Review: The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa

Title: The Immortal Rules (Blood of Eden #1)
Author: Julie Kagawa
Published: April 24th 2012
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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 of them—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.

The Iron Fey series (with the exception of the first book) is one of my favorites. It’s very easy to read, has good humor, fun characters and a magical world. Since I had heard that The Blood of Eden series was completely different from the fey one, I was a little reluctant to start these, not gonna lie. Shouldn’t have doubted Julie Kagawa’s writing abilities though, because this was quite magnificent!

"Allison, how you live your life is up to you. I can only give you the skills you need to survive. But eventually, you will have to make your own decisions, come to your own terms about what you are."

Julie manages to craft the world beautifully and with effortless ease. Allison’s strength, courage and tough exterior were intriguing and well-welcomed in this dark, cruel paranormal dystopian world. Liked how the world and Allie both got development, but the plot moves to darker themes quickly, where we get even more development.

You can guess based on the original and new covers that this story is dark and more resemblance is towards True Blood than Vampire Academy or The Vampire Diaries: the vamps in this world cry blood tears, there are different gangs, there’s a vampire royalty—I approve of everything. I also liked how the romance took a back seat in this novel. It’s more about Allison’s personal growth and journey to accept the monster she has become. This brings me to Zeke though—loved, loved, loved that guy! Such a sweet, humble and caring person. You can’t help but like him :)

Part II, while excessive with world building, was intense and the fighting scenes were awesome. I hate Stick. I think it’s good that Ruth questions Allison’s motives even if she does it out of pure jealousy, because it gives realistic qualities to the world where friends turn to foes in 2 seconds flat if it meant they could save their own skin, so why in the world would you want to trust a stranger, yeah? Anyhow, from a reader’s POV, especially one’s that roots for such a kick-a MC as Allison, I wanted Ruth to SHUT UP. Geez! She’s one annoying character. As for other characters, loved Kanin, intrigued by Sarren and hated Jackal. I have no idea why you guys love him so much, he's a complete douche, but.. I'll find out soon, I hope.

If I were to point out some flaws, I’d say that even though I was rooting for the characters, I didn’t form any big emotional connections. Also, perhaps the long descriptive parts when Allie has to travel alone etc, but it’s totally understandable why it was written that way. Plus, we see Allie’s inner struggles on how to cope with her hunger, lack of home or any support system in the form of a friend during those parts and they were still very beautifully written.

At the end of the day, this was a great first book and a complete 180 from Julie’s previous work with her fey series. I love me some Ash and Puck, but it was great to see that Julie is just as talented with world and character building as I thought her to be. If you’re interested in something a little darker then I’d definitely recommend this pretty.

Overall rating: 4.3 out of 5.0
Stars: ★★★★

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