The Eternity Cure: Book Review

The Eternity Cure

Julie Kagawa

Harlequin Teen

April 23rd 2013

Young Adult | Science Fiction | Paranormal | Dystopian
Vampire

Official Blurb - 
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.

Oh my, I am going to be sick.

*retching*

*puking*

(wipes mouth)

That was . . . it was so very . . . very wrong.

Who gave this woman a pen (or computer) to write with!?! Oh my goodness! Wish I could go back and tell myself do not read this book. Some things you just don't need in your head.

Julie Kagawa is a master of telling stories. She can create a character that embodies the essence of an emotion. She can grasp your emotions and wrap them securely around a character until you can hardly tell they are fictional. The problem with master storytellers is that they don't always use their awe inspiring abilities to create only good and uplifting. When they turn their power toward creating an evil, woe betide any who stand in the way. You will wish for that old predictable boring evil guy. Sarren, our evil in residence, is an evil dark and true. Creating moments so despairing and cruel they should not be written.

I never thought I would meet another author to match Cassandra Clare in pure cruelty but Julie has an imagination that if backed by inclination and power would destroy the world. *shivers*

I couldn't eat after reading the final scenes. I wished I could throw up every despairing dark torturous word and image. Purge that vileness from my mind. For days images from that final scene would intrude my mind leaving behind despair. And my nights were full of strange dark nightmares.

Evil grasped hope in all its pure beautiful glory and tortured it cruelly until it was absolutely extinguished. I don't know that I agree that the world shouldn't be destroyed. Sure Sarren is a particularly nasty case of crazy and power but for him to exist isn't a good sign for this world. It might just be better to eradicate it.

I don't understand the meaning behind the title. I wanted to think it was a cure for vampirism. A return to life no matter how impossible. Instead it must mean more like a cure or eradication of hope and humanity. The cure is guaranteed to raze all such good feelings from everyone. At the least I was cured of my care for all the great characters in this world. Surely they would be better off dead than facing that. *shudders*

I have never read a book that affected me quite so strongly. Every page was an amazing adventure. I especially loved that there wasn't the least hint of romance or even prospects for it in the beginning of the book. While usually I would begin to bore of a book due to that fact I was enthralled in spite of it. The bonus occurred not many pages later with the reappearance of our hero, Zeke. And what an entrance he makes too. After that moment each page just became one more sweet addition to a great story. There was such a delicate balance between the tender, humorous, dark, and terrifying until the end. I want to say that there is some saving grace to balance the black of the end but there is just no way to set the scales right after that. No hint of more time or possibility for a second chance could ever be enough. There are some burdens a person should never have to live with. I am sure Julie Kagawa has some amazing turn about planned. But I think I will have to bow out. I just can't bare anymore. 

There is this discussion between Zeke and Allison that I feel was very important. A moment that she will look back on and reconsider the meaning of after the tragic event that ended this book.
"Allie, it's not worth it."
"Why not?"
"Because, I know you. Because, when it's over, you'll regret it for the rest of your life. That's forever, Allison."
I disagree Zeke. I think she will regret very much that she didn't take that action and for a very long time. I wonder if he would sing a different tune now about that moment. Likely not, he is such a good person.

It was hard for me to rate this book. Nearly from start to finish it was a five star book. Before I was even done with it I was ready to recommend it to friends. But once the final scenes concluded I hated the book. Eventually after days of stewing on it I had to give it a one star. Luckily it was such a fabulous book except the end that others will have no problem praising it. I just think you want to be sure you have a strong stomach to read this. Don't enter it with any hope that your favorite character will be spared the most dire and cruel situations.

Content:
Language: Moderate to heavy
Violence: Heavy

Moments Divine:

"So, now that we're done making out in entrails-strewn sewer tunnels, are we ready to go see the Prince?."

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"Allie." I turned as Zeke dropped the crossbow with a muffled thump, stepped forward and pulled me close, holding me tightly against him. He was shaking, his heart pounding against his ribs, loud and frantic. My eyes slipped shut, and my free arm reached around his waist to hug him back. The Hunger stirred, and my rational side prickled a warning that this was dangerous. I was getting too close, was already too close. I ignored it. Zeke felt warm and safe, and I had missed him, more than I thought I would ever miss anyone. I could allow myself this one moment.
"God, I thought I'd lost you," he whispered in a husky voice. "When Sarren grabbed you, my heart nearly stopped." Pulling back, he ran his thumb over my cheek, brushing the hair from my face. My senses buzzed from his touch. "Are you all right? I'm sorry...I couldn't get the shot off fast enough. Did he hurt you?"

"No." I reached up and wrapped my fingers around his wrist, feeling the pulse beneath my hand, assuring us both that we were okay. Hard to believe. I'd faced Sarren twice now when he was intent on killing me, and come out alive. How long would that luck last, I wondered. Especially since Psycho Vamp was still out there and hated us even more. "I'm fine, Zeke," I told him, squeezing his arm. "We're both still here." He drew in a slow breath. "Allie..."

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"I hope we are not disturbing you."
"Not at all. At this point, I'm so disturbed that anything else will seem tame compared to the week I've had."

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"I missed you, you know," Zeke murmured, bending his head to mine. I clenched my fingers in his shirt and listened to his pounding heart. "The whole time I was in Eden, I couldn't stop thinking about you. When I woke up and they told me you had gone..." He shook his head, and his heartbeat sped up."I wanted to come after you right then, but I knew I had to take care of the others, that they were my first, my most important, responsibility. And I did. They're safe, every single one of them, even though I had to let them go."
"Let them go?"
He swallowed hard, and his grip on me tightened. "Caleb, Matthew and Bethany were adopted by a great couple who always wanted kids. They have chickens and cats and goats, and everything they could ever want. Jake actually married one of the nurses at the checkpoint clinic, and Silas and Teresa moved into a little cottage by the lake's edge. They're happy. They're finally home." His eyes glimmered, even as he gave a faint smile. "They don't need me anymore."
"Zeke..."
He gazed at me, his expression so tender I felt my heart constrict. "There was just one person missing," Zeke whispered, his hand framing my face. "One person I couldn't bring home."
I gave him a sad smile. "Eden isn't my home."
"It could be."
I shook my head. "How?" I whispered. "That is the one place in the whole world where there are no vampires or rabids, the one place where humans are free, and you're saying they'd let a vampire just walk in? With no consequences whatsoever?" I gave a rueful, not-quite smile. "They already kicked me out once, Zeke. I told you before. Eden isn't for me." Zeke ran his fingers through my hair. "You're not like the others," he murmured. "I know you. I've seen you." He drew me closer. "You're the one vampire in the world they might let in. When this is all over, you could come back with me. We could go to Eden together--"
"Stop," I whispered, putting my hands on his chest. This was getting dangerous. Again. The Hunger emerged once more, making me want to step close, pull him to me and sink my fangs into his neck. Zeke gazed down at me pleading, and I kept my voice firm. "I can't Zeke, I'm still a vampire. That won't ever change. You don't know me as well as you think."
"Why didn't you stay in Eden?" I asked roughly, glaring at him. "You were home, Zeke. It was what you were looking for, what you always wanted. Why did you leave?"
He met my gaze, unwavering. "It wasn't home without you."

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"But right now, all I want to do is kiss you, except I'm terrified that if I try you might throw me off this balcony."

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"Well, it's official," Jackal said, his voice echoing down this long corridor. "This is the most I have ever been in the sewers in one place. If someone had said to me a month ago, 'Hey, Jackal, guess where you'll be spending most of your time in New Covington? Ankle-deep in shit!' I would've ripped their lips off."