ARC Book Review: The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa

Author: Julie Kagawa
             Website

Series or Stand-alone: 

             Part One in The Blood of Eden Series
How I got it:
             ARC courtesy of Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thanks!
Pages:485

Publisher: April 24 2012

Genre: Young Adult / Post-Apocalyptic/ Dystopian/ Paranormal

First Published: April 24, 2012

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Book Trailer: 

FIRST LINE(S): "They hung the Unregistered in the old warehouse district; it was a public execution, so everyone went to see."

The GIST (From Goodreads):

"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."

OPINION:

This book was so hard to read. It was traumatizing, depressing and terrifying. And all these are good things. 

Here’s the world: Vampires have now taken over after a disease has killed or created monsters out of the entire population.

 

For the few remaining humans, there are a few options:

One: Become a Pet, i.e. get pampered by the vampires, have a master, give blood whenever necessary.

Two: Get registered and have to give blood with no exceptions.This goes with being a pet too. However, you wouldn't be as pampered as a pet.

Or Three: Remain unregistered. Live in absolute squalor with no food resources and fear of death at all times.

Allie, the main character, chooses door number three because of her overwhelming hatred for vampires. She lives in a group with three boys and their only way to survive is to trade for food, randomly find some (not likely) or go outside the city into open territory where psychotic vampires known as Rabids roam. Now most vampires are like humans in mental processes i.e. they remember their own life, they can be logical. Rabids are nothing like that. They are vicious and animalistic. Luckily, the author stuck with vampires as night creatures so Allie figures she’s safe going outside the wall.

Let me tell you one thing I learned in this book: NO ONE IS SAFE. This was probably the most horrifically accurate depiction of what I think the world would be like if vampires ruled. I'll say it again: it was depressing, sad and terrifying. But what made this book wonderful were the moments of hope. Allie ends up meeting someone who brings a little light into her life…err after life. I don’t want to give away more than the blurb does, but I loved who Allie meets after she becomes a vampire and what he makes her think about life and about love.

I also loved Allie's kickassness. She struggles so greatly about becoming this creature she hates. It was so hard to watch, I was biting my shirt neck the entire time I was reading it. I loved her story line but was impressed me was the connection I felt with all the characters. People who I hated in this book because they were cowardly, jealous or petty, I couldn't not feel sympathetic or empathetic towards. Take for instance Allie’s friend Stick. He doesn’t do any of the work to get food and relies on Allie to do everything for him. He was whiny, annoying and cowardly. At times I wish she would beat him in the face but I had to stop and wonder what I would be like in this world. Everyday that Allie and her gang left to get food was another day they could have died. It would be impossible to not understand why Stick would act the way he did. I loved that almost every character had redeemable qualities and weren't one note.

Here’s what I didn’t like. There were a lot of plot holes I had a hard time overlooking. Allie almost never thinks about the boy she lost when she became a vampire. I didn't feel like it was callous of her, I almost felt like Kagawa forgot to mention him again. Allie meets a new boy who she likes but doesn't think about the one she liked for two years? Seems fishy. Also, there were other points were Kagawa missed mentioning things that had previously happened like bodies being left somewhere but when Allie returns to the spot she doesn’t think about what happened to the bodies and there is no explanation of where they went. I don’t know if this was an ARC problem but it bothered me because it took me out of the story, though it was minor.

I also didn't like how Allie kept meeting people that were all connected through a certain event. Everything was just too perfect. Like magically Allie happens to meet the exact person who knows someone she knows or is a part of the bigger problem going on in the world. It was just unrealistic. Too serendipitous, in my opinion. If it happened once, I would have been like OH OKAY but it happened like three times so I can't excuse it.

Lastly, (this has nothing to do with the story) I wanted to point out how the girl on the cover is not Asian even though Allie is. I don't see the point in that.

OVERALL:

Lost points for plot holes and some other aspects I didn't like but I loved the world and characters. I felt the pain and terror of the characters. What could be a better experience than that! ---8.0 out of 10

Check out my giveaway on the right side bar for a chance to win a finished copy of The Immortal Rules.