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

 

To survive in a ruined world, she must embrace the darkness…

Allison Sekemoto survives in the Fringe, the outermost circle of a walled-in 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 dies and becomes one of the monsters.

Forced to flee her city, Allie must pass for human as she joins a ragged group of pilgrims seeking a legend—a place that might have a cure for the disease that killed off most of civilization and created the rabids, the bloodthirsty creatures who threaten human and vampire alike. And soon Allie will have to decide what and who is worth dying for…again.

Enter Julie Kagawa's dark and twisted world as an unforgettable journey begins.

• Genre: Paranormal Romance, Dystopia, Post Apocalyptic, Urban fantasy
• Creatures:Vampires, Zombies
• Age: mature young adult
• Source: owned ebook 
• Read from August 26 to 27, 2012

FINAL RATING: ★★★★★/★★★★★

I love love love this book. It gripped me from the start and i just had to finish it - that's how good it was. I was sooooo absorbed when i was reading that i didn't even notice the time. Strong heroine, strong characters, destroyed world and vampires and zombies. Could you possibly ask for more? It's creepy, it's crazy, it's fantastic and it's fabulous story.

STORY:

In the future, Vampires have conquered the Earth - they are new masters and they must be obeyed. They made their own systems for living, including cities which they made for themselves and for their own pleasures and living. (Practically: We are vampires, we are powerful, we are kick ass, and we are going to take over your world!!!! Mwhahahhahahahaha!!! Wait, we already did that in Immortal rules. VICTORYYYYYY!!!!!.) Vampires offer sanctuary, at the price of your own blood and following their rules.

But, outside the city walls it's not safe. There is a teror lurking in the shadows...and people are scared of it.

Should they live with bloodsuckers, or should they try to escape and be butchered into pieces by Rabids? The answer is...if they are crazy enough. Rabids are failed vampires - zombified vampires and they are not naive or easy opponents, they are vicious, vile and horrifying.



Enter Allison Sekemoto, the human, who lives in the Fringe, the outermost circle of a vampire city. She and her companions/friends are scavengers - they are trying to survive by stealing food. None of them wants to give vampires their blood and therefore they live harshly and poorly. Until the night Allie is attacked by Rabid - and given the ultimate choice. She needed to decide whether she would become a vampire...or die.

Die as a human, or become a bloodsucker. Either way, the choice was death, because the vampires were dead, they just had the audacity to keep living—walking corpses that preyed on humans to survive. I hated the vampires; everything about them—their city, their pets, their domination of the human race—I despised with my entire being. They had taken everything from me, everything that was important. I would never forgive them for what I had lost.

Choosing to live, to survive, she accepted what she despised the most - to be a vampire. But she refuses to be like them, she refuses to drink blood, and most of all, she refuses to accept it and become a monster.

My vampire creator told me this: ...Sometime in your life, Allison Sekemoto, you will kill a human being. Accidentally or as a conscious, deliberate act, it is unavoidable. The question is not if it will happen, but when. Do you understand?... I didn't then, not really. I do now.

But when she is forced to escape the town at the cost of her own life, she meets a group of people led by Jeb, and she is forced to be careful not to be discovered...or the consequences would be deadly.

CHARACTERS:

I think Kagawa did a great job on characters as well. The big three in this whole story are Allie, Kanin & Zeke. Thankfully it didn't seem to be love triangle for which i am thankful(i hate love triangles). So, Allie is a mortal who gets torn apart by rabid and turned afterward into a vampire by Kanin. Kanin (my love) is ruthless trainer but also good one. He shows her what she needs to do to survive. Allie's choice to become vampire, even though she never wanted to be one, was driven by her desire to survive, even as a dead immortal. Soooo...after few events, we meet Zeke (Ezekiel) who is son of a leader of a group of people out of town, who are trying to find Eden, a town without vampires.

♦ Allie:



Allie was awesomeeeee. She isn't irritating, she is brave, cunning and smart. And she is also narrator of the story. She struggles with the fact that she became a vampire and that she must drink blood, but she chooses to survive.

“We are vampires, Kanin had told me, on one of our last nights together. It makes no difference who we are, where we came from. Princes, Masters and rabids alike, we are monsters, cut off from humanity. They will never trust us. They will never accept us. We hide in their midst and walk among them, but we are forever separate.
Damned. Alone. You don’t understand now, but you will. There will come a time when the road before you splits, and you must decide your path. Will you choose to become a demon with a human face, or will you fight your demon until the end of time, knowing you will forever struggle alone?”

♦ Kanin :

Is awesome. The Oh-the-great-one of the story, also the one who successfully converted Allie to vampire. He is ruthless trainer, he is genious, he is mystery and he is fantastic.

Especially because of that cliffhanger where (serious spoiler) he is captured and tortured by
that psychotic freak, Sarren, because Kanin officially screwed the world by revealing the race to humans. Oh, and he has one living son, Jackal(was converted by Kanin) and officially daughter Allie. He had many sons but they were killed by Jackal. Oh, and downside of being their father, he feels what the rest of his "vampire family" are feeling. .

“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.”

♦ Zeke:

He smiled, a real one this time, though his voice remained teasing.
“So, what do you think I am?”
Naive, I thought at once. Naive, brave, selfless, incredible and much too kind to survive this world. It’ll break you in the end, if you keep going like this. Good things never last.

Was actually sweet. He is an innocent type, he despises vampires only because of his father; who isn't his real father btw. I liked him, he was charismatic, cute and strong in the same time. Some major spoilers ahead I kinda knew it that Jeb had to abuse him, even though it was to make him a strong leader but still..... Though, he turned out to be reasonable and go with Allie,even after he found out she was vampire. .

♦ Jeb:

Jeb is so sure that vampires were at fault for everything. He refuses to see that there are some who didn't wish for all of this to happen, and he refuses to believe vampires like that exist. He thinks they took everything from him and that they must pay. He is also father of Zeke, and a guide of the people in the wild.

“Jeb regarded me with n o expression. "Do you believe in God, Allison?"
"No," I said immediately. "Is this the part where you tell me I'm going to hell?"
"This is hell," Jebbadiah said, gesturing to the town around us. "This is our punishment, our Tribulation. God has abandoned this world. The faithful have already gone on to their reward, and he has left the rest of us here, at the mercy of the demons and the devils. The sins of our fathers have passed to their children, and their children's children, and it will continue to be so until this world is completely destroyed. So it doesn't matter if you believe in God or not, because He is not here.”

OVERALL:

“There will come a time when man is no longer concerned only with survival, when he will once more be curious as to who came before him, what life was like a thousand years ago, and he will seek out answers for a hundred years or so, but humans' curiosity has always driven them to find answers.”

Excellent book - had everything i wanted, the romance, the horror, excellent plot, action and fantastic set of characters. I cannot wait for the sequel - i need it as soon as possible!

MY REVIEW ON GOODREADS