Review of The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa

Title/Author: The Immortal Rules (Blood of Eden #1) by Julie Kagawa
Publisher/Date published: Harlequin Teen, April 24th 2012
How I got this book: received it from the publisher for review
Buy it at: The Book Depository

Goodreads summary: To survive in a ruined world, she must embrace the darkness…

Allison Sekemoto survives in the Fringe, the outermost circle of a walled-in 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 dies and becomes one of the monsters.

Forced to flee her city, Allie must pass for human as she joins a ragged group of pilgrims seeking a legend — a place that might have a cure for the disease that killed off most of civilization and created the rabids, the bloodthirsty creatures who threaten human and vampire alike. And soon Allie will have to decide what and who is worth dying for…again.

I should listen to friends who tell me certain authors are awesome. I really should. I'm not really a fan of the fey, which is why I never read Julie Kagawa's Iron Fey series, but The Immortal Rules has convinced me that maybe I should give them a shot after all, because this book is AWESOME!

I've become somewhat wary of vampire novels, because really, there are some bad eggs out there. But I'm very happy to say I very much enjoyed this twist on the genre! Julie Kagawa brings us back to what I remember of vampires from when I was a kid: the good old going up in flames when touched by the sun, needing blood to survive, inhuman strength and speed, being feared. YES! But other than the mindless vampires I remember from those scary stories I read way back when, Julie Kagawa gives us something to relate to. And I liked it.

I cannot tell you enough how much I loved Allison! Seriously, she is just such a kickass character! She's kickass before she becomes a vampire, being a true survivor and a loyal friend. But after she literally kicks ass and gah, I just loved it! I love that for once it's the girl turning into a paranormal being and actually NOT losing her mind because of it! She's the same girl, with a slightly different diet and a couple of handicaps along with all the superstrength and all.

And seriously, can I just say that the rabids CREEPED ME OUT! I freaking hate zombies, they wig me out big time! It's why I won't touch zombie books in general, but because I loved The Immortal Rules so much, I'll forgive Julie Kagawa for giving me nightmares (I'm not even kidding, I woke up screaming one night after reading The Immortal Rules because I was convinced something was trying to eat me...).

I'm not entirely convinced by the romance though. I mean, Zeke is a nice guy, and I'm usually all for the nice guys, but he was just a little too saintly, you know? He had a little too much worship going on for his adoptive father, and I have very strong feelings of dislike towards Jeb! Seriously, that guy got on my nerves! I don't know, it leaned a little too much towards preachy than I'm comfortable with I guess.
I was really hoping to see some action between Allie and Kanin though, because SWOON! I need more Kanin! Kanin is awesome and mysterious and manly and just *sigh*! So yeah, I'm actually hoping for a love triangle to develop for once (I cannot believe I just said that...).

But mostly, the writing was simply amazing! The Immortal Rules is a big book and while because of being extremely busy it took me a good while to read it, the story never dragged. I was thoroughly entertained and wanted to just keep reading and kept shaking my fist at my busy schedule.
There's so much about this book to love, I don't even know where to start, except to say that I'm so happy I picked it up and I'm reading The Eternity Cure SOON!

My rating: 5 stars