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3.95 AVERAGE
3.95 AVERAGE
When I first spotted the cover I thought "Hey, that's interesting." Then I read the back and thought "Hey, that's different." And now I've finished the book and I'm thinking "Julie Kagawa is freaking brilliant."
Its an understatement to say that the whole vampire teen things is overdone. But I figured that since I loved what Kagawa did with her Iron Fey series I would give this book a try. I was not disappointed. I was immediately hooked with the surreal yet quite believable post-apocalyptic world she created. The progression was fast and I loved the action scenes. Kagawa has quite the knack for them.
One important thing that Kagawa did in this book that many teen novels don't is having time pass over the course of the novel. I feel that this is such an important thing and it bothers me when no times passes between events. It doesn't feel realistic. But Kagawa gave me that and I actually smiled when I saw "over the course of the next few weeks" (paraphrased).
However, not everything was perfect. I did not like Allie's love interest. Not...at...all... He was just too perfect and I find perfection in books annoying.
Besides that I really enjoyed this book. I can't wait for the next one.
Its an understatement to say that the whole vampire teen things is overdone. But I figured that since I loved what Kagawa did with her Iron Fey series I would give this book a try. I was not disappointed. I was immediately hooked with the surreal yet quite believable post-apocalyptic world she created. The progression was fast and I loved the action scenes. Kagawa has quite the knack for them.
One important thing that Kagawa did in this book that many teen novels don't is having time pass over the course of the novel. I feel that this is such an important thing and it bothers me when no times passes between events. It doesn't feel realistic. But Kagawa gave me that and I actually smiled when I saw "over the course of the next few weeks" (paraphrased).
However, not everything was perfect. I did not like Allie's love interest. Not...at...all... He was just too perfect and I find perfection in books annoying.
Besides that I really enjoyed this book. I can't wait for the next one.
Allie is an unregistered kid in a vampire city. Roaming the ruins of a mighty city (from when humans lived free, before a plague that almost wipes us out)with her plucky band of street kids, Allie is most focused on survival.
One night she ventures out of the city walls into the territory of rabids (feral vampires) and discovers a giant food cache that would feed her crew for months.
When they return to get the food, Allie is attacked by rabids; a sure death sentence. But a stranger heals her, and in doing so, makes her into one of the very beings she fears and hates most; vampire.
Her vampire maker is a loner, unlike any vampire Allie has heard of, and as he teaches her to accept what she's become, she discovers he hides important secrets about why rabids have taken over most of the country.
Setting out on her own after her maker is captured, Allie encounters a band of humans looking for "Eden", a city with no vampires where humans live free with technology. She joins them incognito, but soon finds her Hunger and the leader's son, Zeke, testing the vows she's made to never become a monster.
Alot happens in this book, and, for me, the three major parts tasted very differently from each other. Allie (Sekemoto! Yay Asian heroines even when their ethnic culture really has nothing to do with their character development)looks for food and worries in the first part. It was fine, but a bit slow for me.
After she is turned, she has to learn about vampires and give up her old life. This second part intrigued me more as I wanted to know what rules the author was going to establish, but I felt the (necessary) summarizing of Allie's training distanced me from feeling attached to her agonized "oh I don't want to be a monster but look I have Hunger" worries.
It is the third part where she hooks up with the humans, and Zeke, that ratchets this story up to the fourth star. While Allie is fairy hard to kill, we get massive tension from her fears of being discovered as a vampire and her worries about the vulnerability of the humans. The added icing on the angst cake was how Zeke kept trying to get closer to Allie even as she was trying to figure out how to get blood before she turned into a ravening monster.
Then, at the end, with the revelation about Zeke's father, the raider king, and her vampire maker's fate, the whole plot tightened up quite nicely, as well as set up some excellent obstacles for Allie to overcome.
And she gets to overcome them with a katana, so kudos on that. I will definitely be looking for the next installment and hoping the author continues on in the vein of part three with more action and more of Allie trying to save those she cares about.
The haunted cities infested by light-fearing rabids featuring a character wanting to find a cure reminded me severely of "I am Legend". While the romantic aspect of this book is acceptable for elementary kids, I'm pretty sure my 4th grader daughter would be icked out by the blood-and-gore.
This Book's Snack Designation: Like sea salt and vinegar Kettle chips for the salty crunch of Allie after the slow beginning
One night she ventures out of the city walls into the territory of rabids (feral vampires) and discovers a giant food cache that would feed her crew for months.
When they return to get the food, Allie is attacked by rabids; a sure death sentence. But a stranger heals her, and in doing so, makes her into one of the very beings she fears and hates most; vampire.
Her vampire maker is a loner, unlike any vampire Allie has heard of, and as he teaches her to accept what she's become, she discovers he hides important secrets about why rabids have taken over most of the country.
