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 ofthem. 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.
Wow, it is so good to read a young adult vampire book that goes back to the basic, what we have here is true vampire myth - vampires that burn in the sun and can't handle a stake through the chest. This book also doesn't rely on romance to pull it through and instead relies on action, awesome world building and fantastic characters. I just loved this book.
Okay, I want to mention that whilst I read every single book in Kagawa's Iron fey series it wasn't one of the best series I have ever read because it was good but I always seemed to have trouble with the pacing, when I saw the length of this I was so worried that it would be another book pulled down by bad pacing but it was not. No, despite the fact that the print version of this book is around 500 pages I couldn't put it down. I actually finished this book in about three hours which is usually how long a 300 page book takes me, that is how gripping it is.
What I loved about this book is that it doesn't rely on the romance, the love interest comes in about halfway through the book but the romance takes a backseat and you only really see glimpses of it. I actually felt as though the romance was more of a plot device used to demonstrate Allie's conflict with herself over what she is, rather than romance that's there for the sake of romance and that was so refreshing! I also loved that it isn't the guy kicking butt and being the strong one, it's Allie! She was such an amazing character to follow because she was tough and witty but also showed her vulnerable side at times so she wasn't unbelievably kick ass...
So far all I have done is go on and on about how awesome this book is, but that's because I really can't find anything that I disliked. Even the tiniest things were fought through, the little bits of description that make this supernatural dystopian world so vivid and the words that the character said, nothing seemed out of place or thrown in there...
Overall this book is pretty much awesome. That is all that I can say. Get me the sequel now please.
Overall Rating: A+
Book released April 24th by Harlequin Teen (US) and May 4th by Mira Ink (UK)
Book received as an eGalley for review from NetGalley
This book combined one topic I love, vampires, and another one that doesn't usually do it for me, dystopian, end of the world stories; but the combination that Ms. Kagawa creates is truly magical. I loved this book. It has a well thought out plot and the main characters are pretty well developed. Now there are minor characters that are not developed, and some that are undeveloped to add to their mystery, but you learn a lot about Allie and Zeke.
ReplyDeleteBasically, Allie is a turned into a vampire, but she doesn't want to be like the other bloodsuckers in her city, so she leaves, well is more like chased out. There are actually three different stories mixed together to form the plot; first, the story of Allie's life before she was turned, then the story of how she was turned and about her relationship with her maker, Kanin, and lastly, her story of her meeting humans on the outside and befriending them.