The Immortal Rules (Blood of Eden, #1) in Crazy Challenge Connection

Aug 30, 2013 Jamie rated it it was amazing

Shelves: dystopian-utopian, vampires-werewolves, books-i-own, young-adult

I think I actually enjoyed this more the second time through. There were so many details I glossed over on my first read I think. The world building is very well done! This is NOT a world I would ever want to be in. But it is so interesting to see this fictional future is created. Or how it crumbles...

I loved Allison's character. It is interesting to watch her grow and change through this major transition she faces. For better or worse. Zeke was decent and Caleb is fantastic! I find the stranges ...more

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May 01, 2012 Danie rated it it was amazing

Shelves: availability-own-ebook, age-group-young-adult, genre-fantasy, favorites, genre-horror, read-in-2012, availability-ng-edelweiss

I was on the fence about reading this, to tell the truth. I am kind of "over" the whole vampire thing, because once Twilight came out, vampires were everywhere. There were tons of vampire books, TV shows, movies, etc. It just got to a point where whenever another vampire book came out, I'd automatically pass by it in a bookstore. But I kept seeing reviews from bloggers that were all saying how fantastic this was, so I decided to check it out. It did not disappoint.

Allison Sekemoto lives in a wo
I was on the fence about reading this, to tell the truth. I am kind of "over" the whole vampire thing, because once Twilight came out, vampires were everywhere. There were tons of vampire books, TV shows, movies, etc. It just got to a point where whenever another vampire book came out, I'd automatically pass by it in a bookstore. But I kept seeing reviews from bloggers that were all saying how fantastic this was, so I decided to check it out. It did not disappoint.

Allison Sekemoto lives in a world very different from our own. Vampires do not hide from humans. On the contrary, they keep humans as "pets." Sort of like their own personal blood banks. Every human is required to register with the vampires, and they "donate" blood. For humans who choose to hide out and not register, life is hard. They have to search for food and go beyond the city to find it. This wouldn't be a problem normally, but all is not normal in Allison's world, and rabids prowl the land beyond the walls of the city.

A rabid is exactly what causes Allison to become one of the creatures she hates the most. When she and her friends are attacked, she is rescued by a vampire, Kanin. He gives her the choice - let him turn her into a vampire, or die as a result of the rabid attack. Allison realizes she would rather become a vampire than die, so Kanin turns her.

Kanin starts to train Allison to help her learn how to be a successful vampire. He teaches her how to fight, how to burrow into the ground to sleep, and most importantly, how to feed. He encourages her to leave her old life behind, forget her friends back home, but she can't do that. She decides to go back and see her friend, Stick, thinking that everything will be okay.

Stick is not the person Allison thinks he is, however, and he tells the vampires who run the city where Allison and Kanin are hiding out. This leads to the vampires coming to the old hospital where Allison and Kanin are staying, and causes Allison to go off on her own.

The Immortal Rules was the first book I've ever read of Julie Kagawa's. I've had the Iron Fey series on my to-read-list for what seems like forever, but for one reason or another, have never read them. I think it's because I normally don't read fairy/faery/faerie books. I'm a definite fan of her writing after reading this book. It took me a little while to get into the story, but once I did, I had to be dragged away from my Nook to do things like eat dinner, go to sleep, go to work. You know, the not-so-important stuff, when you're reading a novel like this.

Probably my favorite part of this book, as crazy as it sounds, was the parts with the rabids in it. I mean, come on! They were like...part zombie, part vampire monsters! I can't remember ever reading a book with anything like the rabids. Whenever they came near Allison, my heart was pounding and I was rooting for her and her traveling companions to escape. Especially towards the end, in the last 50 pages or so, I was biting my nails, sitting up in bed, keeping my fingers crossed for them to make it to Eden.

I also loved that The Immortal Rules had a dystopian feel to it as well. It's no secret that my favorite genre is dystopian, but to be completely honest, I have been getting kind of bored with all the dystopians coming out lately. The Immortal Rules put a completely new spin on it.

I especially enjoyed that the book was split into the four parts. It really helped with connecting to what Allison was feeling at each particular point in the story. I actually could feel that she was a monster during that part, and same with each of the other divisions. I'm hoping that Julie Kagawa will continue those splits into the rest of the series.

