Saturday Pages: The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa!!

This week's Saturday Pages are quite bloody themed, cause both books are vampire books, and are actually book 1 and 2 of a trilogy. And even if they weren't in my original post for my 2014 Series Challenge, I'm gonna be adding them to it, since the final book of the trilogy comes out this year.

I read them during my Julie Kagawa improptu readathon, when I read the entire Iron Fey series and then jumped to read these ones!

Since it is clearly postapocalyptic, I'm also adding this one to my Dystopia Reading Challenge 2014, even if the vampire aspect would make it paranormal. We'll call it a paranormal postapocalyptic dystopia?

The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I've read many vampire books, and it's a genre I really like but I also feel it can get quite repetitive in the way vampires are portrayed and the dynamics between mortals and humans.

I decided to start this series cause I had read and loved the Iron Fey series by Julie Kagawa and if she had written books about the Fae that I loved, I was pretty sure I'd like her books about vampires. And I was right!

Allison lives in a postapocalyptic world were vampires are in charge, humans are treated as cattle, protected as food for the vampires, in the aftermath of horrible plagues that affected humans and then vampires: Red Lung and Rabidism.

Allie lives in the Fringue of one of the vampire cities but since she wants to be free from the monsters, she lives a day to day tough survival life, scavenging for food during the day and hiding in a somewhat safe place during the night. She hates vampires with a passion, but after a failed run for food, she is given the chance between dying of her wounds or be turned and live as one of the monsters. Despite her hate, Allie chooses not to die.

Kanin, the vampire that saves her and turns her, acts as her mentor on how to survive as a vampire, and on how to not turn into a full-fledge monster. Soon, Allie has to run from her city and survive on her own in the outside world full of "rabids" (mindless monsters that only care about flesh, blood and prey). She ends up meeting a group of human survivors looking for Eden, a city of humans without vampires. She finds herself hiding her true nature and trying to help this humans reach safety.

Here is were we meet Zeke, a fighter and a survivor, and a guy that is kind, positive and full of hope despite the horrible situation the whole world is in. He takes Allie into the group without a doubt and his whole attitude really throw Allie for a loop. Their interactions are fantastic and I absolutely loved reading them.

This book has a fantastic romance, and that coming from me that usually doesn't like romance as much, is saying something! I now understand the love for Zeke that goes round the blogosphere! Allie kicks arse but she hasn't fully accepted herself as a vampire, since she always hated them as vile monsters. She can't see herself as good as a vampire, and Zeke helps her with that.

The plot has a main overall arch, with the group of survivors trying to reach Eden, as well as hinting at what would be developed in the next books. There are also underlying themes of choice, not letting our circumstantes decide who we are, but we making each they the choices to be the best we can be and fighting for what's worth fighting.

Allie and Zeke are fantastic characters, but we meet many other secondary or not so secondary characters that also help drive the story and the plot, like Kanin and Jackal and Sarren and Jebediah... They're all fully fleshed and they all serve a purpose and drive the story in their own way.

This was a fantastic book to start a trilogy and very much a fresh take on vampires. Very much deserved 4 stars!



View all my reviews