
Allie lives on the fringe in a vampire city. Disease has wiped out millions of human lives and people have been forced under the so-called protection of the vampires. Outside city walls lurk the terrifying rabids, who will tear you apart just because you breathe. Allie doesn’t want to be controlled by the soulless beings she holds responsible for her mother’s death, so she lives as part of a gang on the edge, where each day is a struggle to find food and stay safe.
When food is at an all time low, Allie goes scavenging in the ruins outside the city. It’s risky but the rabids don’t come out during the day and she finds something that makes her go back for her gang. Yet when tragedy strikes she is forced to make a decision that changes everything. She can die or become the very thing she hates: a vampire.
At over 500 pages it’s quite an epic and descriptive read yet thoroughly absorbing. It manages to combines two very popular sub-genres, vamps and dystopia without become cliched or silly. I love the world that Allie lives in. The city made me think of the world in Dark Angel. Nothing is pretty or easy, instead it is dark and savage and doesn’t become predictable. The rabids are genuinely scary creatures and it’s not one to read whilst eating!
The central concept is whether or not Allie has to give in to her desires or if she can choose the being she wants to be and overcome her nature. Her life has always been lonely but everything becomes harder for her and she needs to face up to reality. There’s no silly, swooning romance and relationships are incredibly difficult things for her to cope with now that she sees humans as food.
I fear the generic cover design will put some readers off. It is not another teen vampire book, if it hadn’t been published by a young adult imprint, I’d have filed it away as adult urban fantasy. Yes the protagonist is young, but she has been in a situation where she has been forced to grow up. I suppose her coming to terms with her new state could be considered a YA theme but still, I urge those of you about to judge this book by its cover to think again. If anything, fans of vamp love stories might be more disappointed in the end.
Julie also knows how to finish an instalment of a trilogy properly. The ending at least concludes one story but there are enough threads to keep you wanting the next one. I really wanted to know what was going on in the city that Allie left behind. I feel assured that it will be covered in book two which I will definitely be reading.
The Immortal Rules will be published by Harlequin Teen in the US tomorrow in hardback. The UK edition is published by MIRA Ink and the paperback will be available on 4th May 2012. However it looks like the UK Kindle edition will be available tomorrow too. Thanks go to Harlequin for providing me with a copy for review via NetGalley.
Goodreads | Amazon | Waterstones
Related posts
3 Comments
Leave a Reply Cancel reply
Read Next
Subscribe via Email
Recent Posts
Can you imagine having the arrogance to stand in front of parliament, to complain that a private company won't let… https://t.co/kE6uhEi5lA
FollowCurrently Reading
The Galaxy, and the Ground Within
Gora is a planet without resources, its only use is a stopover for interplanetary travel. The Five-Hop One-Stop is one such place for long distance travellers to rest and refuel. Run by a Laru and her child, it’s not the most glamourous of stops but…
Black Sun
Today he would become a god. His mother had told him so. The opening line may seem like something any mother would tell her son, but in the case of Serapio, his mother truly believes he will become the Crow God reborn. She blinds him,…
Legendborn
The day Bree gets accepted into an early college placement at UNC, is the day her mother dies. The last words they spoke were of anger. Unable to deal with her dad’s grief on top of her own, Bree goes ahead with the placement. Once…
Ninth House
Alex Stern does not belong at Yale. When she awakes as the sole survivor of a multiple homicide, presumed a drug deal gone wrong, she is given an unlikely offer. Come to Yale, join the House of Lethe and oversee the rituals of the other…
I am dying to read this one! As a no longer young adult myself, I do rather enjoy the teen books that read like an adult release that simply has a young protagonist 🙂
This sounds really interesting, will keep an eye out for it
Lainy http://www.alwaysreading.net
That sounds like a really intersting book. Although I have to agree with your comments about the cover, it certainly wouldn't inspire me to pick it up..