Book Review:The Eternity Cure by Julie Kagawa

Let me start off by saying that I didn’t love The Immortal Rules (TIR). I thought it was entertaining enough to finish, but the second half of that book pretty much sucked and relied on a bunch of played-out tropes. What I did like about TIR was Kanin. I love a dark, mysterious character that doesn’t have to try too hard. I thought everything that had to do with Kanin in book 1 was intriguing. I spent the rest of that book chasing the feelings I got from the first half. My excitement for The Eternity Cure was a continuation of that chase and was based on the fact that I knew Allie was going looking for Kanin. I had hoped that this sequel would have that dark quality of TIR’s first half and in some places, it did, but it was not nearly enough to make up for all the lusterless parts.

It’s hard for me to warm up to characters that have previously been vilified. It takes a very skilled writer to pull that off, IMO. Kagawa throws an old villain into the mix here and I can’t say it completely worked. Making them humorous helped make it all more palatable, but in the end, I could have done without. I felt like the character worked better as a villain, so I couldn’t easily jump sides. It seemed kinda random and it was a real downer to learn that the character would be around for the long haul. Blah.

As for Allie, oy vey. She’s really frikkin annoying. Her self-righteousness was nauseating. I get that she has trouble with her “monsterdom”, but way too much time was spent ruminating on it. She keeps trying to separate herself from her kind and label herself as different, but it all stinks of Mary Sue’ism. If all the other vamps are monsters, then you’re a monster, too. Period. Get over it. You chose that life, so be bout that life. I find it exasperating that every time Allie starts to get hungry, Kagawa throws in conveniently placed “bad guys” for her to munch on, only to perpetuate the whole “Allie is different from all the monsters, because she doesn’t feed off innocent people” thing. Fuck off. You’re a vamp. Be a fuckin vamp. Again, she chose that life. It’s unrealistic that all that time has passed and she’s never had to feed off regular people.

Speaking of twats, Zeke is back. Ugh. I can’t stand him. He’s such an insufferable Harry Sue. I guess that, in retrospect, he’s perfect for Allie. He’s another do-gooder idiot, always “doing the right thing”, even of it’s not the smart thing. Allie’s Zeke-worshipping is ridiculous, too. He can do no wrong. None. As a matter of fact, this happens:

“Dammit”, Zeke muttered, and I blinked. I couldn’t remember ever hearing him swear before.

Are you shitting me? The boy mutters “Dammit” and Allie’s ready to sound an alarm? Who gives a shit?! Dammit? Fuckin 4 year olds say dammit. It’s hardly cause for alarm, but then again, I guess it’s not in keeping with Zeke’s perfection.

The Eternity Cure by Julie Kagawa

Kanin. My dear Kanin. What has Kagawa done to you? He seemed a little watered down to me. Not to mention that he doesn’t even show up until 65% of the book or so. More blah. I’m not a huge fan of a love triangles, but in this case, I wish there was one. Because I can’t stand Zeke and I love Kanin, a triangle would make my dreams come true. Unfortunately, it’s seeming like Kagawa is setting Kanin up to be some type of father figure for Allie. FUCK NO! PLEASE STAHP! I hope I’m reading this wrong, but I don’t think so. My fantasy for this series would be that Kanin would get hot and heavy for Allie, making her question her loyalty to twat Zeke and that Kanin would resolve the triangle by eating twat Zeke for sustenance. All my dreams would be realized.

Lastly, I don’t think that Sarren could get anymore cartoon-y. It’s seriously Scooby Doo up in this piece with his ridiculous rants and crazy behavior. To me, he’s lost his edge and every time he came around, I’d skim. Nobody has time to decipher his nonsensical riddles.

I see decent ratings across the board for this one. I can’t tell you to skip it, but I can tell you to go into it with low expectations.