Review for The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa

The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa
Publisher: Mira Ink
Release Date: 4th May 2012
Genre: Young Adult, Vampires, Dystopian, Horror, Paranormal Romance
Rating: 4.5/5 stars
Source: Received from the publisher for review

Amazon Summary:
"My Vampire Creator Told Me This: Sometime in your life, Allison Sekemoto, you will kill a human being. The question is not if it will happen, but when. Do you understand? I didn't then, not really. I DO NOW. 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 killed her mother and 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 work with her vampire creator and learn the rules of being immortal. Including the most important: go long enough without human blood, and you will go mad. When Allison is separated from her creator, she flees into the unknown, the world outside her vampire city, beyond the wall. There she joins a ragged band of humans who don't know what she is, 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."

Review 
When I heard the synopsis for The Immortal Rules I mentally took my hat off and tipped it to Julie Kagawa. It is SUCH a genius idea to write a book about a vampire apocalypse bringing together two of the most popular genre’s around at the minute and meshing them together into something new and unique. The fact that Kagawa has managed to bring something exciting and fresh to two already overflowing genre’s was brilliant and I was excited to read a book focusing on my two favourite genre’s without it being just another copycat.

The premise of this book is fantastic and I found a world mixed with vampires, rabids (hybrid zombie-like creatures) and humans to be an interesting one. Right from the beginning the book goes into the rules of this future world and how it came to be this way and I thought the history behind how this society came about was very plausible and believable. I loved that the vampires were bad, and the rabids were terrifying, and that humans are desperate and afraid. At this books heart is the story of what it means to be human in a world where being human is the hardest thing to be.

The Immortal Rules is a true horror story for teens. There’s bloodshed, death, and tragedy and I loved that Julie Kagawa wasn’t afraid to take this book where other YA authors are afraid to. She doesn’t water down the horrors that her characters face and constantly puts them in difficult situations really challenging and developing them as they have to choose between right and wrong and question their beliefs. Julie’s not afraid to be brutal and hard on her characters if the story requires it and so I was constantly at the edge of my seat so afraid for my favourite characters hoping that they’d make it to the end of the book in one piece.

As for our heroine Allie I thought that she was a complex and interesting character to read about. My only complaint is that I would have liked a bit more of this book to have been from Allie’s point of view as a human simply because I found the idea of a human living in a vampire ruling city so different to read about and the beginning of the story was one of my favourite parts of the book because of this.

Despite all the blood and gore and all of that awesome stuff there is also a dash of romance for good measure but unlike a lot of vampire stories it doesn’t dominate the entire book. This is not a love story although it does have an interesting and at time complicated budding relationship between Allie and Zeke which will satisfy paranormal romance fans.

Overall The Immortal Rules is a near perfect vampire story with lots of blood and biting like they used to make in the good old days! If like me you thought that you were so over the vampire genre The Immortal Rules will make you think again.