Teen review of "The Immortal Rules" by Julie Kagawa

The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa
TEEN KAGAWA
RO TEEN KAGAWA

I’ve had a bit of a string of books that were not so good and The Immortal Rules made up for all of it. I absolutely loved everything about it. Now, I’m not a huge fan of vampires. They’re okay, but I don’t really see the appeal. It takes a lot for me to really get into a vampire book, and boy, it didn’t really take me long to get into this one. I love Julie Kagawa’s writing and I’m a huge fan of The Iron Fey, but I believe that, not only has this series become my favorite of her’s, but that she can also write anything. If it wasn’t for her name on the cover, I would have never guessed that it was written by Julie Kagawa. The tone is so completely different from The Iron Fey. It’s much darker and morbidly sarcastic then her romps through the land of faerie. But the one thing they have in common: fantastic world building.

The dystopian landscape was just so well imagined and put together. I had no trouble picturing the landscapes. One element that really added to the experience were the rabids. The rabids are pretty much failed vampires that are almost zombie-like. The rabids mixed with the dystopian setting was really what I need to fill the hole that the mid-season finale of The Walking Dead left. And speaking of rabids and other monsters, I thought The Immortal Rules had the best depiction of vampires and vampire life that I have ever read. I feel that vampires are so romanticized in popular culture, and the book does a really excellent job of dispelling that. They may have been human once, but the will never rid themselves of the hunger and the demon inside them.

And speaking of vampires, Allison has to be one of the best heroines ever. I absolutely loved her character and her progression into becoming a vampire. She is such a strong character. She’s grown up pretty much on her own, living on the fringe of this vampire city and is always on the run, trying to survive, and I think that is what makes her an even strong vampire. She knows how to take care of herself and she’s not afraid to get her hands dirty if she has to. I was also quite happy to see that, although there is a romance, there were no love triangles and it wasn’t that prominent. Allison is a loner and her way of life requires her to be. I guess I like my protagonists to be tortured in some way.

Overall, The Immortal Rules was an excellent novel, and was just the thing I needed to help me wrap up the year and get me out of a reading rut. It had twists that I wasn’t expecting and elements in the plot that made me want to *bookshimmy* (Especially when that have to take a detour to a run down, dystopian Chicago. I always love me some dystopian Chicago). And if anything, it has just exemplified my need to read everything by Julie Kagawa. I’m so glad I already have the second book.

- Caroline
Originally posted on The Attic blog.

New from Neal Shusterman, Julie Kagawa, Melissa Marr, & more!

Foretold: 14 Tales of Prophecy and Prediction edited by Carrie Ryan Fourteen stories that delve into the obsession with life's unknowns and the prospect of altering the future, by such authors as Meg Cabot, Diana Peterfreund, and Michael Grant.
	UnWholly by Neal Shusterman Thanks to Connor, Lev, and Risa, and their high-profile revolt at Happy Jack Harvest Camp, people can no longer turn a blind eye to unwinding. Ridding society of troublesome teens and, in the same stroke, providing much-needed tissues for transplant might be convenient, but its morality has finally been brought into question. However, unwinding has become big business, and there are powerful political and corporate interests that want to see it not only continue, but expand, allowing the unwinding of prisoners and the impoverished. Cam is a teen who does not exist. He is made entirely out of the parts of other unwinds. Cam, a 21st century Frankenstein, struggles with a search for identity and meaning, as well as the concept of his own soul, if indeed a rewound being can have one.
The Iron Legends by Julie Kagawa Three Iron Fey novellas for the first time in print!
	Outpost by Ann Aguirre Deuce struggles for respect in a new topside town where she is treated like a child and avoided by Fade, a situation that compels her to volunteer for patrol duty and protect topside citizens from an unexpected upsurge in Freak activity. #2 in the Razorlands series.
Carnival of Souls by Melissa Marr A centuries-long war between daimons and witches sets the stage for three teens caught up in a deadly struggle for power and autonomy in the exotic and otherworldly Carnival of Souls, the mercantile center of the daimon dimension.
	Origin by Jessica Khoury Pia has grown up in a secret laboratory hidden deep in the Amazon rain forest. She was raised by a team of scientists who have created her to be the start of a new immortal race. But on the night of her seventeenth birthday, Pia discovers a hole in the electric fence that surrounds her sterile home--and sneaks outside the compound for the first time in her life. Free in the jungle, Pia meets Eio, a boy from a nearby village. Together, they embark on a race against time to discover the truth about Pia's origin--a truth with deadly consequences that will change their lives forever.
Such Wicked Intent by Kenneth Oppel When his grieving father orders the destruction of the Dark Library, Victor retrieves a book in which he finds the promise of not just communicating with the dead, but entering their realm, and soon he, Elizabeth, and Henry are in the spirit world of Chateau Frankenstein, creating and growing a body.

Tuesday book releases

The Story of Us by Deb Caletti
After jilting two previous fiances, Cricket's mother is finally marrying the right man, but as wedding attendees arrive for a week of festivities, complications arise for Cricket involving her own love life, her beloved dog Jupiter, and her mother's reluctance to marry.

Ascend by Amanda Hocking
This is book #3 in the fantasy Trylle series. Duty-bound to marry her friend Tove in order to give the Trylle people their strongest king and queen in history, Wendy, a changeling troll princess, is torn between two other suitors, Finn and Loki.

The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa
This is a new series by the author of the Iron Fey books. Allison Sekemoto survives in the Fringe, the outermost circle of a vampire city, until she too becomes an immortal vampire. Forced to flee into the unknown, outside her city walls, she joins a ragged band of humans who are seeking a legend -- a possible cure to the disease that killed off most of humankind and created the rabids, the mindless creatures who threaten humans and vampires alike.