The young orphan Allie lives in the "Fringe", the run-down outer districts of the city New Covington - one of the last cities on earth still populated by humans. A terrible disease has almost wiped out humanity sixty years prior. But the humans are not alone in New Covington... Vampires rule the city, the all-powerful Masters whose whims decide over life and death. To them, humans are little more than servants, pets or food.

The registered humans pay with their blood twice a month for food rations and some degree of security. The Unregistereds, like Allie and her gang, have to fight for their lives day after day. Hunger and the vampires are not their only enemies - there are also the Rabids, insane zombies lusting for blood, who lurk in the dark ruins surrounding the city. Only the desperate dare go there, past the wall protecting New Covington, on their search for food and items that can be traded for clothes and other necessities.

Allie is half-starved and desperate enough to brave the ruins... And then she makes the find of her life: a trapdoor, leading to a cellar full of canned food! There's enough to last her and her friends for months... The prospect of such a long time with a blissfully full stomach makes them careless. Even though darkness is fast approaching -and with it the time when the Rabics come out of their hiding places-, they try to carry their treasure back to the city before some other scavenger can steal it from them.

A fatal decision that changes Allie's life in the cruelest way imaginable, within one single night. It's the start of a long, dangerous journey for her.

Pros:
There are more vampire novels than you can shake a stake at, and dystopian novels are popping up all over the place, too - but Julie Kagawa has managed the awe-inspiring feat to mix them together and create something completely new. The world she leads us into is alien and menacing, full of inhuman creatues, but still believable and densely constructed. The author describes everything in such vivid detail that I often felt like I could not only SEE what was happening, but also smell, feel and hear. The action scenes especially felt almost like watching a movie, so easy was it to "see" in my head what was going on.

I liked the writing style a lot: easy and fluid to read, but never predictable.

The story gripped me from the very first page. In my opinion, the suspense was maintained even in the calmer parts of the novel. And I was so happy that the vampires were real vampires who don't sparkle...

In my eyes, Allie is a great main character with some serious flaws and rather sharp edges, who is still likable enough to find her way into your heart. She is brave, intelligent and full of a wild, determined energy. Her difficult life has made her harsh and sometimes even a bit calluous. She's fiercely loyal towards her friends, and willing to risk her life for them - but she has learned over the years that she has better chances of survival if she doesn't care about other people's problems as well.

Most of the minor characters were full of life and three-dimensional. True, you don't learn a lot about Kanin the vampire, but that makes sense for how his character is portrayed: closed-off, guarding his secrets. I hope that we'll learn more about him in the next book!

There is no love triangle, hooray! (I'm so fed up with love triangles!)

Cons:
Umm, there's precious little that comes to mind. I have to admit that I wasn't that fond of Zeke; for a young man who has grown up in such a bleak, dangerous world, he seemed a bit overly naive and soft-hearted.

Summary:
This book had me glued to my Kindle and I read it in one go! I'll definitely pick up the next novel in english rather than wait for the german translation - I can't wait!