Review: The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa

The Immortal Rules (Blood of Eden #1)
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Release date: 24th April 2012
Rating: 4/5

Goodreads description:

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 thoughts:

I tried not to compare this to the Iron Fey Trilogy, but it was sorta hard as I'd not read it that long ago. I felt Julie Kagawa's writing style has definitely improved in this latest offering and as that was one of my main criticisms of her Fey series I was pleased about that.

Allison was definitely an improvement on Meghan. She was a survivor; strong, ruthless and determined. She wasn't afraid to go off on her own into unknown territory and I liked that. I thought her transition into a vampire was a bit unrealistic; she didn't seem to struggle much with the blood lust, even with the constant temptations of the humans she was travelling with. Despite this though, she was a likeable heroine. 

The plot was definitely interesting; I loved the idea of vampires being in control and the humans being repressed and living in poverty. I also loved the hints that all was not as well in the vampire world as they were led to believe. The book says a lot about oppression and human spirit and determinsim which I liked. A realistic picture was painted both of the vampire cities and the areas in between, and of the circumstances that led to this point. I did feel the book was a little long, and at times slow moving, but nevertheless I really enjoying reading it and most of the plot felt like it unfolded naturally which I liked.

Zeke didn't particularly appeal to me as a love interest--he was a great character, with lots of development and good qualities but he wasn't the sort of character that I take to. That's completely a personal thing though, objectively speaking he was a great love interest for Allie and I liked how their relationship panned out. Most of the other characters were equally developed but I couldn't help feeling that Kanin was a little bland, which is a shame as I really thought I'd like his character. 

I wasn't a huge fan of the ending if I'm honest, the decision Allie makes towards the end was pretty awful, I can't believe she'd ever choose that really, I think it was all author set-up for her mental state and realisations right at the end. It ruined the book for me slightly. But other than that I really enjoyed this book, it was an interesting spin on vampire mythology, a great post-apolcalyptic read and Allison is a likeable and tough heroine.