Setting out on her own after her maker is captured, Allie encounters a band of humans looking for "Eden", a city with no vampires where humans live free with technology. She joins them incognito, but soon finds her Hunger and the leader's son, Zeke, testing the vows she's made to never become a monster.
Alot happens in this book, and, for me, the three major parts tasted very differently from each other. Allie (Sekemoto! Yay Asian heroines even when their ethnic culture really has nothing to do with their character development)looks for food and worries in the first part. It was fine, but a bit slow for me.
After she is turned, she has to learn about vampires and give up her old life. This second part intrigued me more as I wanted to know what rules the author was going to establish, but I felt the (necessary) summarizing of Allie's training distanced me from feeling attached to her agonized "oh I don't want to be a monster but look I have Hunger" worries.
It is the third part where she hooks up with the humans, and Zeke, that ratchets this story up to the fourth star. While Allie is fairy hard to kill, we get massive tension from her fears of being discovered as a vampire and her worries about the vulnerability of the humans. The added icing on the angst cake was how Zeke kept trying to get closer to Allie even as she was trying to figure out how to get blood before she turned into a ravening monster.
Then, at the end, with the revelation about Zeke's father, the raider king, and her vampire maker's fate, the whole plot tightened up quite nicely, as well as set up some excellent obstacles for Allie to overcome.
And she gets to overcome them with a katana, so kudos on that. I will definitely be looking for the next installment and hoping the author continues on in the vein of part three with more action and more of Allie trying to save those she cares about.
The haunted cities infested by light-fearing rabids featuring a character wanting to find a cure reminded me severely of "I am Legend". While the romantic aspect of this book is acceptable for elementary kids, I'm pretty sure my 4th grader daughter would be icked out by the blood-and-gore.
This Book's Snack Designation: Like sea salt and vinegar Kettle chips for the salty crunch of Allie after the slow beginning
this was actually so good??? i had some doubts when i realized this was a vampire story bc those are so easily a miss, but i actually ended up really enjoying this and this world and how its built up. but i shouldnt have doubted, its julie kagawa, and she never disappoints.
I wanted to like, but I just couldn't find it in me. I love Julie's books, but this one didn't grow on me enough to even finish.
Blah story. Blah heroine. Blah characters. Blah everything. It wasn't totally awful but I would never recommend this book to anyone. Honestly, I picked it up knowing it was yet another vampire story but kind of hoping that it would be different (especially since I was told it was a "fresh new take on the whole vampire tales"--which, yeah it was but don't let that fool you) and, not going to lie, I was pretty excited to find a WOC (a Japanese women, in this case) as the main character rather than the same generic white girl. I guess this book sure taught me a lesson: regardless of how diverse and different a story may appear, YA culture is YA culture, regardless. Which of course means the same cheesy, boring, unoriginal romances (with Zeke, the beautiful, blonde, kind, selfless, fearless, strong, perfect, uber-human white boy with some warped Daddy issues; hello sir, haven't we met before? In the millions of other YA books I've read, perhaps? Hint: yes we have), "tough" heroines who don't have much to show for their strength other than biting sarcasm and the couple of times she's bared her fangs and her cool-ass sword (that katana was wasted), ridiculous female-female fighting over a man (where the other girl is OBVIOUSLY a bitch for no real reason and stands so little of a chance that you can't actually call it a love triangle) which I am SO unbelievably over, and a plot that struggles to be more complicated than it really is and just ends up losing you at some point.
The fact that Allison only gets whinier and more Zeke-centered in the next books makes me shudder.
The side characters themselves, I could explain their whole personalities in one sentence and that is not a good thing. They are honestly all caricatures of some overused stereotypes; I personally judge a book a lot by the characters, so that was a huge disappointment.
The one character I did enjoy was Kanen, Allison's sire who seemed like a character with a lot of potential, and I did like the way the authoress described the settings, from Allison's hometown to trashed Chicago. And despite having to read it more than once, I did also like the idea of the virus, its history and the idea of the rabids, zombie-like monsters who are a threat to humans and vampires alike.
But even the positives couldn't make me stop from feeling like I was dragging myself through mud just to finish the book. So I'd skip this.
P.S. Also, apparently vampires cry blood...PLEASE.
You can find my review for this book, and others, on my blog: Sweaters and Raindrops
The fact that Allison only gets whinier and more Zeke-centered in the next books makes me shudder.
The side characters themselves, I could explain their whole personalities in one sentence and that is not a good thing. They are honestly all caricatures of some overused stereotypes; I personally judge a book a lot by the characters, so that was a huge disappointment.
The one character I did enjoy was Kanen, Allison's sire who seemed like a character with a lot of potential, and I did like the way the authoress described the settings, from Allison's hometown to trashed Chicago. And despite having to read it more than once, I did also like the idea of the virus, its history and the idea of the rabids, zombie-like monsters who are a threat to humans and vampires alike.
