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

Title: The Immortal Rules

Author: Julie Kagawa
Publication date: April 24th 2012
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Age group: Young Adult
Genre: Paranormal
Cover rating: 2/5
Content rating: 4/5
Buy: Amazon

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 thought:
The Immortal Rules was a thrilling read! I have yet to read Kagawa's Iron Fey series but I've seen enough glowing reviews of them to trust that Kagawa would deliver a good book. I was incredibly excited to dive into this one. I love vampires and I love dystopian/post-apocalyptic novels so to have them combined into one novel was just brilliant! This one definitely held my attention and I think it's going to be really popular among readers.

Allison ''Allie'' Sekemoto is an awesome character. I honestly think I'd put her in my top ten favourite characters of all time! She's so impressive and easy to care about. I love her attitude. She's incredibly blunt and just tells it like it is. She doesn't like messing people around and this is the aspect she struggles with most as a vampire. She's determined to hold on to her humanity and shows incredible strength of character throughout the book. She's also funny in a dark sarcastic sort of way and despite everything, doesn't take herself too seriously.

The plot of the book is fascinating and I found myself trying to read as fast as I possibly could because I just needed to know where it was going! The people Allie ends up traveling with are in search of something great and keep their faith the whole way through. It was interesting to see people holding on to hope even when the world was in such an awful state! I liked all of the character's in the group, especially Jeb. It was fascinating to watch him lead this group and make some seriously tough decisions. Zeke is wonderful too- so likable and just a genuinely kind guy.

What I didn't like was how much the book description gave away! I like when the blurb just teases you and makes you want to find out more. But this one gives away so much that I felt like I was really far into the book before I came across anything that I didn't know would happen. There could have been so much more mystery and suspense if the description had been a bit more vague. I was really annoyed by this and felt it tainted my reading experience a little bit.

Mostly though, I really liked it and I'm very excited to read Kagawa's other books! She has a gift for storytelling and can really bring the world of the book alive before your eyes. I'm going to go crazy waiting for the second book in this series.