The Immortal Rules - Review and Giveaway

I was lucky enough to receive access to a galley of The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa. Remarkably, I hadn't read anything else by her, even though the whole bloggosphere has been raving about the Iron Fey series forever. The series just didn't strike me as something I'd like, but I'm definitely going to try them out now.

From Goodreads:

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.

Vampires? Really? I mean they've been done to death, and brought back to life. (Sorry, couldn't resist.) The approach, however, is completely different. These vamps are not fuzzy-wuzzy sparkle puffs. Despite the fact that there is an organised system for obtaining blood, these vampires still kill on occasion. And when Allie joins the ranks, she has a real struggle with who she is and not hurting those around her.

Another refreshing thing about this book is that it combines vampires with a few other speculative fiction arenas. It's a postapocalyptic world. A virus has killed off much off the human race. The rules of living have been redefined. Allie lives in a Vampire City. The walls protect the humans from rabids and in return most of the humans are Registered to donate their blood to keep the vampires fed. It seems like a semi-equal exchange. But in the very first scene, some Unregistereds are brought to justice for stealing, even though there is no food provided for Unregistereds. The opression adds dystopian elements to the plot.  And of course, there are the rabids. The rabids are essentially zombies. Like all zombies, they seem to have one overwhelming impulse: eat.

Let's not forget that the kick-butt heroine, Allie, is Asian. Honestly, I can only think of one other spec-fic YA book with an Asian heroine.

I think it's the combination of all these things: vampires, post-apocalypse, dystopia, rabid/zombies - that make the book a winner.

But there are 2 more elements I feel like I should mention. Zeke and Kanin. Zeke is a possible love interest. He's been raised to despise vampires and Allie knows this. Since leaving the city, she's been surviving by pretending to be human, but how long can she really keep that up, right? Then there's Kanin, the vampire that changed Allie. Kanin is all "Oh, humans are just your food," yet he doesn't kill them, and is as humane as someone can be to their prey. And Kanin is obviously troubled. I fell right into him. Totally wanted to hug him and make it all better, and then go beat up the people that made him feel bad. lol.

To win a copy of THE IMMORTAL RULES, just tell me what's your fave type of vampire?
This contest is open internationally until Wednesday April 25 at 11.59 pm EST.