Julie Kagawa
April 24, 2012
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.
Be still my heart. Try not to give spoilers now. Kami knows you do tend to give away much of the plot when you really, really are excited about a book. Okay, here goes.
I'm absolutely, irrevocably in love with this book! Fast-paced with thrilling action sequences, heartfelt thoughts and emotions, and unforgivably bloody. This is not your typical vampire romance book.
All throughout the book it was like I was watching a movie in my head. Intense. Thrilling. Captivating. Edgy. The scenes rolled seamlessly and no action was unnecessary. Unlike other vampire books where you would know quite early what will happen in the story, here you won't expect what's around the corner and that's what kept me reading - I never knew which road Allie will choose to walk on.
What I found quite different is the reversal of "roles". Most of the vampire books out there today have the male as the vampire - brooding, sexy, tortured, seductive with bloody past, while the female is the damsel-in-distress, the captive, the seduced, and the innocent who would transform the male into something.
But The Immortal Rules does not give you a fainting female. It presents a strong, independent, smart, katana-wielding girl. She's no damsel-in-distress. A fighter through and through but also quite vulnerable as she fights through her own emotions that have no room in a world where only the strongest and the smartest survives, as she fights through the nature of what she had become to maintain a shred of humanity in her and to never succumb to the desires of her inner beast.
And there's Zeke. The Human - a role which typically would equate to the character who's googly-eyed. Yet Zeke is no wimp. While true he's a preacher-boy, one who spreads hope and light in a bleak world, he's no innocent. Soft but hardened at the same time.
The romance took a backseat here. It's there but the story focuses more on the what, the why, and the how of a world in ruins.
The last chapter gives you a preview - well, not really a preview but an inkling what will Allison Sekemoto will do next and what the next book will be and I would really love to read it.
P.S.
How could I forget you Kanin!?! You're a BAMF. Is this the time where I choose which team I'd be? Because if the teams are split into Kanin (Is he really an option?) and Zeke then I really don't know which team I'd choose.
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