The Immortal Rules - 4.5/5 Stars

The Immortal Rules

By: Julie Kagawa

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.


Initially I discovered The Immortal Rules through a series of ads on my favorite gossip sites (TMZ, Perez Hilton.) When I saw that the surname of the author is Kagawa, well, you could say my interest was piqued. Having worked as a bookseller, I can honestly say that in my experience it's not common to see authors with Asian last names. (Offhand, I can only think of Melissa Dela Cruz.) After Googling Julie Kagawa and The Immortal Rules synopsis, I was willing to give her book a read. 

Since there is only one book store where I live (since Borders and Borders Express shut down) I had to wait until we could make the hour drive to Barnes and Noble in another city. I'm happy to say that it was well worth the drive and the wait.

The Immortal Rules had great pacing. There was never a moment where I was like, "Well, where's Julie going with this?" Every sentence demanded your attention. There was a great mixture of the elements of friendship, love, adventure, and action. Oh, the action! I don't recall reading a YA book with this much action, well, ever.  The book touched on varying topics like disappointment (in yourself, in your friends), forgiveness, and learning to do the right thing. 

The characters were all very well developed. The characters are in fact so true to life that you're bound to be reminded of someone you know. For my part after finishing the book I sent a text message to my friend Jez to tell her that the female protagonist, Allison Sekemoto, reminded me exactly of her. I loaned her the book that day and haven't seen it since. ;) 

I'd rate this book 4.5/5 stars, and as you can already tell I would recommend this book to a friend - even if they had a prejudice against YA vampire-themed books. (I deducted .5 stars because of the book cover, but I know that really isn't Julie Kagawa's fault. I would've preferred to see a model of Japanese ethnic background to stay true to the character of Allison Sekemoto.)