The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa

Title: The Immortal Rules (Blood of Eden #1)
Author: Julie Kagawa
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Release date: April 24, 2012

Rating: 5/5

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Read first chapter here.

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.

Some days, all that drives Allie is her hatred of them. The vampires who keep humans as blood cattle. Until the night Allie herself is attacked—and given the ultimate choice. Die… or become one of the monsters.

Faced with her own mortality, Allie becomes what she despises most. To survive, she must learn the rules of being immortal, including the most important: go long enough without human blood, and you will go mad.

Then Allie is forced to flee into the unknown, outside her city walls. There 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.

But it isn't easy to pass for human. Especially not around Zeke, who might see past the monster inside her. And Allie soon must decide what—and who—is worth dying for.

The Immortal Rules combines two genres I love, the paranormal and dystopian. This book is amazing; it let me happy and sad at the same time.

Allison Sekemoto is a girl who has lived her entire life in a city of vampires, where registered humans "donate" blood regularly and in exchange receive food. Allison is unregistered, so she steals and scavenger food, she does anything she needs to do to survive. Allie hates vampires and everything having to do with them. One night she is attacked by rabids creatures that used to be human and because of a virus they mutated and are now monsters that feed on humans. Because this attack Allie is on the verge of death and a vampire comes to the rescue and gives her the choice to die or become one of them. She chooses to become what she hates most, a vampire.

Later she has to flee the city and wander in a world she does not know. There she meets a group of humans who are in search of Eden, a city that may be a myth and Allie decides to join them, which is not easy because she must pretend to be human and try not be discovered.

The story is wonderful; I had a while without reading a vampire book that I liked so much.

The Immortal Rules takes place 60 years after a lethal virus called Red Lung has killed almost all the human population. At some point the virus mutate and humans were turned into rabids. And the non-infected humans live in vampire cities, where they must "donate" blood in exchange of food and protection.

In the characters we´ve  Allison a 17 year-old girl that had been living among others  unregistered, where everyone look out for themselves, and therefore she´s suspicious and she´s against any kind of authority, but has good heart and is very brave. Allie's love interest is Zeke a 17 year-old boy (I adore him), with very good heart and kind, brave and completely selfless. He was taught that vampires are demons, which does not bode well for Allie. Among the characters we have secondary characters such as Kanin, the sire of Allie, a mysterious vampire, he taught her how to fight with a katana, and also everything she needs to know to survive as a vampire.

The Immortal Rules is a book that it fast-paced (considering it's a book of 504 pages), has no downtime, this very well written and addictive. It has action, mystery and some romance.

I love it! I highly recommend it.

Quotes:

Naive, I thought at once. Naive, brave, selfless, incredible - and much too kind to survive this world. It´ll break you in the end, if you keep going like this. Good things never last.

They will never trust us. They will never accept us. We hide in their midst and walk among them, but we are forever separate. Damned. Alone. You don’t understand now, but you will. There will come a time when the road before you splits, and you must decide your path. Will you choose to become a demon with a human face, or will you fight your demon until the end of time, knowing you will forever struggle alone?

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