Quirk Review: The Immortal Rules (Blood of Eden #1) by Julie Kagawa

From Goodreads:

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.

 Release Date: April 24, 2012

A very big thank you to

 NetGalley

for the opportunity to read this book!

PREFACE:
Going into The Immortal Rules, I expected a lot. A LOT, a lot. I loved Kagawa's take on the fey in The Iron King (which you can read about here) and as soon as I got my hands onto this novel, I dove into it. So what did I think of this highly anticipated vampire novel?

Absolutely fangtastic. (Yes, I really just said that.)

WRITING:

Kagawa is a fantastic storyteller. Everything about the writing in this novel was pitch perfect, especially the dialogue. I love it when writers get the dialogue just right, and Kagawa is one of those writers. Her writing is so easy to get into, immersive without being overwhelming or bogging down the story. The voice of her protagonist, the once starving human but now deadly vampire, Allison, is clear and consistent. I loved seeing the world through her eyes.

SETTING:

There are a few major settings in this novel, all a part of a desolate, broken world. The first main setting is the vampire city of New Covington. It was dirty, trashed, and barely fit for human life. Kagawa evokes the hard lifestyle of its residents and makes you understand how difficult and bleak their lives are, making you root for Allison that much more because of how well (at least, compared to others) she copes.

The other settings outside of New Covington, the ruins of a suburban neighborhood, the wilderness, deserted roads and towns, and Old Chicago, are as vivid as the vampire city where the story begins. They continue the mental picture that life in this futuristic North America is rough and depressing. Reading about Allison coming across things that are foreign to her but the reader recognizing those things as items in use in everyday life today makes the disconnect between our world and her world that much more real.

CHARACTERS:

Allison is one of the most kick-butt characters ever. The girl is tough, smart, and caring, often causing herself more trouble by taking care of those weaker than herself. I loved her. I rooted for her through the whole novel and she just kept getting better.

I also loved Kanin. He is what I would expect of an old, knowledgeable vampire with a dash of snark and a smirk. He also was complicated, having a murky past that he seems to be trying to make up for, but at the same time, I don't think he would have changed what he had done, kind of like Allison when she was given the choice to die or become a vampire. I wish there was more time with Kanin in the novel, but I was glad for when he was there. (And I'm glad there are more books on the way!)

Continuing the love-fest, I adored Zeke. I don't know who couldn't love Zeke. He is so honest and compassionate that he gets past all of your skeptical defenses and wins you over. I like that despite being a secondary character, he gets some character growth as well.

As for the not-so-much love, I thought Sarren and Jackal were great villains. They were both diabolical but in different ways, and I'm excited (and a little scared) to see what they have waiting for Allison in the future. The rabids were pretty gruesome, and the raiders were the kind of people I would run far, far away from. I also enjoyed the Fringers from early in the novel as Kagawa showed the different kinds of people living in the vampire city with Allison and how they all react in their own ways to the dangers of their world.

DOWNSIDE:

The one and only downside I had to the novel was mostly due to my (extremely) high expectations. Everything about Kagawa's novel was great, but for some reason when it came to the vampires, more specifically, how one becomes a vampire, I was expecting something more original or unique. It's odd that I was expecting this because the general premise of the novel is not all that original, but the novel feels unique. So when it came to that part, I was a little underwhelmed. That feeling lasted all of a few seconds, but it was still there. I was glad, though, that the vampire existence, while fairly Stoker-ish, still had some differences to the usual incarnations that I felt were well-thought out and added to the story.

COOL STUFF:

Going back to something I've said already, I really loved the characters and the writing in this book. Allison is seriously one of the best protagonists I've read and this is seriously one well-written story. Seriously! ^_^

Another thing I really enjoyed was the action. There is plenty of action in the novel and Kagawa is great at writing it. Now, I'm about to disagree with something I've seen in several reviews of this novel. I've read many reviewers say that this book is nonstop action. I disagree. There is definitely action in this book, but it isn't nonstop. There is, however, nonstop tension. Allison is always contending with something, whether it is human hunger, the Hunger, rabids, hateful humans, vengeful vampires, or her own feelings. Tension overflows in this book, which is part of why it is so good.

Another reason I disagree is that Kagawa already wrote a book that was almost nonstop action, and seeing that a reader usually compares an author's work against her other works, The Immortal Rules is not that novel. That book was called The Iron King. Once things got going for Meghan in TIK, it did not stop. She fell from one mess into another into another with very little downtime. The Immortal Rules is not like that. Allison spends long stretches doing the same thing, but again, the tension, the danger that something is about to happen, is ever-present, and I loved every minute of it.

The last cool thing I'm going to mention is that there is more to come! I am so very glad that this is only the beginning of a great series. I cannot stress enough how good this book is.

VERDICT:

The Immortal Rules is a novel that satisfies so many hungers that readers have. You get a grim dystopian future, deadly vampires, dangerous villains, and a courageous and capable heroine with complicated feelings all wrapped up in one exciting story. Though readers will find that The Immortal Rules is very different from the Iron Fey series, that fact should not deter anyone as Kagawa does a masterful job of weaving a great tale and shows that she is a writer with plenty of imagination and talent.