Book 1 in the Blood of Eden series
AUTHOR: Julie Kagawa
PUBLISHED: 2012
CATEGORY: YA
GENRE: Dystopian, vampires, adventure
PREMISE: In a world where vampires have taken over, Allie fears and hates them. But then one night she is forced to turn into the very thing she hates...
MY REVIEW: If there is one thing I love about Julie Kagawa's books that keep me coming back for more: it is her creativity. She manages to take somewhat tired trends (in this case vampires and dystopians) and makes them feel shiny and new by using new ideas. I mean blending vampires with dystopia? Brilliant. Sure, the romance is a little lackluster for my taste (sorry, I found Zeke to be kind of boring), there are one or two world building issues I have, and the ending wasn't much of a surprise but it's a good ending and a great lead in for book 2.
Kagawa's writing is also just lovely. She manages to get you to picture these fantastic worlds she creates without going overboard with purple prose and she creates interesting characters that you root for in the process. Boring Zeke aside, Allie was interesting to me. I do sort of wish other female characters had been just as well portrayed as her though. The whole treatment of Ruth and the obvious intentional bashing of her just made me roll my eyes and I will say a giant flaw in this book is that Allie literally is the only strong female shown. It's the one thing that annoyed me in this because I don't like it when authors obviously make other female characters weak to make their main character look badass/strong. I also remember this being a thing with the Iron Fey series. It's something I wish Kagawa would work on. What, is female friendship dead in this future or something? Male friendship seems to be doing okay so I don't see why female friendship is no where to be found.
But other then that personal annoyance this was a great start to a fabulous new series and proves that Kagawa is here to stay. Iron Fey was not just a fluke. I'm always pleased when authors do something other then their popular series and take chances like this because this is actually quite different from Iron Fey. I can't wait to read book 2.
WHO SHOULD READ: Iron Fey fans, dystopian fans, Hunger Games fans, vampire fans
MY RATING: Four out of Five samurai swords
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