All in all, The Immortal Rules was a fantastic vampire story. Everything about it was just perfect. Perfect characters, perfect writing, perfect story. This will be a book that I need to buy an actual copy of, not just an e-book, to put up on my shelf of favorites with Harry Potter, The Hunger Games and the Gone series. Thank you, Julie Kagawa, for making me a fan of vampires again. ...more

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May 01, 2012 Jessie Marie rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Originally posted on The Daily Bookmark

Ladies and gentlemen, the badass, hair-raising vampire is back. No, he's not going to snuggle you in the nighttime and profess his love. He doesn't play piano because he was thinking about you. The only affection he feels for you is equivalent to a human's affection for chocolate and steak: food. Julie Kagawa made vampires scary again and and yet, it's done so in a way that is strangely human.

Allison "Allie" Sekemoto hates vampires. She lives on the Fringe, Originally posted on The Daily Bookmark

Ladies and gentlemen, the badass, hair-raising vampire is back. No, he's not going to snuggle you in the nighttime and profess his love. He doesn't play piano because he was thinking about you. The only affection he feels for you is equivalent to a human's affection for chocolate and steak: food. Julie Kagawa made vampires scary again and and yet, it's done so in a way that is strangely human.

Allison "Allie" Sekemoto hates vampires. She lives on the Fringe, starving daily and simply fighting to survive. She doesn't want to be a blood bag for the vampires that run the city but she has to stick around - Rabid vampires (mutated, zombie-like versions) haunt outside the walls. Talk about being stuck between a rock and hard place. In a food scavenge gone horribly wrong, an ancient vampire named Kanin presents her a choice, become the thing she hates most or die a real and final death.

Naturally (pun intended), she chooses life and spends her time contemplating just exactly what that means. To become a monster is inevitable (she will have to feed on humans) but, as Kanin explains, it's up to the monster to decide what kind of monster. That was the most amazing part about this book: Allie's inner struggle is the real "bad guy" here, and the pros and cons of her situation are clearly laid out, completely understandable. Given the romanticization of vampires in TV, movies and books these days, we all want to be one (immortality, superpowers, etc.). After The Immortal Rules, I'm not so sure because I get what Allie was experiencing, even if I never actually experience it.

I greatly appreciated Kagawa's clear and easy explanation of things. Vampires are the reason for this post-apocolyptic, dystopian society. Red Lung disease (genius classification) is the reason for the Rabids "outside". Did you know that vampires don't need to breathe so when they're trying to "blend in", it has to be forced? Well, duh. But that's never been explicitly explained before now. Freaking genius. And The Hunger is awe-inspiring. I was starving whilst reading this because I just couldn't help but feel Allie's mind-numbing, bone-crushing Hunger. The action is non-stop, the twists and turns run amuck and I couldn't turn the pages fast enough.

Along with all this vampire lore and dark and creepy stuff, Allison spends time with a group of humans and a little romance develops between she and a guy named Zeke. While I was, at first, skeptical on the addition of the romance aspect, I gradually grew to appreciate. How better to exemplify an internal struggle such as this than to add a little romance? In the end, I've never wanted a human-vampire relationship to work more.

A strange thing about The Immortal Rules is that it sometimes felt like separate books fused together to form one. I know I'm not the only one who experienced this, though I don't think it helped nor hindered the book in anyway - I would have died if I had to wait a year between chunks.

With that being said, I had a lot of questions that came up (many of which were answered, some that were not) and a lot of wishes for the plot that never came to fruition (maybe in the next books?). I will definitely be anxiously awaiting The Eternity Cure. ...more

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Apr 21, 2014 Jenn rated it liked it

Shelves: young-adult, 2014

I read this book for a challenge. It has been on my shelf for a long time now. I haven't really been into vampires lately. I might have rated the book higher if I was. But for now, it kind of reminded me a lot of The Walking Dead TV show. The rabids, reminded me more of zombies than vampires and the thing with the farmhouse and the preacher. Maybe some day, if I get back into vamps again, I might read the next two books, but for now, I'll pass. ...more

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Apr 21, 2017 Steph Ann rated it really liked it

This book has been on my TBR for a long time, and I'm so glad I finally got around to reading it. My attention was captured with the first chapter, and it didn't really let up throughout the story. There were some slow parts here and there, but even then, I was still interested in what was going on. One thing I really liked was that while Allison does become stronger, faster, etc. when she's changed, she doesn't automatically become a good fighter. She has to actually work at it, and she does ma ...more

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