Book Review: The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa

• Paperback: 512 pages
• Publisher: Mira Books (4 May 2012)
• Language English
• ISBN-10: 184845094X
• ISBN-13: 978-1848450943

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.

Allie and her gang live in hiding, scurrying for food and fleeing from the thing that terrifies them most. Vampires.

They live in a vampire city where humans are treated like blood cattle and forced to pay taxes, but not with money. But there are those that cheat the system and live off the grid. Allie and her friends are a few of those people. But when they are attacked one night and Allie hovers between life and death, she is offered a choice to live or die.

She chose life. As a vampire.

But instead of becoming a blood thirsty fiend, Allie managed to hold onto the scrap of humanity inside her, and while she needed a liquid diet to survive, she didn’t need to kill to do it.  When Allie is forced to leave the city she knows, she turns to the open road, walking and ambling with no sense of direction. Until she meets Zeke and his group of people searching for a better life. Allie has to hide who she really is, especially from the boy who looks closer than anyone.

The Immortal Rules is following the recent trend of vampire novels where they aren’t brooding and love-struck sparkly heroes. These aren’t the romanticised vampires but the ruthless and deadly ones. And it’s amazingly refreshing.

I really liked the idea of The Immortal Rules and Allie’s struggle to keep her animal instincts at bay. Her vampire creator, Kanin, was one of my favourite characters. He intrigued me and was such a complex novel that I actually wished it was more about him than Allie.

But while there were a lot of plus points to this novel, in my opinion, there were too many negative ones. What jarred me the most were all the different sections to the novel. Character progression and story arcs are pivotal to a good book, but too much, like in this case, killed it stone dead for me. Too much was going on and I felt it could have been a much shorter book.

As a huge fan of the Iron Fey series, this book had a lot to live up to. Unfortunately it just didn’t stand up as well as the authors other books. That said, I am still a huge fan of her work and will still continue to read her future books. This instalment of her new series will please endless vampire buffs and is a welcome addition to what is an over-written genre, but takes it into a fresh and edgy new world. 

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Book Review: Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Atom (7 Feb 2012)
• Language English
• ISBN-10: 1907411054
• ISBN-13: 978-1907411052
• WORLDS KEPT THEM APART. 
  
  
  DESTINY BROUGHT THEM TOGETHER. 
  
  
  Aria has lived her whole life in the protected dome of Reverie. Her entire world confined to its spaces, she's never thought to dream of what lies beyond its doors. So when her mother goes missing, Aria knows her chances of surviving in the outer wasteland long enough to find her are slim. 
  
  
  Then Aria meets an outsider named Perry. He's searching for someone too. He's also wild - a savage - but might be her best hope at staying alive. 
  
  
  If they can survive, they are each other's best hope for finding answers 

Under the Never Sky took my breath away. It wove itself around me, tempting me with beautiful prose and foreign worlds and two characters so completely different they were yin and yang.

Aria has spent her whole life in reverie. The dome protects her from the outside world that would surely kill her. She spent her life in a cyber world reality with her smart-eye connecting her to friends and her mother, who, due to her work, is away more often than not. With a thought, Aria can be snowboarding. Waterskiing. Anything she wants. But when her mother disappears, Aria must look beyond the make-believe and turn her real eye to the outside.

Perry is an Outsider. A hunter for his tribe. All his life he has known violence and anger and the sharp claws of the beasts he must bring back for food. He sees Aria as weak and fragile. An enemy. Aria sees him as a savage. Something not to be trusted. But trust each other they must, if they want to find what they are looking for.

Under the Never Sky is told in alternative POVs from Aria and Perry. I LOVED being in their heads. Most of the time with split POV books, I look forward to one in particular. Not this case. This time I devoured every single word from each character. I couldn’t get enough.

The worlds of Aria and Perry couldn’t be more different. But each is described with enchanting prose that make the background feel real, as though the book came with its own Smart-Eye and I was a guest on Aria and Perry’s adventure.

I cannot wait for the sequel. There have been a lot of competition on the dystopian front, especially with so many new talents emerging this year. Rossi is more than holding her own.

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Book Review: Legend by Marie Lu

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Puffin (2 Feb 2012)
• Language English
• ISBN-10: 0141339608
• ISBN-13: 978-0141339603
• The United States is gone, along with its flooded coasts. North America's two warring nations, the western Republic and the eastern Colonies, have reached a breaking point. In the midst of this broken continent and dark new world are two teenagers who will go down in history.... 
  
  
  Born into the slums of Los Angeles, fifteen-year old Day is the country's most wanted criminal. A mysterious boy with no recorded image or fingerprints. A boy who should no longer exist. A boy who watches over his family until one evening, when the plague patrols mark his family's door with an X--the sign of plague infection. A death sentence for any family too poor to afford the antidote. Desperate, Day has no choice; he must steal it. 
  
  
  Born to an elite family in Los Angeles' wealthy Ruby sector, fifteen-year old June is the Republic's most promising prodigy. A superintelligent girl destined for great things in the country's highest military circles. Obedient, passionate, and committed to her country--until the day her brother Metias is murdered while on patrol during a break-in at the plague hospital. 
  
  
  Only one person could be responsible. 
  
  
  Day. 
  
  
  And now it's June's mission to hunt him down. 
  
  
  The truth they'll uncover will become legend. 

As far as dystopian novels go, Legend is right up there with Divergent and The Hunger Games.

As far as characters go, Day and June could not be more different. One a wanted criminal, the other a promising military student. And yet somehow their lives are intertwined by a moment that changes them both forever.

Day is not who June thinks he is. And June does not know half of what goes on around her. But Day does. And he opens her eyes. And shows her the world.

This is going to be one of my most shortest reviews ever. The book, despite its length, is rich and full and made me ache for more when I reached the end. Day and June became a part of my life. It was a pleasure to watch them change each other’s. Anymore said would ruin the experience.

The first in a trilogy, the sequel is my most eagerly awaited book by far.

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