The Farm Review

Title: The Farm

Author: Emily McKay

Date of Publication: December 4, 2012

Formats Available: Paperback, E-Book

Buy This Book: Amazon

Synopsis: 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...

My Review:

I'm starting to become a bit wary when it comes to vampire books but when I saw the interesting premise of The Farm I was willing to give this one a try. Unfortunately I misjudged this novel, full of Twilight references and annoying characters I had a really hard time getting into the story. At over 400 pages The Farm ended up being one of those horribly long books that don't get bad until you're in too far to go back.

Right off the bat Lily annoyed me a little bit. On edge and constantly complaining about having to take care of her sister she was far too snappy and distrustful for my taste. While her attitude sometimes worked in her favor and I knew her heart was in the right place I just couldn't relate to her.  On the other hand, quite possibly the only thing I liked about this novel was the chapters from Mel's point of view. Because she's mentally handicapped I thought her points of view were really interesting and the author did a fantastic job conveying the story while still telling it from Mel's tilted perspective.

As the novel moved along the plot wandered farther and farther away from the original objective of getting of the farm and surviving the Ticks and into what-on-earth-am-I-reading territory. With a ridiculous back story explaining the invention of the Ticks and the revelation that there are real vampires, not to mention Lily's sudden superpowers, I was scrambling to make my way to the end before more crazy revelations where exposed. Between that and the author contradicting herself the plot at the end of the novel was a mess.

While the ending did throw me for a loop I'm not sure where the author is going with the story. Unless she plans on contradicting herself again I just don't know what she's going to do with what she has left. Although I'm a little curious to see how she's going to continue the story the dislike I had for this novel is enough to keep me from coming back for the second one.

Its always hard to say but The Farm is just not a book I would recommend. Even though the novel did have some strong points didn't outweigh the weaker ones. Paired with the hefty length of this novel fans of YA vampire fiction may want to at least wait for the library to get a copy or skip it all together.

1/5