Review: The Forever Song by Julie Kagawa

The Forever Song by Julie Kagawa
Publisher- Harlequin Teen
Released- April 15th 2014
Pre-Order- Amazon / B & N / Chapters

VENGEANCE WILL BE HERS
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, triumph is short-lived in the face of surviving forever alone.

My Thoughts: 

The Forever Song is the last instalment in the Blood of Eden series and dammme what an ending! Julie Kagawa has once again delivered a heart stopping, pulse pounding finale that fans have been on edge waiting for and I'm happy to say it was everything I expected from Kagawa and more!

Our story begins with our Master vampire, Kanin and his sired-children, Allison and Jackal on a blood thirsty journey chasing down the sadistic vampire Sarren to Eden before he unleashes a plague that will destroy everything in it's path. Sarren's has a plan to wipe the world clean and start new by using his mutated version of the Red Lung virus that can kill humans and vampires alike. It's up to Kanin, Allison and Jackal to hunt down Sarren before it's to late. And with every step they take, every obstacle  they face, they do it with dark desperation in their hearts, hunger in their veins and a taste of revenge and death on their lips. Stop Sarren, find a cure and avenge the lives he's taken. It ends now!

Wow! What a freaken ending! I'm awed, floored and speechless. If this wasn't a Julie Kagawa book, I probably wouldn't have been able to fully enjoy this experience since I tend to favor more lighter vampire stories and this is anything but light or sweet or cute. This series is dark and damaging, violent and vicious and I loved every.single.minute of it. 

You know, I don't even know what I can say about this book plot-wise. It's filled with the most gasping turns and riveting twists. But anything I say will be a spoiler and fans of this series will want to learn all the stunning revelations for themselves. So all I'm gonna say about my feelings towards this amazing storyline is that Kagawa completely out did herself with this one. All the directions she put this world through was treacherously brutal but she still manages to bring greatness to her brilliant cast of characters.  The journey to self-worth and personal growth is very shady in the life of a blood thirsty vampire but somehow they've learned to beat down their monsters and come out with their morality in hand, or well, most of them anyway. There are so many moments that gave me pure chills and thrills. Moments that shocked the hell out of me, made me laugh, made me smile and made me so so sad. But through it all, the action and suspense had me glued to every page of this devastating dark and edgy horror that made me want to both savour and devour it in the same breath.

I'm so very proud of Allison. I'm proud that in the end of everything she's been through she still got to decide what monster she wanted to be after all. That she didn't let the blood frenzy or the lost and pain she felt destroy what little humanity she had left. Instead she used her anger to fight with everything she has no matter what happens.

I've always had the biggest soft spot of our dear Kanin. He holds himself with decades of wisdom and regret that made him both vulnerable and powerful. Deep down I always suspected how things may play out for him in the end and while I was right, I wish I was very much wrong.

If Puck, from the Iron series had an evil twin vampire brother, it would be Jackal. For me to hate this character in the first book and then have that same character be completely redeemed is no small thing. I loved his taunting banter and how exasperatingly annoying he can be. He's still a selfish bastard mind you, but this journey, these books, wouldn't have been the same without him.

As for Zeke...well, lets just say I was very conflicted about his fate and leave it at that. 

LOVED the ending. Perfection is all I'm gonna say!

Bottom line, The Forever Song is a kickass conclusion to one extremely badass vampire series. Kagawa's writing is mesmerizing, her world is horrifically deadly and her characters will sink their teeth in your heart and never let go.  This was one helluva wicked ride! Congrats to Julie for a sensational job, only you can make me want to experience a dark vampire series and have me begging for more.  I can't wait to get my hands on her next big adventure, dragons!! Talon!! Gimme, Gimme Gimme!

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