ARC Review: The Eternity Cure by Julie Kagawa

Title: The Eternity Cure (Blood of Eden #2)
Author: Julie Kagawa
Genre: Young Adult, Dystopian, Fantasy
Goodreads

Allison Sekemoto has vowed to rescue her creator, Kanin, who is being held hostage and tortured by the psychotic vampire Sarren. The call of blood leads her back to the beginning—New Covington and the Fringe, and a vampire prince who wants her dead yet may become her wary ally.

Even as Allie faces shocking revelations and heartbreak like she’s never known, a new strain of the Red Lung virus that decimated humanity is rising to threaten human and vampire alike

Review by Nara


Thank you to Harlequin Enterprises Australia for sending me an advance copy of The Eternity Cure through NetGalley. In no way did this affect my opinion of the book.

Note: Cover was obtained from Goodreads and may not be the final cover from this publisher.
Another note: Quotations were taken from the ARC and may not be the same in the final published copy.

*CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THE IMMORTAL RULES*

When I saw that The Eternity Cure was up for requesting on NetGalley, basically my feelings were:

In a good way though. Not so much the entering-a-tournament-of-death-to-save-a-loved-one way. Julie Kagawa, I love you. Seriously, her writing is SO GOOD. The way she writes- it's relatively simplistic, but there's enough description that you can easily visualise the setting and characters. And it's very easy and smooth to read, especially because the pacing is done so well. As always, Kagawa's world building is incredible- she creates a crumbling society of decadence and disease where even the vampires are not completely safe.
Sidenote: I also recently read 'Til the World Ends- this short story by Kagawa gives very good background information about what it was like when the Red Lung disease first arose etc. and is definitely worth a read. Ann Aguirre's story in that anthology is pretty good too.

Characters
Kagawa's character development in The Eternity Cure is amazing, with even the minor characters not being underdeveloped. I did see a bit of similarity between the cast of the Blood of Eden series and the Iron Fey series, but not so much so that the characters were unoriginal.
Allie- you're a total badass with the katana.
Zeke- you were probably overly nice in the first book, but you seem to have toughened up in this novel, good for you.
Kanin- it was definitely nice to see more of you in this book.
Sarren- as the villain in this series, you suck. If there was ever some kind of technology developed that you could use to enter the world of a book, I would hunt you down myself (lack of skill in the murder department notwithstanding).
For some reason, my favourite character seems to be Jackal, even with him being the semi-villain. I loved the banter between him and Allie, with him throwing out snarky comments reminiscent of Puck from the Iron Fey series.
"Is there anyone you haven't pissed off so much they want to kill you?" I asked Jackal, who sneered at me.
"Hmm, lemme think. Well, there was this one chick who... No, wait, never mind. That didn't end well, either."

"Now, are we going to head into the city, or were you planning to hold hands with these cannibals and have a sing-along."

"Oh well. That's humans for you, always so disgustingly mortal."

A minor criticism that I have for The Eternity Cure is that the plot was generally predictable, but whereas in some books this might be unforgivable, it didn't really annoy me with Kagawa because the other aspects of her writing are so good. She did play a few cards that I didn't expect, which is always nice. Recently, there seem to be quite a few vampire/zombie dystopians going around, but the Blood of Eden series is certainly one the best.

Honestly, you can't go wrong with a Kagawa.

EDIT: whoa, new cover released on NetGalley:

EDIT2: Changed once again!

Incredible

Ratings
Overall: 9/10
Plot: 4/5
Writing: 5/5
Characters: 5/5
Cover: 3/5 (The one they have in Goodreads sort of seems like a placeholder cover, and I don't know whether that's the final one, anyway)