Thursday, April 19, 2012

Book Review & Giveaway: The Immortal Rules, by Julie Kagawa

Oh my, oh my, The Immortal Rules is my kind of vampire book. Barely any romance, kick ass heroine, the need for human blood (animals just won't do), life-threatening danger. No sparkles.

The Immortal Rules is different, because it's really an apocalyptic book. It reminded me more of zombie books, like Rot & Ruin or The Passage. Allie is just trying to survive as an "unregistered" in a city controlled by vampires. Unregistereds live on their own; they don't have to donate blood twice a month to the vampires. But, they get no assistance. They must fend for themselves scrounging for food in a devastated area outside the city. Allie and her group are always hungry. They eat bugs and anything they can get their hands on, but there is never enough. Plus, they must keep away from the vampire patrols who are trying to catch them.

The city is surrounded by a wall to keep out the rabids. These are zombie-like creatures who are super strong, very aggressive, and can appear out of the ground instantly. But...there's a better chance of finding food outside the walls of the city. So, as Allie is taking chances outside the wall, she is attacked by rabids. She is going to die, except a vampire gives her a choice. He will turn her if she wants. She takes the deal. So, now Allie must learn how to be a vampire, but she refuses to give up all of her human nature.

Without giving too much away, Allie ends up leaving the city to fend for herself, but hooks up with a group of humans trying to find "Eden," supposedly a safe place with no vampires or rabids. She must pretend she is a human.

That's enough of the plot. Let's move on. The writing is superb. I'm not a fan of The Iron Fey series -- just because most of the time I don't care for high fantasy/fae stories. So, I'm so excited to tell you that Kagawa can tell a story. She gets the dialog perfect, she makes your heart pound. The descriptions of the setting are vivid. I found myself wanting to cough along with the characters at times when she describes pollution or smoke in the air, and shivered when they were cold.

I love Allie. She's suffered so much. She's so confused, but determined. She's strong and turns into quite the warrior. I enjoyed her relationship with the "love interest." It moves VERY slowly, and realistically. The bad guys are terrifying -- all of them -- rabids, vampires, humans. The Immortal Rules is almost 500 pages long, but there's always something happening -- so much so, that it' hard to find a place that you are able to put the book down. There may have been some light-headedness from holding my breath too.

I think you get the picture. The Immortal Rules will be recommended to every one of my "paranormal" teens. (You know what I mean, right?)

Published by Harlequin Teen, April 24, 2012
ARC obtained from Media Masters Publicity
485 pages

Rating: 5/5

GIVEAWAY TIME!

One hardback copy of The Immortal Rules, shipped from the publisher AFTER the publication date (April 24, 2012) Open to U.S. and Canada addresses only.

Please fill out the form to enter. Sign ups end April 28. Nothing else is required!


I'm not providing extra entries, but here's some great places to keep up with Julie Kagawa and Harlequin Teen!

* Following Julie on Twitter: @Jkagawa http://twitter.com/Jkagawa  
Follow Julie on her blog: http://juliekagawa.blogspot.com/
* Follow Harlequin Teen on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/HarlequinTEEN
* Follow Harlequin on Twitter: @HARLEQUINTEEN http://twitter.com/harlequinteen

And, if you are interested in PURCHASING The Immortal Rules (you really should) here's some helpful links:






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5 comments:

  1. I have been looking forward to reading this story. I love that the vampires are a little more viscous than the current ones in YA literature. It sounds really neat how she intermixes the vampires and "zombie-like creatures." I always like when we have more than one supernatural creature in a story.

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  2. i'm glad you liked this one, i'm reading it now.

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  3. I loved this one just as much as you Annette. Unfortunately I couldn't win our own giveaway, so I'm thrilled to have a chance at yours. Keeping my fingers crossed - I'd really like to own a copy of this one.

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    1. I'd love to have a copy too. I've probably entered your giveaway....

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  4. Keeping my fingers crossed on this one. I've heard great things about it. AND, I love her Iron Fey series. Thanks for the chance to win.

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