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Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Review: The Eternity Cure (Blood of Eden #2) by Julie Kagawa

Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Published: April 23, 2013
Pages: 446
Source: For Review from Harlequin/NetGalley
Rating: 3.5 Stars


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.


In short: Though The Eternity Cure wasn't as strong as its predecessor, it was still a welcome return to Julie Kagawa's brutal and elaborate dystopian world.
The Immortal Rules proved to be an exciting and elaborate paranormal dystopian when I read it last year and so I was eager to return to the grim world of Allison Sekemoto in the sequel, The Eternity Cure. Though I can't say I liked The Eternity Cure as much as its predecessor, I did appreciate getting the chance to return to the characters, the darkly atmospheric setting, and the involved action scenes that I remembered from The Immortal Rules.

Admittedly, the first 100 pages or so of The Eternity Cure were rough. The plot is meandering and tedious and I found I had a hard time re-engaging with the characters and the storyline. The one thing that I did like about the beginning, however, was Julie Kagawa's recapping skills. She does a fantastic job of rehashing the forgotten events of The Immortal Rules in a subtle and proficient manner. And after this beginning lull, the action does start to pick up thankfully and reading became less of a chore from that point on. Julie Kagawa raises the bar for gore and violence in The Eternity Cure and the resulting blood bath was an entertaining and welcome change (as morbid as that sounds...).

I do still like Allison for the most part, though her constant internal wrestling with her conflicting feelings about her humanity does get a bit irksome. I get it, it's hard being a vampire and struggling to maintain your humanity. I don't need to hear it again and again. I was hoping that we might finally get to see some development in Allison's character and finally, at the very end of the book, we do and it's absolutely welcome. By far the most interesting character though is the cocky and silver-tongued Jackal, who I admit I don't even remember from The Immortal Rules, but he definitely leaves an impression in The Eternity Cure.

Overall, though The Eternity Cure wasn't as gripping as its predecessor, it was still a strong sequel and a welcome return to Julie Kagawa's involved and brutal dystopian world. The ending was especially high-impact and exciting and I am definitely looking forward to the next book in the Blood of Eden series now.

Previously, my review of The Immortal Rules.

Other Reviews:
Blkosiner's Book Blog
Ink Skies
Sweet Tidbits

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21 comments :

  1. I don't remember a Jackal either? But it's been awhile. That's why I'm happy to hear that Kagawa does recap the events of The Immortal Rules because I don't remember much. I also enjoyed the first book, and I'm sorry the beginning was slow for you, Aylee. And I can see how Allison's struggle with being a vampire could get old. I hope I still love this book despite these issues. Amazing review!

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  2. I am very much excited for the next, to find out exactly what was up with that ending. Glad you enjoyed although like me it seemed the beginning wasn't as good as wanted it to be.
    Brandi @ Blkosiner’s Book Blog

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  3. It took a while for me to get into the story as well, but that pretty much was my main problem! But yes, I do agree that Julie did a wonderful job in recapping the previous book (which I had almost completely forgotten) and I enjoyed the gore in this one, too. :P I thought I was the only one who'd forgotten who Jackal was! I enjoyed reading about him here, though. Glad you enjoyed this overall, Aylee. Fantastic review. :)

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  4. I'm glad it's done subtly - though I know it's necessary, it's so annoying when an author just infodumps the plot of the whole prequel! And I just have to say, the end of that blurb about the virus threatening vampires and humans alike = common enemy + medical = I love.

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  5. I didn't remember Jackal from The Immortal Rules either Aylee! It definitely took me a while to place him (or rather to pick up on the clues Julie gave us to figure out who he was). I was really pleased with her recapping skills as well, I had forgotten a TON from Immortal Rules, so I appreciated being reminded along the way:) Glad you enjoyed it for the most part!

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  6. That's exactly what I said about the first 150 pages. I have my own review going up tomorrow, but my opinions go along with yours.

    Jackal was the raider king of old Chicago.

    Good review!

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  7. Sorry this one wasn't the best follow-up, but it's good you at least enjoy the series overall. Hopefully the third one will be better. I did hear a lot of great things about The Immortal Rules when it was first released, so I'm curious.

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  8. That's a bummer you didn't feel it was as good as The Immortal Rules. I agree that Allison continually complaining about how hard it is to be a vampire is a bit annoying. I'm sure by the end of The Eternity Cure I'll be wanting to cover her mouth and yell ENOUGH ALREADY! Haha. I'm still super excited to read it though! :D

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  9. I think your review is spot on. It was a decent follow up but nowhere near the level of The Immortal Rules. I must say though that I'm shocked nobody remembers Jackal from The Immortal Rules. Of course maybe that's because the rest of that book was so amazing the awesomeness just blended together.

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  10. I agree with you, I didn't love it as much as book one. But I still really liked it. The ending killed me though! I loved Jackal in this book, and I sort of remembered him from book one, but it had been awhile. He definitely left an impression in my mind in TEC. Fabulous review! :-)

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  11. Such mixed reviews! I still didn't read the first book and I'm not so sure if I want to start another series that I'm not wowed by.

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  12. I've really been on the fence about picking this up. One the one hand I liked the first book, but on the other the romance and the mc didn't really click with me. I loved Kanin though, and Jackal sounds interesting. Great review!

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  13. Hmm.. I wasn't a huge fan of Book 1 so not sure if I'll like this ... You liked book 1 though so I might give it a shot

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  14. I'm currently reading The Eternity Cure and I can only confirm your observations. The first pages are slow, can't seem to get 4 %...But I'm still set on finishing it soon and enjoying the dark world of Alison some more + hoping for her to find Zeke again. Thanks for your review:)

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  15. I actually still need to read book 1, but I own both 1 & 2 and I'm planing on diving in soon enough (I hope!) I'm glad that this was still a worthy sequel and left you excited for the next book...even though it didn't live up to it's predecessor. The curse of the sequel strikes again eh?! Anyways I'm happy it ended with a bang and anticipation :D Can't wait to be caught up haha Thanks for the fair and well written review!

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  16. Aylee, I still have to read this one and so can't wait to meet Jackal since everyone seems to be a fan of him. It's too bad the plot is kind of tedious at the beginning, but I like the sound of Kagawa's recap of book 1. I always have trouble remembering what happened in previous books so I'm sure I'll appreciate the recap.

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  17. I love the idea of a really, really dark dystopian, and the first book really hooked me, so I'm a bit disappointed to see that the sequel falls short of its predecessor. I'll definitely still read it, but I'm glad to know what I'm in for going in! Great thoughts, Aylee :)

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  18. I'm reading this right now and I totally agree with what you said about the first 100 pages AND Jackal!

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  19. That's too bad that the first 100 pages were hard to get into...but at least it became a bit more action-filled as it went on!

    Nice honest review :)

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  20. Yes, I've heard that The Eternity Cure starts out real slow and isn't as great as The Immortal Rules, but I'm glad you enjoyed this nonetheless, Aylee. I'm yet to get to this series and from the world building Julie Kagawa has made, I'm sure I'm in for a good ride! Awesome review! I hope the last book works just as well for you. :)

    Sarika @ The Readdicts

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  21. Great review! I did not really like the summarising beginning, since I had read the first book a few days before:) Jackal was one of my favourites as well, you never know what he's up to..

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