have no skills that would help me survive, except maybe cleverness and I don't think that would counterbalance enough.

Anyway, that's all just to point out that, yeah, not everyone is as well-equipped for survival as Allie is, even though she's shorter and lighter than Stick. There are mental components to strength too, and he sure hasn't got them. However, you still ought to either give up all together or really try. I do not get why he is not registered! And, obviously, the only way he can have survived for this long is by using people. Not cool, dude.

Julie Kagawa mentions in her acknowledgments that she never wanted to write a book about vampires, because, man, has that been done to death (punned!). Still, here she is doing it, because she had an idea that would not let her go, which is cool, because, though I may not be a writer yet, I am enough of one to know that sometimes the ideas kind of have you. Although Kagawa does not do anything especially 'new' with vampires, they do not feel stale at all. I really like that the reaction of humans to vampires is very anti-current-trends, aka people do not want vampires anywhere near them.

The only thing that I questioned about the book was the motorcycles. And, yes, I do know that that sounds like a weird thing to say. Well, in this post-apocalyptic dystopian society, there still is some technology around, and some of it even still works, but a lot has been lost or broken. There doesn't really seem to be much or any development of new things or particular knowledge of how to fix things. Cars sit around rusting. And yet, somehow, there are tons of folks riding around on motorcycles. Where'd they get the gas? Why do those still work and not other things? This isn't a huge issue, but I am hugely curious. Maybe the apocalypse was manufactures by Harley Davidson to increase sales.

To sum up this review, I basically loved this, both the world-building and the writing. I also liked how long the book was; YA should not be quantified merely by how long it takes to read. Iron Fey fans should prepare themselves for something darker and more epic. Perhaps more importantly, I want to urge those who were unimpressed with Kagawa's Iron Fey series to read this. I was skeptical, even more so than ordinary, and I was seriously impressed.

This is not your average YA vampire novel. But then again, it's Julie Kagawa, so why would you ever expect average?

So, Allie is five kinds of badass. She's an orphan, she takes care of herself and kinda takes care of another kid, she can fight, and she's willing to creep into territories a lot of other people are afraid to. Then as a vampire? The badassery continues to grow. She learns a lot, she becomes a better fighter, the girl wields a katana, guys.

Now, I'll be totally honest, I was kinda bored at first. It's a big book, it has a lot of build up before you get to the main plot. I'm pretty sure that build up is because it's necessary information for later books in the series and I'll be glad it was there to set up the future books, but it made it kind of hard to get into.This might've had something to do with the fact I decided to do a read-a-thon but I was restless as I always am when I try to make myself sit down and read. It could also have to do with the fact that the romance didn't kick in until the second half of the novel and, well, do I really need to explain?

The world building was really well done. I could picture the world, I understood how it came about. Because while this is a vampire novel, it's a dystopian vampire novel. Which, hard to imagine, but read it and then it all makes sense. But Julie was really thorough with how things worked and any unanswered questions, I don't doubt will be answered in the sequels.

Despite everything The Immortal Rules has going (awesome writing, solid world building, badass main character, dystopian, romance), we just didn't click. It was a really good book, but something was missing for me. Don't even try to ask me to figure it out, because I can't. But that IT factor wasn't there and it made me kind of angry with myself. How could I NOT absolutely love and adore and obsess over this book? I dunno, it bothers me though.

Despite my lack of IT factor, I still really enjoyed The Immortal Rules, especially once I got into the second half. And I still plan to read the sequels because I know Julie puts out quality work and if this series is anything like the Iron Fey series, each book just gets better.

This book was definitely worth the anticipation! I couldn't really find anything I completely disliked in this book. Great characters, great plot, great writing style, beautiful cover. Oh, now I know what I didn't like. The wait for the next book... Cliffhanger alert!
Allie is a new YA heroine. She kicks butt and is a hot vampire chick. Amazing, right? She has to become the thing she despises most, or die. And her choice to become somthing she hates shows that she's a fighter, she won't give up. Also, it shows that she is a survivor. Allie is a great role model, smart, great sense of humor, very human -even though that's impossible for her- and no fear of what's coming. The other characters were amazing, too. They're looking for Eden, the 'holy' city where you can live without the vamps, and are very religious. They believe in a world without vampires, a better world. I loved Zeke, even though some of his actions really pissed me off...But everyone makes mistakes, right?
The plot with had many interesting turns to keep it a nice and anything-but-boring read, even though it was almost 500 pages. The dystopian world displayed in this is horrifying. A world ruled by vampires, and with crazy zombie-like monsters with vampire powers lurking around every corner of the abandoned streets, trying to grab you and eat you? No thanks! Then I'd prefer to live in a world like we live in now! I start to see a pattern in all YA distopia I read, Lots of horrible futures in which the way of living seems to be returning to the way the people lived around 1700-1900. Lack of technology, lack of food and a huge gap between the rich and the poor. Not that I don't like it, just that I always thought dystopia should be great, and amazing, so that people want to live in the future, or invent the future. *I was a few years younger and many books earlier when I thought that way*
Vampires get a whole new image in this book. They are displayed as kings, rulers of the world, but also as nice people, who don't like to drink blood, but just have to do that in order to survive. These new vampires were very interesting, altough they didn't win it from Stoker's dracula. No vampire can win it from Dracula.

A wonderful new series filled with action, romance, hard decisions and blood-red tears, with a new heroine that every reader will love.

rating:
5 stars - highly recommended!