ARC Review: The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa

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.

Review:

In the world of The Immoral Rules, vampires are on top. There are Master vampires that rule over cities and among them are other ranks of vampires. Outside of the city walls, there are the ruins of the homes where humans used to live before the Red Lung virus spread. Outside the city walls we find Rabids, who are vampires but kept making me think of zombies. With the humans they are mainly split into two categories, there are Registered humans who give blood once a month in exchange for food and money, and then there are the Unregistered humans who have to scrape and steal to get by. Allie is an Unregistered human and chooses to stay off the vampires radar, even if it is a great struggle to survive. It is one fateful day that Allie is brutally attached by Rabids while out searching for food and is saved by a vampire, who gives her the ultimate choice, to die or become a vampire. Even though Allie hates vampires with everything she is, she chooses to become one. Allie is a true fighter and if she has to become a vampire to survive, so be it.

Allie is very hard at the beginning of this book. She has been stabbed in the back too many times and has been shown she can only depend on herself. I thought Allie was very strong, she takes each of her new circumstances with strong determination to do whatever she can to survive. Then circumstances has her leaving her home and her vampire mentor, she finds out just how much she has to give up on certain ideals, and also finds her own determination to not become the monster that she has always associated with vampires. These circumstances lead her to a group of humans trying to survive on their own and she is invited to join them (without them knowing she’s a vampire).

This is where we meet Zeke, who becomes Allie’s human love interest. He is the groups second in command, and he refuses to let what he’s experienced in the past take away his hope and faith, and his ability to see the good in others. She tries very hard to be the person Zeke sees in her, but her Hunger is always there and she constantly has to find ways to hide what she is. Wow, loved this book. I’m already a Julie Kagawa fan from reading her Iron Fey books, so I had a feeling I’d like this book too. I loved how dark and gritty it was. I felt that Kagawa did a great job of setting up this world, but in a way that I didn’t feel overwhelmed that the world building took over the story. Although this book kept making me feel like I wanted to compare it to The Walking Dead at times, there was the uniqueness to her world that kept me from letting that bother me. I liked that it felt like she didn’t hold anything back, and threw Allie for all these twists which definitely kept the tension up and kept me hooked. I was very pleased with Allie’s development as a character and thought the ending set up well for the next book but that I also felt satisfied with.