The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa

JKagawa-Immortal RulesI’ve been looking for some good, paranormal YA lately and one novel I came across The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa, which is the first novel in her new Blood of Eden series. The blurb sounded interesting enough, so I thought I’d give it a-go.  Turns out, this hybrid (well, in my opinion it’s a hybrid) of this paranormal dyostopian YA just wasn’t my cup of tea.

In a future world, vampires reign. Humans are blood cattle. And one girl will search for the key to save humanity.

Allison Sekemoto survives in the Fringe, the outermost circle of a vampire 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 is attacked—and given the ultimate choice. Die…or become one of the monsters.Faced with her own mortality, Allie becomes what she despises most. To survive, she must learn the rules of being immortal, including the most important: go long enough without human blood, and you will go mad.Then Allie is forced to flee into the unknown, outside her city walls. There she joins a ragged band of humans who are seeking a legend—a possible cure to the disease that killed off most of humankind and created the rabids, the mindless creatures who threaten humans and vampires alike.
But it isn’t easy to pass for human. Especially not around Zeke, who might see past the monster inside her. And Allie soon must decide what—and who—is worth dying for.

I think The Immortal Rules is the second dyostopian type novel I’ve tried to read and I’m learning pretty quickly that post-apocalyptic stuff just isn’t my thing.  I read the Hunger Games trilogy…well read might be a kind of exaggeration…I read the first novel, skimmed the second and just the ending to the third.  Honestly, I am just not into the whole “what if” futurama drama of the sub-genre.  My feelings on The Immortal Rules are the same as Hunger Games, as in I’m “meh” about it – I just had a hard time connecting with the characters.  Ms. Kagawa’s writing is very well done, though a bit heavy on the adjective side at times for my taste, so my DNF’ing of this book in no way reflects my dislike of her writing style. It’s just the tone/sub-genre of the book overall; I still like me some good vampire novels and was really hoping to like The Immortal Rules. I just couldn’t connect with Allie early on enough to want to read more to find out what happens to her and how she survives being turned or how her getting turned even occurs.

So, if you like dyostopian and vampires, you should definitely check out The Immortal Rules. I have a feeling you’ll like it much more than I did. And if you do read it, I’d love to hear back from you and get your opinion on whether I should give it another shot.

Other Reviews:

Mystifying Paranormal Reviews, A Book in Hand, My Life is a Notebook, Blkosiner’s Book Blog, Intergalactic Academy

About Nicole 146 Articles
Attorney by day, Publicist for Barclay Publicity and reviewer/LE (assistant) editor by night. I'm a huge book nerd and love to read. I have 2 dogs, both Labrador retriever mixed breeds, who are very rotten and think they run the house. Let's not lie, they totally do, I just can't them know it ha ha! My usual genre is romance or urban fantasy. I love all things having to do with paranormal, with the occasional good contemp/BDSM/erotica thrown in to spice it all up.

3 Comments

  1. If you like the Fae, you should give Julie’s Iron Fey series a try. It’s fantastic. I read very little YA, but I really loved it. On the other hand, I’ve been on the fence about trying The Immortal Rules because even though I love her writing, this has two strikes against it for me – it’s both YA and dystopian. I haven’t even read The Hunger Games because I dislike dystopian books that much. Maybe at some later date my tastes will change. Thanks for the review.

  2. hmmm I really enjoyed it, but I like both vampire and dystopian genres. I will say I had a tough time getting “hooked” it wasn’t a page turner for me, until about 1/2 way or more. So if you gave up early on, it is understandable, but it did get better. IMO. If it isn’t your thing, there are plenty of other great reads out there :)

  3. Jen…I think I did try the first book in the Iron Fey. But I could be wrong b/c I know I tried something of Ms. Kawaga’s about 18-ish months ago ;).

    Melissa–I love vamps, it’s the dystopian that gets to me. I’m just not a fan…the premise for that subgenre sound cool, but I just can’t get into it. Glad to know it gets better. I know it’s always a lot of world building upfront…and a lot of my blogger/reviewer friends really enjoyed Immortal Rules. This was just one that I needed to pass on :).

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