Review: The Immortal Rules, by Julie Kagawa

Title: The Immortal Rules (Blood of Eden #1)
Author: Julie Kagawa
Genre: YA dystopia
Pub. Date: April 24, 2012

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.

Julie Kagawa never fails to amaze me with her storytelling. Her novels will pull you into the world that she has superbly created with her beautifully detailed writing.

As hard as it is to admit, this book was, in summary, a disappointment. With my standards set so high, I was expecting something with more pizzazz (I can’t think of a better word, so I’ll just use that weird one).

It's not like the author did not do a good job in portraying vampires as how they are supposed to be portrayed. It's not that the story wasn't written well or the characters were flat or whatever. It's that I was not that affected by this story. Yes, the middle part was totally epic, but the rest... I don't know. It just was not that notable or magnificent, to me.

I guess a good way to put this is that this book will be easily forgotten, blurring in with the other insignificant books.

It causes me utmost pain to be giving Kagawa's book, an author whom I have been a major fan of, a rating of less than 4 stars. But I feel like there are other books out there worthy of 4 stars, more so than The Immortal Rules.

The only two characters that I truly felt a connection with are Caleb and Allie, not so much the others. And Caleb only because of how young and cute he is, and I have a soft spot for little kids. Zeke, while sweet and kind, was a little too perfect in my opinion, and was not that interesting to read about. Kanin was very mysterious and we know absolutely nothing about him besides what was revealed near the end. But I think that this was intentionally done in order to expand on his character in book 2. Kagawa did a good job with developing Allison as a main character, but neglected the other characters by not putting as much effort into them.

I can’t find any solid justification for rating this book 3.5 stars, other than the fact that I felt so disconnected from a majority of the characters. Though, I think that not being able to connect with the characters takes a lot away from the reading experience. So I guess that is a good enough reason.

I’m sorry Julie Kagawa, AKA one of my favorite authors of one of my favorite series, for giving your book 3.5 stars. I truly am. Still, I am firm in my belief that this book is not that great as I expected it would be.

*Cowers in a corner out of shame*

But there is still hope for book 2!

3.5/5 stars