The Immortal Rules by Julie KagawaMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Release Date: April 24
Summary
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.
Review
I was really impressed with The Immortal Rules. Originally I was rather worried that this might be more typical vampire YA fanfare, but Kagawa's Iron series displayed a level of talent that gave me faith in this new series. Kagawa proved me right. Her latest novel is edgy and original. She presents us with a true dystopian vampire world. While this may have been done before in adult genres, it is very new to the YA genre, successfully combining two YA trend favorites: vampires and dystopian fiction.
Kagawa's world-building is magnificent. Her world has many different layers, a variety of tones, contrasting notes. Layers of humanity, religious tones, and notes of character development. I was truly impressed. While I felt distinct moments of adolescence in the Iron series, the Immortal series is fully developed, delving into complicated subjects.
I was pleased by the Iron series.
But I admire the Immortal series.
The first book closes with a bit of a poignant cliff-hanger but nothing too cruel.
Highly recommended. I look forward to Kagawa's Immortal sequels.
I loved this one too! It was definitely not a typical YA vampire novel. Great review! :)
ReplyDeleteI really liked the story, but I felt it was a bit lacking in some parts. The rabids felt inconsistent. At one point Allie is afraid she has turned a human into a rabid person because she has bitten him, and at another point she bites someone and it doesn't even cross her mind. Maybe there was a reason for this and it wasn't an inconsistency problem, but it was most definitely under explained. Sometimes there are rabid animals, sometimes there aren't. Rabids can't cross water, but Allie still considers rabid fish.
ReplyDeleteThis is a long book, and there is more than enough room for world-building, but for me there wasn't enough. The whole Red Lung virus thing gets rushed over and there is no explanation at all how, if pretty much every building is crumbling, the vampires were able to make massive towers. Did they put the stones on top of the other themselves? I highly doubt that. I hope there will be more insights into how this world works in the next book of the series.