The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa (CBR-V #9)

Cannonball Read V: Book #9/52
Published: 2012
Pages: 484
Genre: Young Adult/Paranormal


4 stars: Very good. Would recommend.

When I started reading this, for some reason I had it confused with The Mortal Instruments series (I guess because I've seen ads for the movie that's coming out this summer based off of that book). So, I was sort of confused when they started introducing vampires. I generally enjoy dystopian YA books rather than supernatural creature books, but this book kept me interested from the start.

Allison lives in the Fringe - the outskirts of a vampire town. She is also Unregistered, which means she has to beg and steal for food. Her parents are dead and she has a small group of friends who take care of each other. When Allison finds a stash of food buried beneath an old house, she brings her friends out to gather it up, but they get caught on their way back by some rabid vampires (the more "wild" ones - there are different strains of vampirism). All of her friends are killed and, technically, so is Allison. She is dying when a vampire offers to either let her die or turn her into one of them. Allison decides to be turned (these aren't really spoilers as they happen very early in the book and are revealed on Goodreads main synopsis as well).

After Allison is turned, the vampire that turned her teaches her about how to survive by killing as few humans as possible. Before she fully discovers who the strange vampire who saved her is, they are separated and Allison tries to hide among a group on humans who are traveling to a supposed vampire-free island.

This book is a strong contender to help get YA vampire novels away from the joke that they have become after Twilight. The writing was good, the pacing was strong, and I loved the main character. I really liked that Allison was described as Asian too. I'm white, but it gets kind of boring to see every female YA main character as a white girl. Do no other ethnicities survive the apocalypse? But I am kind of annoyed that a generic white girl is on the front of the book. Shouldn't she look like the main character?

The book also had lots of surprises without making them become cliche "twists". It kept the story going as Allison floated from location to location - with her friends, with the strange vampire, on her own, with the group of humans. I sometimes get bored with post-apocalypse books that keep the characters in one spot. I like to see more of the destroyed world they live in instead of just one city or area.

The sequel comes out this spring and I'll definitely be checking it out.

Jenny Pox by J.L. Bryan (CBR-IV #33)

Cannonball Read IV: Book #33/52
Published: 2010
Pages: 312
Genre: Young Adult/Paranormal

Jenny was born with some sort of disease that she infects people with through touch. Basically, she's the plague version of Rogue from X-Men. If she has any skin-to-skin contact with anyone, she can kill them. Jenny killed her mother just by being born and now lives with her alcoholic father. Her condition is becoming harder to live with as a teenager -- she gets made fun of for wearing gloves all the time and she also realizes that she will probably never be able to kiss a guy. 

We meet our YA romance quota when Jenny finds out that a popular jock  at her school named Seth has the ability to heal. His power counteracts hers and they find out that Jenny can actually touch him and not kill him. Unfortunately, Seth is dating Ashleigh. Ashleigh has hated Jenny since grade school when Jenny infected her on the playground one day. It wasn't enough to kill her, but Ashleigh still apparently holds a grudge. Ashleigh has her own special power that causes everyone she touches to idolize her. Basically, Jenny steals Seth from Ashleigh and Ashleigh makes Jenny's life hell until she breaks and goes on a rampage across town.

Eh, this book was just okay. The story was alright, but I feel like it wasn't ever really brought to it's full potential. I was hoping for a Carrie-like book, but it was more YA fluff. Or was it YA? I'm not really sure because it had some fairly graphic sex (by YA standards) and really gory violence, but the storyline was YA all the way. Who was this book actually intended for? Adults who like to read YA? If so, I feel it should have had a little more depth to the story. Some of the characters were basically caricatures. I had a hard time imagining Ashleigh without her becoming a cartoon with horns on her head and a cackling laugh. It was just too much. You can convince me a character is bad without making her do and think every "bad" thing you can think of. 

Also, the ending sucked. I won't ruin it for you if you haven't read the book, but it was really bad (at least in my opinion). It was a little too far out in left field for me. I don't think I'll be checking out the other books in this series.