But even the positives couldn't make me stop from feeling like I was dragging myself through mud just to finish the book. So I'd skip this.
P.S. Also, apparently vampires cry blood...PLEASE.
You can find my review for this book, and others, on my blog: Sweaters and Raindrops
I enjoyed this book and look forward to seeing how the story unfolds!
I have no idea why it took me so long to read The Immortal Rules! I loved The Iron Fey series by Kagawa, so it makes sense I'd pick up The Immortal Rules at some point.
I'm not sure what I was expecting, but The Iron Fey and The Immortal Rules are very, very different. Julie Kagawa is just so amazing at putting her own twist on things! The vampires are definitely in charge, and treat humans as cattle. I was so fascinated by the UnRegistered and the Rabids and a disease that killed off a lot of the human population. It's all futuristic and dark and not what I was expecting. She did a great job creating this world and creating characters who are interesting and start to question everything they've believed in.
I'm not completely sure about Allison as a character. It took me a while to warm up to her, and while I didn't completely love her, I did sort of like her and understand where she was coming from. Zeke was just okay but it was nice to see a potential love interest who shows up half-way through the novel. Actually, the romance was set-up really well, and there are going to be quite a few problems they have to work through. But I liked that we get an idea of what this world is like and how people see vampires. It really wasn't easy for Allison to be a vampire, and I liked seeing how people treated her before knowing she was a vampire and how they treated her after finding out.
Back to characters, Kanin was really interesting, and it's too bad we don't see more of him! I think I like him better with Allison, but I have the feeling it's not going to go that way. There's a lot of mystery as far as Kanin is concerned so hopefully, we see more of him.
It did start off a little slow for me, but once things got going, I found myself enjoying it more and wanting to know what happened!
Final Thoughts: I really liked The Immortal Rules. I don't love it the way I loved The Iron Fey, but I love the way Kagawa takes vampires or fairies and makes them really interesting. The Immortal Rules gets 4 stars!
I'm not sure what I was expecting, but The Iron Fey and The Immortal Rules are very, very different. Julie Kagawa is just so amazing at putting her own twist on things! The vampires are definitely in charge, and treat humans as cattle. I was so fascinated by the UnRegistered and the Rabids and a disease that killed off a lot of the human population. It's all futuristic and dark and not what I was expecting. She did a great job creating this world and creating characters who are interesting and start to question everything they've believed in.
I'm not completely sure about Allison as a character. It took me a while to warm up to her, and while I didn't completely love her, I did sort of like her and understand where she was coming from. Zeke was just okay but it was nice to see a potential love interest who shows up half-way through the novel. Actually, the romance was set-up really well, and there are going to be quite a few problems they have to work through. But I liked that we get an idea of what this world is like and how people see vampires. It really wasn't easy for Allison to be a vampire, and I liked seeing how people treated her before knowing she was a vampire and how they treated her after finding out.
Back to characters, Kanin was really interesting, and it's too bad we don't see more of him! I think I like him better with Allison, but I have the feeling it's not going to go that way. There's a lot of mystery as far as Kanin is concerned so hopefully, we see more of him.
It did start off a little slow for me, but once things got going, I found myself enjoying it more and wanting to know what happened!
Final Thoughts: I really liked The Immortal Rules. I don't love it the way I loved The Iron Fey, but I love the way Kagawa takes vampires or fairies and makes them really interesting. The Immortal Rules gets 4 stars!
Definitely interesting and different from every vampire book I've read so far. Seeing the characters change and evolve like they do. I'm left somewhat speechless other then to say I'll definitely be continuing this series.
This was a completely different vampire book than from others that are out there...and that's a really good thing! I kept waiting for it to get a little sappy and even cliche, but it kept disappointing me in that aspect, which is always good. I enjoyed that the storyline wasn't wholly romantic and full of unrequited love because of one person being a vampire and the other not. Instead, it did incorporate a romantic plot line but focused a lot on the independent and sassy female protagonist, Allison, and the vampire society- as well as what society was like after Red Lung plagued the world. The novel is action packed and really invests readers in the new world that Kagawa creates, so that alongside Allison you get sucked in, torn between her being a blood-hungry monster with humanitarian qualities. I ordered the second book in the series, so hopefully I'll get my hands on that soon and start reading!
4.5
This book was great, even though I don't like very much the start, after I read the hundred page I couldn't put it down!!! very entertaining, interesting and overall different, is not the typical story of vampires or love story.
It has action, romance, secrets, it just so good that I definitely recommend it for everyone.
This book was great, even though I don't like very much the start, after I read the hundred page I couldn't put it down!!! very entertaining, interesting and overall different, is not the typical story of vampires or love story.
It has action, romance, secrets, it just so good that I definitely recommend it for everyone.