Alienor ✘ French Frowner ✘'s Reviews > The Immortal Rules

3.5 stars. Well, now, these dark vampires were pretty fun to follow!



۰•● Julie Kagawa is such a master in world-building. Indeed after having loved her fairy land in The Iron King (which is much-hated by many of my friends, but what can I say, I loved it and I'm not even ashamed), again I felt myself completely immerged and eager to learn more about the violent and merciless world we discover here.

See, to me a great world-building isn't necessarily complex. No. Of course it mustn't be overly simplistic, but above all that, in my opinion, a well-done world-building is coherent, without 'holes' in it, and let us immerge into it straight away. That was the case here.

"Always leave yourself an out ; that was the first rule of the Unregistered. Do whatever you want - hate the vamps, curse the pets - but never get caught."

۩۩ Welcome to New Covington, city ruled by Vampires, where humans are either pets (understand : minions) and food or unregistered and then surviving by stealing and scavenging.

You want to escape?

*shakes head*

Now, that's what I call a bad idea. Outdoors you will find hybrid creatures who will most likely rip you apart. Literally. Oh, and we're in a post-apocalyptic area, where everything kind of fall apart, so be careful when you find a house, the roof could be destroyed rather easily. You've been warned.





۰•● Let's talk about the characters, shall we?

▩ Allison is badass. Fierce, sarcastic, brave, loyal. She's the heroine of her own story, stands for herself and doesn't let other bring her down. High-five, girl, I like you already.

➸ Tired of these heroines who always need saving? Allison is the one who saves others.

➸ Annoyed by overlong inner whiny monologues? Allison is sharp, strong-minded, confident in her choices, even if what she has to do to respect them isn't the easier path to follow - far from it.

"I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to control myself, and I would end up killing someone.
And, deep down, a part of me didn’t care. That was the scariest thing of all."

And cherry on top, the girl uses a katana. A fucking katana. Well, that's pretty obvious that she's my favorite, isn't it?

▩ As for Zeke, I need to point out that even if it took me longer to be truly interested in him, his hopeful personality won me in the end. You know, he's the kind of character whose comments can bring a real smile on your face, who we can't help but want to both hug and shake a little ➸ And that's what Allison felt, and if I wasn't already a fan of her, I would have loved her for that. No blind admiration from her, but recognition of something as rare as hope - trust. Yes it can be annoying but do you want to get my opinion just say yes already, you'll have it anyway? In a world as dark and twisted as that one, an hopeful and fundamentally kind character is such a breath of fresh air. So, what? He could be sexier? More smart-ass? Hell yes, but then, we have Jackal and Allison for that.

Now, the guy is blond. Not that I have a problem with that or anything but seriously. The guy is blond. Sorry, I might have some weird preferences when it comes to my male-leads fantasies. Fortunately he doesn't have long hair. Yes, Ethan Sullivan, I'm looking right at you.

▩ And there're the Vampires. Monstrous, heartless, selfish, who need to bury themselves underground to avoid the sun - finally, YA vampires who don't own big cars and sparkle.



No, thank you. Really, I'd prefer not.

In The Immortal Rules there's no good vampires, but only different shades of Evil. Allison included. But then, are there such things as Evil and Good out there? I'm not really sure, and that's for the best.

"We are vampires, Kanin had told me, on one of our last nights together.It makes no difference who we are, where we came from. Princes, Masters and rabids alike, we are monsters, cut off from humanity. 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."

۰•● Overall, the plot kept me interested but even if I never was bored to death, I must admit that the pacing was uneven : indeed after a strong beginning that captivated me, I found the middle a tad weak but absolutely adored the last 30%.

۰•● Apart from that, my main complain is the unnecessary and childish girl's hate. Oh, how it annoyed me! I mean, I'm trying to be kind here, but why create such insta-hate from Ruth toward Allison? There's no reason to explain it at first. Absolutely no. reason . Look, back when I was a teenager I always had more guys friends than girls, but I would have never hated a girl on sight just for having made an apparition. Note that I wasn't struggling to survive in a rude world in the middle of a mainly male group. So, this bitchy hate? In my opinion, it was completely unnecessary.

In a nutshell : Here's a really good first book of a trilogy I'm eager to continue, as I'm sure there're more to know about this dark and twisted world.

PS : No, my friends, you're not delusional. I did post parts of this review last year. Then I did delete it when reshelving today, because somehow, I'm a moron like that. Just like that. I guess I should be grateful to be an organized kind of moron. Oh well. It reminded me that I should read the sequel soon^^

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