The Immortal Rules (Blood of Eden #1)

Whoa. I'm starting out with the last word that escaped my mouth as I read the end of The Immortal Rules. I was so blown away by the entire package that Julie Kagawa presented, that I couldn't even form a coherent thought upon finishing. Let's be honest, I'm a vampire lover. Always have been, always will be. Allison's story hooked me instantly. The gritty, dystopian and vampire-run world that she introduced me to felt so real. I didn't read this book, I devoured it.

Allison Sekemoto is, in a word, fierce. Living in a world where she must fight to survive, Allison isn't afraid to stand up for herself. I fell in love with her sarcasm and wit. Even before she is turned you quickly find out that this is not a girl that you want to mess with. What really drew me in though was Allison's constant internal battle over becoming a vampire. She chooses her path willingly, and yet refuses to fall headfirst into the world that she hated so blatantly beforehand. Watching Allison fight her inner demons is fascinating, and it makes her that much more likable.

In case you are worrying about the rest of the characters though, I can assure you that they are all just as vivid and well fleshed out as Allison! This I loved. Hands down, Kanin was my favorite. I won't spoil at all, but let's just say that I was eager for more of him. I know that this is the first in the series, and his time is coming. Coming in a close second was Zeke, who becomes a very important part of Allison's existence. This is a boy who totally stole my heart. It's hard not to fall for the chemistry between these two. However it was also so refreshing to see that Allison could keep her own identity at the same time. Thank you so much Julie Kagawa for giving us a girl who can be in love, but still take care of herself!

I could honestly go on for pages about how much I truly enjoyed this book. The Immortal Rules just proves to me that Julie Kagawa can write anything she sets her mind to. Her storytelling is fantastic. Her characters are vivid and wonderful. Even the setting comes to life on its own. I cannot say enough about how amazing it all is. This book is over 400 pages, but it is an effortless read. The story blends into such seamless chapters that you'll find yourself having read well past where you meant to stop. Long story short, I am putting this book on my favorites list for the year! Definitely give this one a read.

I'm not a big fan of the vampire fiction genre but I decided to give The Immortal Rules a chance since I loved Julie Kagawa's Iron Fey series.And I'm glad that I did because otherwise, I would have missed reading one of the greatest books of the YA genre that has ever been written.The author brought out the true meaning of dark romance through this novel.In fact,I think this is the first time I've enjoyed a YA vampire fiction so much.

"You are a monster."Kanin's deep voice droned in my head again,As I forced myself to move,to walk away."You will always be a monster, there is no turning back from it.But what type of monster you become is entirely up to you."

The background of the story,being a dystopic one, is set in an era where vampires have taken over and humans are treated like animals, being kept alive only for their blood.But there are still humans rebelling against the cruelty of the vampires,opposing this system and living hidden in the outskirts of the city,taking to theft as a means of survival.Allison,being one of these people, hates vampires more than anything.But then she confronts a situation where,in order to survive,she has to become one of them.

The concept of vampires crying tears of blood really intrigued me.Just the thought of it makes me shiver.I wonder why the other authors haven't thought of that idea,considering the fact that so many series on vampire fiction have been published over the last few years.Not only that,the tears of blood which Allison sheds reveals the humanity within her,despite the fact that she's a vampire.Throughout the book,we see Allison trying to hold back her monstrous
instincts and experiencing human emotions such as sorrow and love,and how the conflict between her two parts
slowly tries to break her.


The Immortal Rules is a beautiful and riveting paranormal fiction,with a dystopic background which adds more spice to the story.

Perfect Soundtrack for the story:
Before The Dawn by Evanescence

The Immortal Rules was... how to put it...well, for starters it was an amazingly planned-out story that completely absorbed me. It was cinematic and I'm sooooooo happy its been optioned for a movie!!
Okay, okay. I need to calm down.
Yes, The Immortal Rules was an exciting read. I was so intrigued by the idea that I couldn't even put the book down. I know vampires have been overused, but this was just so... different. It's a social hierarchy among bloodsuckers that's not like anything I've read before. I don't even like vampires and I adored this book. It's exciting and has a movie-like flow. There're unexpected twists in the plot that I would never have guessed and the humor in it is perfect.
I loved how this was through a vampires point of view. Allie isn't the scared human girl that whines all the time and can't make up her mind. She's an amazing kick-butt heroine who puts others before her. She joins a group of humans heading towards Eden for safety and it's just amazing how she tried to keep herself in control. But in the end, the Hunger always wins.
The Immortal Rules is an action-packed thriller that promises great things for the series. It's an experience everyone should get to read about and I hope they do.
I can't wait for the second one to come out!

