Review: The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa

The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa
Published: April 24, 2012
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Pages: 512
Series: Blood of Eden #1
My Rating: 5 of 5 stars

Synopsis: "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.

My Review: Picture the thing you hate most. Got it in your mind?
Now imagine you are dying and the only way to survive is to become the thing you hate most.
Would you take that opportunity or would you die? Ok show of hands for how many people would want to become something they hate if it means the other option is death? Come on don't be shy! I know you're out there. If it helps I'd do the same. And so would Allison Sekemoto.

Allison Sekemoto is a street rat. She's barely surviving with her little gang of only four people (including her). So when she finds a whole basement full of food she doesn't hesitate to tell her friends where it is and bring them there. But the stash is outside the vampire city, which means rabids could be waiting for them and you don't want to run into a rabid but they go anyway. They get attacked by the rabids and in order to save her "friend" Stick, Allison sacrifices herself to the rabids but before she can die a vampire comes to her and gives her a choice: become the thing she hates most (a vampire) or die.

"I wish I could've said I would rather die than become a bloodsucker. I wished I had the courage, the strength, to stick with my convictions. But in reality, when faced with death and the great unknown that came after, my survival instinct snatched wildly at whatever lifeline was offered. I didn't want to die. Even if it meant becoming something I loathed, my nature was, first and always, to survive."

I'm a huge fan of Julie Kagawa's Iron Fey series and her writing. So imagine my delight when I found out about this book. At first I was a bit worried that the paranormal part of the book would mix well with the dystopian part of this book (think water and oil) but all my worries were for nothing because this book blended the two perfectly.

I also never once thought the book was slow, it was actually quite fast paced and it had its fair share of action. The characters were also perfect for the story and how they acted was believable and realistic.

I loved the idea of the rabids and the vampire cities. For some reason the rabids reminded me of the monster-vampire-things from I Am Legend. Those things gave me chills and so did the rabids and I don't think many books (if any) have actually given me chills.

For me this book was pretty amazing and I found myself getting completely absorbed into the story. It was unique and anyone who loved the Iron Fey series will most likely love this too as long as said person is up for everything that should come with every vampire book.