The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa
Title: The Immortal Rules (A Blood of Eden Novel, #1)
Author: Julie Kagawa
Genre: Dystopian, Urban Fantasy, Young Adult
Publisher: MiraInk (24th April 2012)
Blurb:
IN A FUTURE WORLD VAMPIRES REIGN.
HUMANS ARE BLOOD CATTLE.
AND ONE GIRL WILL SEARCH FOR THE KEY TO SAVE HUMANITY.
SHE MUST DECIDE WHAT – AND WHO – ARE WORTH DYING FOR.
–
MY VAMPIRE CREATOR TOLD ME THIS:
‘Sometime in your life, Allison Sekemoto, you will kill a human being. The question is not if it will happen, but when. Do you understand?’I DIDN’T THEN, NOT REALLY.
I DO NOW.
Rating: **** (4 stars)
Review:
The Immortal Rules is the first book in Julie Kagawa’s second series Blood of Eden. Kagawa has moved away from the fair folk who populated her first series The Iron Fey, and is instead focusing on vampires. In The Immortal Rules we follow Allison – Allie – Sekemoto, who has learnt how to survive in a dystopian future.
This is one of the most interesting takes on vampires that I have read in a while. Kagawa’s vampires aren’t totally original, they still conform to many of the tropes of the genre but there is a really interesting and neat twist that gets revealed in the book. I loved the realism of the humans reactions to the vampires in this book: on the whole they feared them, which I have to say is a very good survival instinct – they do, after all, drink our blood. At the same time there are hints that there are others who want to be vampires, and there are also those who want the protection vampires can offer.
The setting of the book was really neat. It was typical of what I would expect from a book in the dystopian genre, but I went into this seeing the book as more of an urban fantasy than a dystopian so it was an interesting experience. Kagawa does an excellent job of melding the two genres, so that it is hard to tell where one starts and the other ends.
The Immortal Rules is very much about survival and humanity. Allie is a really interesting character, although at times I found her difficult to relate to. She starts the novel as a very closed off human, and there is a reason for this. But as she journeys through the novel Allie starts to become a little more human, which is a little ironic really. The vampire characters on the whole are rather interesting in the book, and I hope we learn more about them in Book Two as they remained something of a mystery in this book. And finally, I must talk about Zeke. I really adored him as a character and I loved his interaction with Allie. I hope we see more of him in Book Two – I’ve got my fingers crossed!
If you like dystopian books, or vampire books then you should definitely pick up a copy of The Immortal Rules. This book has a really interesting take on vampires, and is well worth a read. I cannot wait to get my hands on Book Two.
