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As any avid reader knows, there are loads of fantastic books coming out every week. It is impossible to keep up with the ever growing tbr list. This is why I have gotten over my dislike of not finishing books and decided that some books just aren't worth the time it takes to finish them. Most recent book I've given up on is...
The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa
Published by Harlequin Teen
Genre: YA paranormal
504 pages
Release date (US): April 24th 2012
What it's about:
In a future world, Vampires reign. Humans are blood cattle. And one girl will search for the key to save humanity.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.
Why I gave up on it:
Everyone is freaking out about this book, so I thought I'd give a different kind of review for it. Haha.
I'm going to start this off by saying that I am a big big big big fan of Julie Kagawa's other series, The Iron Fey. I've read the books multiple times and listened to the audiobooks a few times as well. I could not be more excited for the part two series with the little brother, Ethan (ugh do I really have to wait till November for it???). So it's really shocking for me that I very much disliked The Immortal Rules.
All the reviews I was seeing for this book was saying that it was top notch. Absolutely fantastic. Might even be better than the Iron Fey. Which had me going "whoa, this is gonna be awesome." So when I started reading it, I kept thinking "when is this supposed to get awesome?" and after 200 pages the awesomeness still hadn't arrived. I debated about finishing it or not and finally decided to give up.
The main problem I was having with this series is that I didn't like any of the characters. Not a single one of them. I constantly wanted to yell and scream and maybe even smack all the characters. Then there was also the world that the characters lived in. It just wasn't doing it for me. Yes I was horrified about what was going on, but I just couldn't find it in myself to care about it at all.
And lastly there is the vampires. Turns out I prefer my vampires to be a little more emo and sparkly rather than bloody and viscious. I like them to have some depth and humanity left in them. Kagawa's vampires just weren't my thing.
So I gave up. The story was taking too long to get to the point for me as well. But I did read the first chapter of the new Iron Prince book and OMG I can not be more excited for that.
I just got this today. I wonder what I'll think of it. I think I may start writing stuff like this when a book doesn't work for me. Sometimes I start reading something and it ends up being what I call an "oatmeal book", where reading it is like being a little kid and sliding food around on your plate so you can pretend you're eating it.
ReplyDeleteWhen it comes to reviewing, books like that gum up the gears and really slow down my reading because I spend my time with something I'm not enjoying and then I find I have to really push myself to pick the next book up. Especially with how many books I've read since I started my blog.
Anyway, your post was interesting. Not everyone can like every book, even if they are by an author we already enjoy.
I hope the next thing you read is more enjoyable.
Awwww that's a bummer you didn't like it. I am definitely not a vampire fan but I ended up loving this book. Probably because the vampires were so badass and non-sparkly. :P I liked most of the characters but I can definitely see when you said they were annoying. I was mostly bugged by Jeb and Zeke. But yeah overall I loved it. I'll definitely have to be checking out Julie Kagawa's other stuff now. :)
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