Review: The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa

Publisher: Harlequin Teen

Pages: 504

Received: Received from the publisher through Netgalley

Release Date: April 24, 2012
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Goodreads Synopsis:

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.

My Review:

Julie Kagawa has done it again. I have not yet finished reading her Iron Fey series but from what I have read I can tell you her writing is just as amazing in this story as it is in that series. There are so many vampire books out there now that I was a little hesitant, but Julie brings us back to the old school (ie. Anne Rice) kind of vampires. What was really interesting was that Julie made this story into a dystopian world, and this is a new take on the other dystopian books out there right now.

This story is back to where vampires are actually feared by humans and Julie definitely shows readers why they are the demons of our nightmares. Julie definitely makes this story a dark tale, the action throughout is engrossing for the reader. The idea that vampires rule over everyone is definitely frightening, and Julie does a wonderful job with her world building, showing readers how everything happened.

What really made this story stand out for me was that this story is actually told from the perspective of a vampire. Julie took a different approach and it worked amazingly well! I loved seeing the world from a vampire's view and how Allie actually takes to everyone's view of vampires. For me this was such an interesting take on a story and I loved it. I did find it was a little slow in the beginning, getting to know Allie and some of the history of how the vampires took over, but that slowness quickly faded into an action packed story.

Reading as Allie tries to pass as human throughout the novel was amazing. I felt for Allie throughout trying hard to pretend to be something she isn't, and the budding romance was well done. Julie takes a new take on the vampire/human relationship and I am excited to see where she takes this in the following books.