Background: The future is overrun with vampires and a vicious disease that has left many of the human citizens dead, turned into monsters, or food for the vampire. To survive one must become Registered to the king of their city and give blood as often as required. Allison is not a Registered, she chooses to fight back against the blood-suckers and keep her blood to herself; the only problem is...how long can that last?

Review: I have not read the Iron Fey series by Kagawa, I know... I really need to, but I think it gave be a better opinion of this book. I knew that faeries were her genre but I had never read those so I only know the vampire series, which can be good and bad. It was good because I did not have one of her Fey books to compare it to, and I think that she did surprisingly well for a vampire book. The bad is also the same thing, with nothing to compare to...other than other vampire books... I was left a little stranded, so I don't know if it was better or worse than her others.

Ok- so compared to other vampire books, I think she did great. I loved this story, knowing Allison as a human and her struggles, living with the pain and guilt of loosing everything she ever had and wanted. I think that it is interesting that she chooses to become one of the things she hates so much and that she is fighting the urge to kill everything like the monsters she believes them to be.
I loved this struggle and I think that Kagawa did a good job portraying it. I cannot wait to read more of this series! There is so much left to be said,so many questions and that is how a series should be, finish off one things and move to the next and hope that the first job you did comes back later to help you...am I right? I really enjoyed this story. I am having a very hard time not ruining it for everyone :/ Read it! You will enjoy!

This is not your average YA vampire novel. But then again, it's Julie Kagawa, so why would you ever expect average?

So, Allie is five kinds of badass. She's an orphan, she takes care of herself and kinda takes care of another kid, she can fight, and she's willing to creep into territories a lot of other people are afraid to. Then as a vampire? The badassery continues to grow. She learns a lot, she becomes a better fighter, the girl wields a katana, guys.

Now, I'll be totally honest, I was kinda bored at first. It's a big book, it has a lot of build up before you get to the main plot. I'm pretty sure that build up is because it's necessary information for later books in the series and I'll be glad it was there to set up the future books, but it made it kind of hard to get into.This might've had something to do with the fact I decided to do a read-a-thon but I was restless as I always am when I try to make myself sit down and read. It could also have to do with the fact that the romance didn't kick in until the second half of the novel and, well, do I really need to explain?

The world building was really well done. I could picture the world, I understood how it came about. Because while this is a vampire novel, it's a dystopian vampire novel. Which, hard to imagine, but read it and then it all makes sense. But Julie was really thorough with how things worked and any unanswered questions, I don't doubt will be answered in the sequels.

Despite everything The Immortal Rules has going (awesome writing, solid world building, badass main character, dystopian, romance), we just didn't click. It was a really good book, but something was missing for me. Don't even try to ask me to figure it out, because I can't. But that IT factor wasn't there and it made me kind of angry with myself. How could I NOT absolutely love and adore and obsess over this book? I dunno, it bothers me though.

Despite my lack of IT factor, I still really enjoyed The Immortal Rules, especially once I got into the second half. And I still plan to read the sequels because I know Julie puts out quality work and if this series is anything like the Iron Fey series, each book just gets better.

This has definitely been one of the books everyone has been most excited for this spring. Honestly, I was looking forward to it too, although with a bit more hesitation than most, even after watching the compliments roll in. Kagawa's Iron Fey series is immensely popular, but I am in the minority that doesn't think it lives up to the hype. I liked the first book, but quickly got frustrated as more and more YA tropes appeared, eventually giving up on the series entirely. I would have given up on Kagawa, but she wrote a dystopia, and those I just can't resist.

Pretty soon into my reading, I became convinced that The Immortal Rules is a far cry from Kagawa's Iron Fey seiers, which, for me, was definitely a good thing. If you like the lightness of the faerie books, be prepared for something totally different. There's not a ton of humor, and what there is definitely constitutes black humor. This book definitely would fall under the horror category. Seriously, I have never been more terrified of a deer.

Also, rabids...they're freaking scary. I'm not kidding at all. They're like a mixture between reavers from Firefly and velociraptors. Basically, they're crazy vampires that have no interest in anything but nomming people and they hunt in packs. No thanks. I think I would rather starve in the city than face those guys outside the wall!

I definitely agree with something iLive, iLaugh, iLove Books said in her review (I normally try to avoid them - because I hate spoilers and to keep my review my own untempered reactions -but I skimmed hers before entering the giveaway): Stick is completely obnoxious! I mean, I totally appreciate that everyone cannot be a badass and awesome at survival. After watching The Hunger Games movie, my friends asked how I would survive, and I responded that I wouldn't. My plan would be to die as quickly and painlessly as possible, because I'm slow and squeamish. I basically have no skills that would help me survive, except maybe cleverness and I don't think that would counterbalance enough.

