*** Review*** The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa

The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa

Released: April 24th 2012
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Series: Yes, #1 in the Blood of Eden series
Format: Kindle
Source:  From Netgalley, for review purposes
Find at: Goodreads | Amazon | Amazon UK | Barnes & Noble | The Book Depository
Author Website:  Julie Kagawa

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:

 This book is set in the future, a future where vampires are rulers and humans are just their cattle. Some humans choose to comply and register themselves, in exchange for their blood they are given food to survive. The rest, the unregistered, are treated like the rats, they have to forage and steal their food to survive. We meet Allie an unregistered human; she hates vampires with a passion. When a food scavenge goes horribly wrong in the ruins outside the walled city, Allie is left on the brink of death after being savaged by the rabids, (these are a cross between zombies and vampires,) Allie has the choice to accept death or be turned into a vampire and live. Bearing in mind the hatred Allie has for vampires this is a pretty big deal! If she does decide to go down the vampire route then her life as she knows it will be no more.

I have to say that at first I did struggle to settle into this book, but after settling into a couple of chapters it was whoosh. I think there is such a huge amount of detail to absorb that the mind just boggles. The story is exciting and at times had me on the edge of my seat. After the first hurdle was over, I have to say that it more than made up for it. This book is a WOW book. This is not a light and easy read, at times it did get dark and gritty.

 From start to finish I was rooting for Allie, wow she had some seriously gritty times to deal with. Allie is such a fiercely strong person; she is a fantastic and complex character. I really connected with her.

 The details in the story made it so real and my imagination could certainly put me there. Such rich detail! Powerful and compelling, I really struggled to put this book down. Again as I’ve said before once I got past the first hurdle there was no stopping me.

This is the first book I have ever read by this author; I have heard good things about the Iron Fey series. Which if they are as good as this book I will definitely be reading them sometime soon.

Story Rating: 5/5 - A compelling and exciting read.  I want more!!
Cover Rating: 4/5 - It's certainly eye catching.  You can see it relates to the story. 

About The Author:

Julie Kagawa was born in Sacramento, California. But nothing exciting really happened to her there. So, at the age of nine she and her family moved to Hawaii, which she soon discovered was inhabited by large carnivorous insects, colonies of house geckos, and frequent hurricanes. She spent much of her time in the ocean, when she wasn�t getting chased out of it by reef sharks, jellyfish, and the odd eel.
When not swimming for her life, Julie immersed herself in books, often to the chagrin of her schoolteachers, who would find she hid novels behind her Math textbooks during class. Her love of reading led her to pen some very dark and gruesome stories, complete with colored illustrations, to shock her hapless teachers. The gory tales faded with time, but the passion for writing remained, long after she graduated and was supposed to get a real job.
To pay the rent, Julie worked in different bookstores over the years, but discovered the managers frowned upon her reading the books she was supposed to be shelving. So she turned to her other passion: training animals. She worked as a professional dogtrainer for several years, dodging Chihuahua bites and overly enthusiastic Labradors, until her first book sold and she stopped training to write full-time.
Julie now lives in Louisville, Kentucky, where the frequency of shark attacks are at an all time low. She lives with her husband, two obnoxious cats, one Australian Shepherd who is too smart for his own good, and the latest addition, a hyper-active Papillon puppy.