Review: The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa

"In a future world, vampires reign. Humans are blood cattle. And one girl will search for the key to save humanity."Allison Sekemoto survives in the Fringe, the outermost circle of a vampire city. By day, she and her crew scavenge for food. By night, any one of them could be eaten.

Rating: 4/5

I know what you are thinking. Seriously? Another one? And just by virtue of principle and an unofficial rule in vampire book reviewing, yes there will be comparisons to twilight( it really is a must nowadays..)

Well I am happy to report though, that this offers a great comparison! (or bad depending on which side you are coming from)

Step aside sparkly vegetarian vamps, here comes the REAL DEAL. That is to say Allie is a freaking BADASS. This might be just me but katana wielding head decapitating vampires are definitely a plus 10 points in my book, if I had one. It's somehow gotten quite tiring reading book after book of whiny protagonist after protagonist complaining about having to kill people, and the whole book being about self discovery and self conflict. Well thats just selfish to me. Which is exactly why I enjoyed this book so much. Allie develops a purpose and a goal in this book, not just mindless boy chasing(Comparison #1) but a legit goal in which she gives herself a mission to accomplish, the coming to terms with self being a side story.

Props to Kagawa for managing to kill the right character off at the right time (FINALLY), I really admire an author that's not afraid to do that. And if that was a spoiler then I'm sorry but people do die in this book, quite a lot really. (For those who cringed at that, I refer you to the princess diaries, it might be slightly more suitable).

Among other things, I also like how she keeps to the normal characteristics of vampires but also adds her own little flair of uniqueness to them. REAL vampires (see what I did there?) don't sparkle in the sun they burn and burst into FLAMES (Comparison #2). 

As for the other characters in the story, they were pretty well done, each of them had a certain characteristic or trait that they kept throughout so there weren't any noticeable inconsistencies. But coming, of course, to Zeke. He was the typical kind and caring male lead but I must say there was something about him I found particularly refreshing. He wasn't overbearing and overprotective but he credited people based on their strengths and merits. And since Allie is freaking strong...well you know what happens.

I felt the pace was the main vice of the story, the beginning part was too long and got slightly boring. I enjoyed her training period with Kanin(!!!) and it was necessary but some of it could definitely have been omitted. It does pick up in the second half though so it wasn't that much of a drag.

Last but not least, the cover! Boy do I have a lot to say about this one. Allison is Japanese, or at least half. If the girl on the cover is a Japanese, I'm a Mexican. And I'm not. No offense to any Mexicans.