The Forever Song by Julie Kagawa Series: Blood of Eden #3
Published by HarlequinTEEN on May 2014
Genres: Dystopia, Paranormal, Young Adult
Pages: 394
Source: Netgalley
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Allison Sekemoto once struggled with the question: human or monster? With the death of her love, Zeke, she has her answer.
Monster.
Allie will embrace her cold vampire side to hunt down and end Sarren, the psychopathic vampire who murdered Zeke. But the trail is bloody and long, and Sarren has left many surprises for Allie and her companions - her creator Kanin, and her blood brother, Jackal. The trail is leading straight to the one place they must protect at any cost - the last vampire-free zone on Earth, Eden. And Sarren has one final, brutal shock in store for Allie.
In a ruined world where no life is sacred and former allies can turn on you in one heartbeat, Allie will face her darkest days. And if she succeeds, her triumph will be short-lived in the face of surviving forever alone.
THE FINAL HUNT IS ON.
The nail-biting conclusion to the Blood of Eden trilogy that started with The Immortal Rules. This story has vampires, zombies, deadly viruses and humans struggling to survive.
Please note, this is the third book in the Blood of Eden trilogy, so this review contains spoilers for the earlier books. You may prefer to check out Philippa’s reviews for The Immortal Rules or The Eternity Cure, both on this blog, or my reviews for book 1 and book 2 on The Oaken Bookcase.
Following the harrowing events at the end of The Eternity Cure, Allison Sekemoto has given in the monster inside and embraced her vampire nature, much to the disappointment of her mentor, Kanin. She, Kanin and her blood brother Jackal are back on the hunt for the psychopath Sarren, to stop him before he unleashes a new plague on the world, killing humans and vampires alike.
Young adult vampire stories are pretty hit-and-miss these days but this series has been really fantastic from the start. I remember through the first two books being unable to put them down. Unfortunately, this third book is a little less compelling than the previous two – slightly slower paced with bursts of activity. When the action does happen, it’s amazing, but its interspersed with travel periods that slow things down a bit.
Allison is struggling, not just with losing her humanity but also with the loss of Zeke. Then, when Zeke is found again, he turns out to be deep in struggles himself and the story turns into an angsty romance again for a little while. I thought their story was a little bland though, and the better relationship in this book was between Allison and Jackal. I think almost every conversation in the first two thirds of this book is those two sassing at each other! It made the pages of trudging down highways bearable.
There are some pretty blood-thirsty scenes in this book so it’s not for the faint-hearted. In fact, the carefully detailed gory deaths made this book feel a lot older than a young-adult-aimed book might be expected to feel. I was glad that I read that scene with the extra-nasty rabids during the day time!
Despite this third book not being as compelling as the previous two, it was a very strong conclusion to the trilogy. If you’re looking for a great story of vampires and zombies in a dangerous post-apocalyptic world, definitely give this series a read.
– A great conclusion to this series, but not quite as awesome as the previous two books.
Blood of Eden
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Anni
Anni lives in Brisbane, Australia with her young family. She loves everything fantasy and science fiction and believes sleep is really very underrated.
Ellie
I was really disappointed in this, it just took far too long for anything to happen that wasn’t just hacking up rabids/raiders. I liked the last 150ish pages but it felt like she didn’t have enough material for the final book.
Angelya
You’re right, there was quite a lot of hacking involved… and not a lot of story until the end :-/