The Immortal Rules - Julie Kagawa

The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book will be published on April 24th 2012 I read the Iron Fey series and was really impressed with Julie Kagawa's take on the genre. Her character's voices were authentic without lapsing into the "teen speak" which afflicts some other YA fiction. Her faeries were real and menacing, so I was very much looking forward to her take on vampires.

I wasn't disappointed. I've tried to be as spoiler free as possible and not give away much more than is on the cover, but if you're avoiding any spoilers at all, proceed with caution.

...they're vampires, I wanted to say. Monsters. They only see us as two things: slaves and food. Nothing good comes from a bloodsucker, you know that.




Allison Sekemoto is a Fringer. She and her fellow street rats survive by scrounging what they can and staying out of the way of the vampires who rule the city of New Covington. Being Unregistered, they don't have to make the regular "donations" of blood, but they don't get food vouchers, either. Allie's desperation and hunger lead her to exploring outside the city walls for food and this puts her at the mercy of the Rabids who await their prey in the wastes outside the vampire cities. When faced with the choice death, becoming a rabid herself or becoming a vampire, Allie makes the only decision her 17 years of survival will allow: not to die.

Allison's maker tells her, "You will always be a monster ... but what type of monster your become is entirely up to you."

The story that follows is Allison making that decision. Will she be the stuff of nightmares; the mythical vampire killer? Or will she find her humanity still very much intact?

Kagawa's characters are well formed with complex motivations and interesting backstories. Allison is a compelling lead and her story is often tense and suspenseful. On more than one occasion I found my hand had drifted up to my mouth as if in shock.

To say much more or to talk about other invidual characters would be to give too much away and I don't want to spoil this book for you because you should really read it for yourself.

If you think that vampires have been done to death then you are wrong. Give it a read and see.



Note: Unlike most of the other reviews on here, this is a review of an ARC sent from the publisher, Harlequin Teen.