Title:The Immortal RulesAuthor: Julie KagawaEdition: hardcoverSeries: Blood of Eden #1Released Date: April 24th, 2012 Publisher: Harlequin TeenGoodreads / Amazon "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'm probably one of the only people that doesn't absolutely LOVE Julie Kagawa's writing and novels. Most people really love her Iron Fey series, but I usually rate them about 4 stars. The same thing happened for this novel - I only 'liked' it. This one took me a little while to get into, but once I did, I really did like it - but it didn't have that 'amazing' factor like some other books.
Allie has lived her whole life as an Unregistered, so she doesn't have to be fed on by vampires during scheduled times, but that also means she doesn't get food from the government. She lives with others like here, and they are required to scavenge for their own food for survival. After a food-trip gone wrong, Allie is turned into a vampire by Kanin. I really wished there was more about Kanin, because we don't find out about him until over halfway into the novel, and even then we only get the bare minimum. He was one of the characters that intrigued me the most, and it disappointed me how there was barely anything about him.
Allie was strong. Allie was brave. Allie was honest. Most of all, Allie was still humane as a vampire. I respected her so much because of this. As a human, Allie was just an adventurous girl, who read forbidden books and tried to take care of her friends. As a vampire, she still had these aspects, which seemed almost impossible for some vampires. Even as a vampire, she was hating herself because she was always taught to hate the vampires. She was willing to run into battle against a bunch of bad guys in order to save a group of humans she barely liked. She's pretty cool, but she didn't really have that 'super cool' factor that some people claim.
WOOP WOOP for no insta-love! I like how Allie really didn't like Zeke when she first met him. I mean, she may have thought he was cute, but she told herself she couldn't like him. It worked for a little while, but after she traveled with him and got to know him, her feelings changed. I really liked their relationships, as it was strong and it wasn't always lovey-dovey. They were constantly pushing each other away, and then pulling each other right back. Sometimes it frustrated me, but that was only because I wanted them to be together! This was one of the better young adult romances I've seen in a while!
To be honest, this was a mix between two genres: dystopian and vampires. I didn't think it was going to work at first, but honestly, this was my favorite part of the novel.I loved how there was this messed up government, with the city in the middle and the citizens lived on the outside in a circle. What made it better was the fact that it was the vampires that were running this administration!
Between the two of Julie Kagawa's series, I actually like the Iron Fey series better. This one was kind of unique, and had some good characters, but it just wasn't anything awesome. I'd recommend this book if you really like vampires or Julie Kagawa's writing - cause those are two constant things in this novel!
