The Farm - Book Review

The Farm (The Farm #1)
by Emily McKay

What is it about:
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...

What did I think of it:
I'm in two minds about this book.

The story and mood are both really cool. I loved the idea of people being kept in camps to feed vampire-like creatures even though (once again) the world building was shoddy at times. I thought the head of the camp must not have been too bright the way he ran the camp I will confess. But I've learned to take these oversights in stride and the tense story and the writing were good enough that it didn't bother me too much.

I very much liked Mel, who's autistic, but has a very sharp mind. There were some chapters from her point of view that were really fun to read even though those were in present tense.

What did bug me was Lily. She is very judgmental and as the story unfolded it began to bug me more and more until I almost couldn't stand her anymore. If I hadn't been really invested in finding out where the story was leading I might have put the book down just because of Lily and her narrow minded views.

So while the story is tense, grim at times and with some really cool action I am hesitant to continue to read this series because I'm not sure I can stomach another 400+ pages of Lily.

Why should you read it:
It's a nice Dystopian YA story with vampires