Rating: 3 stars
Synopsis: In a future world, vampires reign. Humans are blood cattle. And one girl will search for the key to save humanity. She must decide what - and who - are worth dying for.
I found Julie Kagawa through The Iron Fey series which I love. It's probably my favourite series at the moment (and a review of the series will be coming soon). I was sceptical about picking up the Immortal Rules because I loved the Iron Fey so much and I thought at first I had been proved right. It took me so long to get into this book and it really disappointed me in the beginning. It wasn't until about 240 pages in (242 if we're going to be exact) that I finally found myself being sucked into the book and enjoying the story.
And I'm not sure why it took so long. I have two theories. Theory number 1: this is a dystopia/supernatural book so it's very different from the Iron Fey which is fantasy. This may have hindered Julie's writing as it takes a while to get used to writing in a new genre and therefore, limiting my enjoyment of the book. Theory number 2 (which is a lot more probable): I didn't care about Allie. Not until 242 pages in did I really care about what happened to her. She's the main protagonist in this book and I didn't care about her - BIG problem.
I kept comparing Allie to Meghan, the lead protagonist in the Iron Fey. Meghan is a lot more relatable in my mind. She went through normal struggles and you could clearly see her grow into a strong person. Allie was a strong person at the beginning of the novel and maybe that was the problem. A lot of the things thrown at her, she could handle. Lack of food for example? No problem, I'll go hunt in the rabid infested area outside the wall! As well as this, when she was turned into a vampire, she kept second guessing Kanin which really irritated me. She acted like she knew everything when, in reality she didn't, and the whole time I wanted to shake her and tell her to stop acting like a little know it all and LISTEN to what Kanin was telling her.
The relationship aspect of the novel took agggeeessss to get to. I'm a believer that, although you don't necessarily need a romance early on to help the book, it does help. In this case, it would have definitely helped. You're left wondering if Allie is ever going to find someone when eventually Zeke turns up.
Zeke...is a good character is most respects. Better than Allie, I felt like I could relate to him more than I could to Allie but there was still something missing and I'm not sure what it is. Again, I compared Zeke to Ash and there is no comparison. While both are strong in their own ways, Ash can carry a good portion of the story (or a whole book in the case of the Iron Knight) and I can't help but wonder if Zeke could do the same. Maybe in Books 2 & 3 the character's will progress a little more but in Book 1, I was a little disappointed.
Overall, the plot was good, especially once we got out of New Covington and met up with Zeke and the other humans. It really started to pick up pace and I did end up starting to feel something towards Allie and Zeke and wanting Zeke to realise that Allie isn't a monster. The whole thing with the sires and the blood siblings was a nice touch although I couldn't help but feel a little disappointed at the whole 'big brother little sister' thing that was done in the Mortal Instruments. I didn't see it coming anyway so that's a plus.
I loved Caleb and Bethany. The two kids were only minor characters but they really lifted the story for me. They're so innocent and blunt in the ways that only small children are. When Caleb is asking Allie to bring his sister Ruth back from the dead I almost shed a tear. That tear then turned to laughter when he was distracted by the prospect of getting jelly. The scene with the goat as well was really sweet, with Bethany trying to name the goat Princess I think and Caleb shooting her down. It was really well done and really sweet.
Overall, I'd say stick with this book because it does get better despite a ridiculously slow start. If you're not sure about this I'd definitely suggest picking up The Iron King which is book 1 in the Iron Fey series because that is ten million times better and, like I said, a review of the whole series will be up soon but I have a lot of reviews to catch up on first!
image from http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10215349-the-immortal-rules - no Copyright intended
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