Anyway, that's all just to point out that, yeah, not everyone is as well-equipped for survival as Allie is, even though she's shorter and lighter than Stick. There are mental components to strength too, and he sure hasn't got them. However, you still ought to either give up all together or really try. I do not get why he is not registered! And, obviously, the only way he can have survived for this long is by using people. Not cool, dude.

Julie Kagawa mentions in her acknowledgments that she never wanted to write a book about vampires, because, man, has that been done to death (punned!). Still, here she is doing it, because she had an idea that would not let her go, which is cool, because, though I may not be a writer yet, I am enough of one to know that sometimes the ideas kind of have you. Although Kagawa does not do anything especially 'new' with vampires, they do not feel stale at all. I really like that the reaction of humans to vampires is very anti-current-trends, aka people do not want vampires anywhere near them.

The only thing that I questioned about the book was the motorcycles. And, yes, I do know that that sounds like a weird thing to say. Well, in this post-apocalyptic dystopian society, there still is some technology around, and some of it even still works, but a lot has been lost or broken. There doesn't really seem to be much or any development of new things or particular knowledge of how to fix things. Cars sit around rusting. And yet, somehow, there are tons of folks riding around on motorcycles. Where'd they get the gas? Why do those still work and not other things? This isn't a huge issue, but I am hugely curious. Maybe the apocalypse was manufactures by Harley Davidson to increase sales.

To sum up this review, I basically loved this, both the world-building and the writing. I also liked how long the book was; YA should not be quantified merely by how long it takes to read. Iron Fey fans should prepare themselves for something darker and more epic. Perhaps more importantly, I want to urge those who were unimpressed with Kagawa's Iron Fey series to read this. I was skeptical, even more so than ordinary, and I was seriously impressed.

When I picked up The Immortal Rules, I thought I knew what I was getting into. I haven’t read Julie Kagawa’s highly praised Iron Fey series (YET), but I gathered from the reviews that Ms. Kagawa is a great writer with engaging characters. I also knew that The Immortal Rules was a vampire dystopian, so I was prepared for kind of a Hunger-Games-meets-Twilight book.

Um, no.

I probably should have gathered from the creepy cover (that I still don’t like, even though I now understand it) that this book was going to be darker than that. It makes The Hunger Games look positively mild, and the Twilight vampires would be reduced to trembling granite-hard puddles of sparkly fear in the face of the beasties in The Immortal Rules.

A better mashup comparison would probably be Interview-With-a-Vampire-meets-I-am-Legend. It’s the internal struggle between man (or in this case, woman) and monster, set in a world where plague has decimated humanity and horrifying creatures roam the planet.

The Plot

In a future world where plague has wiped out most of the human population, vampires rule supreme. Allison Sekemoto lives on the fringes of a vampire city, struggling to survive from day to day with no parents or food.

One day, desperate from hunger, Allison ventures outside the walls of the vampire city in search of food. Venturing outside the walls is dangerous and possibly deadly, as the open area surrounding the city is haunted by rabids — once-human creatures turned insane and bloodthirsty by the plague. If the rabids notice her, they will tear her to pieces.

But Allison’s risk pays off when she discovers a huge cache of untouched food. She hurriedly brings the rest of her small gang back to scavenge it, when it all goes horribly wrong.

They are attacked by rabids. Allison herself is mercilessly ravaged, to the point of death, when suddenly a mysterious figure appears. A vampire. He offers her a choice: Die a human. Or rise a vampire.

Allison chooses a new existence as a vampire. And then she is forced to deal with the consequences of that decision.

Her situation is further complicated when she is driven from the city to wander the wilderness alone. She meets up with a small group of humans searching for something impossible — a city without vampires. As she hides her true nature from them, she struggles between her desire to retain her humanity and the Hunger that threatens to consume her, always conscious of the fact that if she denies herself human blood for too long, she will go mad.

My Thoughts

First off, this book is dark, people. D-A-R-K. There is a lot of death. A lot of violence. And the feel of the world that Ms. Kagawa has created is bleak and hopeless and terrifying. I would not recommend this one for the faint of heart.

That said, I actually loved this book. I know it seems kind of weird that I’d love something I just described as “hopeless and terrifying,” especially since I’m not normally one to go for that sort of thing. But the writing is vivid and engaging, and had me sucked in from the first page.

The world is extremely well planned and developed. I understood the intricacies of the vampire mythology, and how the world came to be this way. I really felt like I was there in the dirty city, and then out in the open wilderness with Allison.

Allison is a bit of an anti-hero, in that she spends the majority of the book struggling to avoid killing everyone around her. Her internal struggle between the kind of person she wants to be and the monster she realizes she is, is fascinating and heartbreaking.

There are moments of bittersweet tenderness followed directly by heart-pounding (or…not…in Allison’s case) action. There is a love story (not a triangle, thankfully) that is sweet and impossible and heartbreaking. There are characters that you want to hate that you kind of like, and characters that you want to like that you kind of hate.

