Review: The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa

Read from April 12, 2012
to April 28, 2012

Book: The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa

Publication Date: April 24, 2012

Publisher: Harlequin Teen

Number of Pages: 485

Genre/s: Young Adult, Paranormal, Dystopia

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. - Goodreads

Excerpt: "I wasn't prey. I was a corpse, a creature whose heart didn't race, who didn't breathe or sweat or smell of fear. I was dead."

I swear to myself that I would never read a vampire novel (except for the Black Dagger Brotherhood series by JR Ward) again because of my disastrous history with the bloodsuckers. I haven't read the Iron Fey series by Julie Kagawa before as well, so this was my first encounter with Kagawa's writing. Fortunately, I might just have to read the Iron Fey series because The Immortal Rules kinda rocked.

There's only so much you can do in the genre of paranormal especially if they are about vampires. They're like sell-out creatures that once were feared but have been turned into a glam-up version that either watches you in your sleep or whore around. *snorts* And hallelujah to Kagawa because she did not used the sexiness and lure of the vampires to create yet another romance. 

What she did was very wise in her part, because she did not entirely focus on the love aspect but into the world-building. Allison lives in a world where vampire rules. Humans are pets and rabids are abound. Registereds have to bloodlet for the vampires and Unregistereds have to scavenge for food to survive. Allie hated the vampires because her mother died due to them but when faced with a situation between life and death, she chose death, at least technically. She became a vampire. 

Divided into 3 chapters, it provided a lot of direction for the book. It gave Kagawa a leisure time and space to establish her world. If you are into detailed worldbuilding, then The Immortal Rules will seriously blew you away. However, as I come to realize, I'm not that kind of reader. I love solid world-building but I love things to move a little bit while the author engages us with the plot and characters. Pacing is what I think lacked in The Immortal Rules. 

Everything else was splendid. The characters were fine. Allie is a predator and even rabids and forest alphas were minding to stay out of her path. I've never seen such a kick-ass heroine in such a long time. Her fight for humanity even if its against what she is showcases her strength and capability. The concept was inviting and interesting. The love when it appeared was a welcome distraction. I was like into the first-third of the book, and I was thinking about the seriousness of it all.  I kept thinking is there a love story in this? 

And voila, here comes Mr. Lover Boy, whom I think has the most interesting name of all, Ezekiel Crosse. But fret not, he was not just there to keep Allie company. He was an important part of The Immortal Rules. And him being around ignited the rest of the story to its completion. 

Another aspect of the book that really amazed me, was the concept of faith and how it was handled by Kagawa in The Immortal Rules. I tell myself all the time that I don't read books to look for underlying messages but it always awe me if underlying message or not, the book touches me enough to think and ponder upon it. The incorporation of faith and belief into something or someone even though there is only pure devastation around you and you feel like you were abandoned in a living hell, is something that is really believable in the story. I remember a teacher of mine telling us that when all is lost, faith is the only thing that a person can hold on to. 

The Immortal Rules indeed take the vampire lore into the next level and redeemed some of the existing taboo about them. Vampires were supposed to be feared, you are supposed to pee in your pants if you ever see them, you have to plea for your life if you unluckily met one. Despite my slight reservations with The Immortal Rules, the other good aspects outweighed it enormously. So go read and indulge yourself with a well-written dystopian/paranormal novel. On second thought, run, it's out already.

Cupid's Verdict:

4 Cupids

An advance copy was provided by the publisher at no cost via Netgalley.