Saturday Pages: The Eternity Cure by Julie Kagawa!!

Following the bloody theme of this week's Saturday Pages, here's the review of the second book of the Blood of Eden series, by Julie Kagawa. As book two of a trilogy it is part of my 2014 Series Challenge. And as a paranormal postapocalyptic dystopia, it is part of my Dystopian Reading Challenge 2014!

The Eternity Cure (MIRA Ink) by Julie Kagawa

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


The Eternity Cure is the second book in the Blood of Eden series, and let me tell you from the start on that is doesn't suffer from the middle book syndrome at all!

I will try my best to avoid spoilers for the book, but it is quite likely that this review will contain spoilers for The Immortal Rules. I usually try to avoid those too, but most of the time those are hard to avoid.

The Eternity Cure starts mostly where we left Allison by the end of book 1, trying to find Kanin and rescue him from Sarren's hands/claws. She's once again on her own but she's not the same vampire she was before. She has a better hold on her monster and her humanity, and even though she's clearly hurting, she keeps on telling herself it was the right thing to do.

While looking for Kanin she meets up with Jackal, and despite not trusting or liking him, they establish a truce to rescue their sire from Sarren, and following the blood trail they end up back in New Covington, Allie's city. And here Allie finds herself with a very unexpected surprise, she finds Zeke in there being a leader for the few Frigue humans that aren't affected by the new plague.

Allie does grow quite a bit during the course of this book, she learns to be strong for herself and others, and despite her dislike of Jackal, she also learns quite a lot about him and his sire from him. She's still a fighter, and she manages to never lose track of herself to the monster, even when facing a mad monster as Sarren ( I just cannot use the term madman with him).

Kanin is a character that I liked on The Immortal Rules, and despite spending quite a bit of this book in a rather reactive position and not taking part of the action, since he's being tortured and being used as bait, I found myself understand and growing to like him more and more. He's a vampire that believes a lot on making your own choices, atoning for your acts and fighting for what is worth it. And despite his very tough exterior, he really cares a lot for Allison as a father figure.

Jackal is a fantastic character, and one I love to dislike and like alternatively. He's irritating and horrible but provides the right sarcastic comedy relief even in the stark and harsh landscape that this book has. He's also a powerful ally and vampire and thankfully he's never used as a possible part of a love triangle!

Zeke is slightly rougher around the edges, but he's still this inherently good guy. He's always a fighter, he's always hopefull and he's always loyal. He managed to shift his world when he discovered he was in love with a vampire, and he can ally himself with the vampires to try and safe the world.

Sarren is the definition of the perfect maniacal villain. Despite the past and what he might have suffered, I couldn't empathise with him at all. He's gone beyond any possible empathy and he's turned into a mad monster, no longer fit to be called a madman. He's extremly strong and fast and cunning. He's the kind of monster to give other monsters nightmares, and that's proven here.

The plot gives us a few surprises here and there and the stakes keeps on getting higher with new versions of the viruses affecting humans and Sarren threatening everything and everyone.

The ending has to be one of the most heartbreaking and evil ones I've recently read! I was beyond glad I had read it with the final book, The Forever Song, just a pair of months away! But yeah, evil cliffhanger advisory announcement here.

Very much deserving of 4 to 4.5 stars!



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