It’s a nuanced and fascinating book, creating a frighteningly believable world where darkness rules, and clinging to even a small glimmer of hope and happiness seems naive. It makes most other YA dystopians seem downright utopian.

And yet, even though Allison is a monster, she fights to be human. Even though the humans are searching for the impossible, they continue to search. And even though hope seems foolish, we do it anyway.

The Immortal Rules is the first book in a new series, and I will be very interested to see what happens next in Allison’s journey.

The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa is a story to be found in the rain and shadows and ash. It’s a tale of devastation and agony, full of wrenching betrayal and cold philosophies in a world full of people whose humanity is slipping in favor of the harsh survivalist mentality. True trust is a gift not given often because it more than likely will not be returned in the same token. Love is elusive amongst a broken people desperate to go on, who would do anything to continue to live, becoming the user or the fighter, but a nearly emotionless survivor all the same. In this world born of Kagawa’s versatile talents, Kagawa labors to bring in shocking view a bleak, shadowed place that belongs in the darkest fringes of our vast imagination.

Allison Sekemoto is one such survivor, a far from rundown Fringer occupied with basic needs and looking out for her ragtag group of friends. Borderline starvation and a cruel fate of utter poverty, a censored lifestyle does not stop Allie from being a ruthless scrapper with an almost impenetrable heart. Though she secrets her compassion from others, letting so few draw close, Allie has been hardened by her way of life and we find that we’re torn between sympathy and antagonism. No way would we so carelessly shrug off kidnappings of good people or the hangings of fellow Fringers were we in her shoes… or so we’d like to think. But Kagawa vividly paints a grueling, severe reality that forces us to see the monsters within when pushed to a very pronounced and miserable brink.

At first, characters are just people that come and go, too quickly gone to form any real attachments to. And yet, that part of us that reaches out when another is in trouble or reaching a gruesome demise, the anguish of lives lost is so keenly felt. Bounced from her Fringer family to mysterious vampire maker with a troublesome and quite shocking past to a family that genuinely cares, bonded together with steel and determinate and heart at the foundation, the people Allie comes to meet are a roadmap to the various points of Allie’s life as she transitions from vampire-hating, hardcore survivalist human to self-loathing, self-controlled equally BAD ASS vampire who comes to accept the hand she’s been dealt. Kagawa doesn’t just tell a story of a girl who merely turns into another vampire, but paves and cements a road that leads to the definition of humanity. Allie’s story is about working out the definition of each of those terms—human, vampire, life, death, and the shades of gray in between, the choice between heartless loner who always finds a way out no matter the sacrifice or being the outsider that is slowly welcomed into the fold and grows to love and be bonded with.

Death is the predator always hanging back and waiting for the opportunity to swoop in and take, and is never far behind in The Immortal Rules. We become so accustomed to lives vanishing as suddenly and unexpectedly as we grow to care for whether they do live or die. The characters cease to be open secrets with no leverage over our hearts and we feel ourselves give in to connecting with each one, much the same as Allie does. And with Allie letting go of her better instincts—the ones that shout to stay aloof—romance strikes swiftly and softly, despite all the unyielding hardness of their world, the stabbing situations they encounter, because Allie and Zeke’s meeting demands an answer which begs the question: is the love between a vampire and human as doomed as the rest of the world and all its tragedy?

It’s unnecessary to be a lover of vampire novels to enjoy Julie Kagawa’s The Immortal Rules, although fans can expect the traditional route with an overlying freshness that very much has to do with her chosen setting. All it takes is the ability to appreciate the characters and their determination and will to fight, to press onward, the valuable subtle lessons learned by Allie herself, and the action-packed life-or-death situations that accompany those moments of clarity and learning and loving. Despite the daunting length of the book, the pages sweep by in a rush that will leave fellow readers surprised, and, once it’s over, Allie’s journey still feels unfinished, but in an anticipatory way that doesn’t leave us hanging in a rudely shortened moment. It’s unquestionably obvious how much more Kagawa has to give for this darkly satisfying up-and-coming series, and the questions taunting our lack of awareness won’t rest until we receive an answer.

Originally posted at Paranormal Indulgence, 4/18/12

I LOVE THIS BOOK
I LOVE JULIE KAGAWA
Allison's story is amazing, and in that world, is completely plausible.
This book is written amazingly, and the plot is A M A Z I N G.
One of my favourite books of all time.

I have read the whole trilogy in a week. I really enjoyed the book, and will probably read this book again. What I love about Julie Kawaga's writing styles in all her books is the characters she makes up. The characters have built their own life in her book, and the way the plot and setting is described, makes you picture everything neatly and perfectly, without a question.