Title: The Farm (The Farm #1)
Author: Emily McKay
Genre: Vampires, Dystopian, Young Adult, Paranormal
Age Group: Young Adult
Rating: 3,5 stars
Purchase: Amazon
Life was different in the Before: before vampires began devouring humans in a swarm across America; before the surviving young people were rounded up and quarantined. These days, we know what those quarantines are—holding pens where human blood is turned into more food for the undead monsters, known as Ticks. Surrounded by electrical fences, most kids try to survive the Farms by turning on each other…
And when trust is a thing of the past, escape is nearly impossible.
Lily and her twin sister Mel have a plan. Though Mel can barely communicate, her autism helps her notice things no one else notices—like the portion of electrical fence that gets turned off every night. Getting across won’t be easy, but as Lily gathers what they need to escape, a familiar face appears out of nowhere, offering to help…
Carter was a schoolmate of Lily’s in the Before. Managing to evade capture until now, he has valuable knowledge of the outside world. But like everyone on the Farm, Carter has his own agenda, and he knows that behind the Ticks is an even more dangerous threat to the human race…
I wanted to enjoy The Farm more than I actually did. I picked up the book after heading home from university, and I craved a good read. The Farm was all right, but mostly it was meh. Surprisingly, considering the book had the super-awesome premise of two girls escaping a farm where people are kept for their blood, which is being fed to vampire mutants.
Lily and Mel, our two main characters, live in a world overrun by mutant vampires called Ticks. They’re stuck inside a blood farm, along with several other kids their age, because their blood is most appealing to the Ticks. However, they need to escape fast, because they’re reaching the age of maturity – and no one knows what happens to people who do. They just vanish. Lily doesn’t want that to happen, so she and her mentally handicapped sister Mel, need to escape. Except that’s not as easy as it sounds. Even letting Mel in on the escape plan is a hassle.
The best part about this book, no doubt, was the relationship between Mel and Lily. They have an unique connection. Lily is often frustrated with Mel, who has all kinds of quirks, but she loves her sister despite all that, and Mel loves Lily too, although she doesn’t always understand why Lily does the things she does. I enjoyed the chapters from Mel’s POV the most. The author obviously did her research, and she told Mel’s side of the story in a clever, interesting way.
What was not that convincing though, was the male love interest. Carter. He’s apparently all that, and then some, and Lily has fallen for him ever since she first met him – and apparently the insta-love is mutual. But Carter, if anything, is just ‘meh’. He’s not interesting. He’s not alluring. And he hides way too many secrets. Why Lily trusted him even after he admitted to keeping secrets from her, is beyond me. Also, the chapters from Carter’s POV bordered on being boring. His POV seemed repetitive, and not necessary at all – he didn’t offer anything new to the table.
I would’ve preferred if the story had focused on Lily’s and Mel’s POV only. I disliked Carter, and I found him a liar, who kept things for Lily ‘to protect her’, which never works, and the book owuld’ve worked better without him. Sebastian was all right though, at least he had a reason for being a pretentious jerk (which I won’t explain, because it would be a spoiler).
All in all, not as enjoyable as I hoped, but an okay read nevertheless.
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