The Immortal Rules (Blood of Eden, #1) in SOS: Serious Overload of Series

Apr 20, 2012 D rated it really liked it

Release Date: April 24
I was really impressed with The Immortal Rules. I was really worried that this might be typical vampire YA fanfare, but Kagawa's Iron series displayed a level of talent that gave me faith in this new series. Kagawa proved me right. Her latest novel is edgy and original. She presents us with a true dystopian vampire world. While this may have been done before in adult genres, it is very new to the YA genre, successfully combining two YA trend favorites: vampires and dystopia ...more

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May 01, 2012 Christal rated it liked it

Shelves: dystopian-post-apocalyptic, female-lead, vampires, ya-and-na, zombies-and-ghouls, urban-fantasy

The Immortal Rules was an interesting book, but I just didn't fall in love with it. The characters were hit or miss and the plot dragged throughout the middle, but the ending was exciting enough that I think I will pick up the next book in the series, if just to find out what happens to Kanin.

When the book begins, Allison Sekemoto is an unregistered, street child living in a vampire city. The humans are basically blood cattle and Allie avoids this because she isn't registered. She isn't entitled The Immortal Rules was an interesting book, but I just didn't fall in love with it. The characters were hit or miss and the plot dragged throughout the middle, but the ending was exciting enough that I think I will pick up the next book in the series, if just to find out what happens to Kanin.

When the book begins, Allison Sekemoto is an unregistered, street child living in a vampire city. The humans are basically blood cattle and Allie avoids this because she isn't registered. She isn't entitled to the food rations that the registereds get though, so she is having to scavenge and live on the streets. During a food raid with her gang, they are attacked by rabids and Allie is dying. Kanin, a vampire, finds her and offers to turn her. She accepts and so begins the meat of the book. I really enjoyed seeing Allie's life in the city and I hope that we learn more about the "city vamps" and their society in the next book. Allie herself was an interesting character. She wants to live, but she doesn't want to become a monster. She spends a lot of time weighing her actions and regretting some of them, but I think it kept her character humble and made her different from most of the vampires we met.

Kanin takes Allie under his wing and begins to teach her about vampire life. He also finds her an awesome katana and she starts learning sword fighting. A situation ends their time together in the tunnels, and Allie has to strike off on her own. I loved Kanin! Even though he wasn't in the book for very long, he was quite possibly my favorite character. If he doesn't play a very large role in the next book, I will be sorely disappointed.

Allie meets up with a group of humans searching for a city called Eden. She pretends to be human as well and ends up joining them. This is where we meet Zeke, the love interest. He was okay I guess. I didn't love him, but it was nice to see something different from the typical alpha male. He just seemed a little too wishy-washy at times but he did get to be pretty badass in the end. The rest of the characters in the group were either horrible stereotypes (the no-nonsense preacher, the mean girl, the cute kids) or they were pretty much non-existent (everybody else). This part draaaaaagged on the most for me. They walk and walk and walk, action scene!, walk some more, meet some new people, confrontation with Allie!, more walking... you get the point. I actually put this book down for about a month and when I finally picked it back up, I had no problems remembering what happened previously because it was all walking! The ending makes up for this stalling somewhat, but I still think a lot of that section could have been cleaned up.

The last part of this book reminded me of I Am Legend, the movie not the book. Group of travelers searching for a city, behind huge walls, that hasn't been infected by the rabid disease. (view spoiler) After the action of the final rabid attack, the transition to the city just seemed blah. I was glad when Allie left to tend to unfinished business. I will be checking out the next book because the unfinished business should be Kanin. ...more

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Apr 25, 2013 Thenia rated it really liked it

Shelves: series, r-ab, reviewed, vampires, ya-na, paranormal, dystopia, 2014

Dark, depressing and interesting world, complex characters and a bittersweet ending.

Allison is a girl that lives with a gang in a fringe part of town, outside the walls of the inner city where vampires and their humans reside. She is not registered, meaning she is not a vampire's property and so has no privileges, is given no food or shelter and has to do whatever she can in order to survive the harsh laws of the city. She hates vampires, who she believes are soulless monsters, but the rabids th ...more

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May 04, 2012 Deyara rated it it was amazing

Shelves: dystopian, char-vampires, post-apocalyptic, setting-america, setting-alternate-universe

Liked the writing, though the story was a bit sinplistic and too clean - why is there still food all over the place? Why doez everything end up all nice and tidy? Still, an interesting read.

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Apr 30, 2012 Jesslyn rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: cat-series-ongoing, cat-dystopian-fantasy, cat-ya-fantasy, audiobook-whispersync-companion, z2014-kindle-reads

Thank god I'm finished. I couldn't get into it and if it hadn't been an audiobook, it probably would have been a DNF for me. It was too much YA for my tastes ...more

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