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A review by kblincoln
The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa
4.0
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