The Immortal Rules (Blood of Eden #1) - Julie Kagawa [Review]

This review contains spoilers.

The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa

Title: The Immortal Rules

Author: Julie Kagawa

Publisher:  Harlequin Teen

Series: Blood of Eden #1

Release Date: April 24th 2012

Pages: 485

Rating: ★★★★☆

Synopsis:

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 ofthem—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.
Enter Julie Kagawa's dark and twisted world as an unforgettable journey begins.

Review

I was really excited to read this book. I had already read the Iron Fey series by the same writer, which was very good. And a dystopian and vampire novel in one? Twice as awesome! Luckily it did not disappoint.

The book starts with protagonist Allie living in the slums of a Vampire City. Here the vampires rule and the (surviving) humans are kept as bloodbags. The rest of the human race has catched the Red Lung Virus, which has turned them in a kind of zombies, in this book called Rabids. Everything about the city and the vampires was explained right away, I found this great, since I do not like to be kept in the dark about the society in dystopian novels. The description of this whole world was brilliant and I found it an original concept.

After a raid for food went wrong and Allie was attacked by Rabids, she got turned by a vampire called Kanin. While he tries to teach her about being a vampire, the readers do not learn a lot about him. He remains a mystery, unfortunately.

When unknown vampires get to Kanin, Allie is forced to flee. She meets a group of humans seeking a city called Eden, where according to legends humans are free.

She disguises herself as human and joins their group. There she meets Zeke, who she develops feeling for, but she knows she can never act on them. When they find out she is a vampire, they drive her away, but after the group is kidnapped by a group led by a Vampire Master she comes back to help Zeke (who was not kidnapped) get them back and get them to Eden.

From the first page Allie came over as a very strong character. When she became vampire, she did not turn evil, her humanity stayed. But she did not become a whiny character, who can only hate herself for what she has become. She moved on and made the most of her vampire skills. She really growed to love the group and even after they had thrown her out, she still wanted to save them. Allie was a very likeable heroine.

I wasn't so sure about Zeke. He seemed nice and all, but he was a little too naive. I did not like that he just did what Jeb, the leader of the group and a very irritating character, told him and never questioned anything. Luckily in the end this changes a bit and he thinks for himself once in a while. 

I did like their relationship, because it was not, like in many books, that they instantly fell in love with each other and then the strong heroine turns into this weak girl who can only worship her crush and can't seem to think for herself anymore. The relationship was built through the course of the book and it was very sweet.

I really did not like the character of Jeb. He seemed almost brainwashed by the idea of Eden, he was that motivated to go there. He was ruthless and did not have a problem with leaving people behind. He was also abusive and I cannot see why anyone would follow him out of free will, only out of fear. Until the end he stayed an unlikeable man.

What I did not really like in the book, was the speed with which people were killed off. Of course a lot of people die in a dystopian novel, but here they are killed before the readers even have a chance to get to know them. Most deaths seemed a bit unnecessary and only put in for the shock effect.

I would most certainly recommend this book. It has a very original combination of a dystopian and paranormal novel. The book sucks you in from the very first page, because Julie Kagawa knows how to write. I cannot wait to read the next book!

Stars: 4 out of 5