The Ninja Reader

This review also appears on my tumblr. This... book...Would comparing it to a roller-coaster be too cliche? Because it's the closest thing I can think of to describe the "Immortal Rules" experience: fast, loose, exhilirating, turns your hair into a rat's nest and maybe even make you lose your lunch, going between amazing heights and lows within the span of a few pages, leaves you on a breathless note and makes you question if it was worth it... afterwards.But before the actual review *takes a hit of helium*:WTF is with this cover?!? Allie's of Asian descent (Japanese, in fact, as the book unsubtly shows us several times). Her descriptions aren't iffy - even street punks call her "Asian doll". Is the Marketing Department short-sighted? Why not white-wash the author's name too, while you're at it?Now that I got that out of the way, let's get on with our business.Allison Sekemoto is a fringer, an unregistered human in a world ruled by vampires. Her life is pretty tough, forcing her to venture outside of the city's limits in search for food. On one such expedition, she and her friends get attacked by rabids (a sort of vampire-zombie) and she is saved from certain death by the arrival of Kanin, a vampire, who offers her the choice: die, or become like him. At Death's door, Allie's survival instincts win over her hatred and she accepts.A lot of my GR friends seem to be losing their shit over this book, praising it as kick-ass and a breath of fresh air. But the best word to describe "The Immortal Rules", I think, is cinematic . I don't mean this just in terms of the characters or the world-building - the writing itself makes me feel like I'm watching a movie, rather than reading a book. Everything is described in such a way that the reader sees the scene without much effort, and doesn't miss a second of action. This tendency goes all the way to the ending frame scene, where the heroine, in a moment of absolute feminine badassery, leaves the safety of the camp and charges a bunch of blood-thursty zombies. That, of course, brings me to the characters, who are all really cool. Of course, the limelight should fall on Allison, though her vampire daddy, Kanin, deserves a fair mention. Kanin only with us for about a third of the book, but he makes such a lasting impression that he could have easily outshined his spawn. In spite of giving the Emoward signal for a while, he ended up on a very strong note. He was certainly more interesting to read than love-interest Zeke, that's for sure.Naturally, we have Allison, who people will undoubtedly compare to Katniss Everdeen in the following months. And... she's so awesome... I just... To be honest, I don't think the hype's worth it.Remember what I said earlier about this book giving you a high, but then you wonder why? Well, Allison is probably the reason. See, while I was reading, I really liked her. I sympathized with her struggle, and I really liked how cool she was. But... yeah, there's a difference between a cool female character and a strong one. Allison was a well-rounded protagonist, but every other woman in the book is either crazy (Dorothy), benevolent (Teresa)(well, duh, you gotta live up to that name), or a psychotic bitch (Ruth). The latter in particular was almost cartoonish in her portrayal: she hates Allison so much that she wants to kill her, even if Allie just saved her life! And why? Because Allie moved in on her action and stole her man. Damn, I wanted to smack that bitch! But the thing is, I felt like I was being forced to hate her - she's so bitchy it's surreal. No human being could possibly act so psychotic, and yet Ruth does, and I just wanted to shake her into acting like a normal person. This book emulates a movie right down to emotionally manipulating its readers because it doesn't have the room for any actual character development!Except it does, since this baby clocks at 500+ pages.Speaking of babies, can we please stop using cutesy-pie children to endear people to the protagonist. Allie wields a katana and takes down animals with her bare hands, I don't need her to save kiddies from drowning to assure me of her awesomeness. I hated this trope with Eve, and I hate it here too. Furthermore, this is not how kids act. This is how people wish kids acted - that they had only two modes, happy and sad, and the appropriate response could be triggered by the presense or absence of candy.I don't mean to say I hated this book - in fact, I quite liked it. But children and women are characters too. Write them believably!Note: A copy of this book was provided by the publishers via NetGalley.