The Farm
Emily McKay
Publisher: Penguin
For Lily and her twin sister Mel there is only the Farm . . .
It's a prison, a blood bank, a death camp - where fear and paranoia rule. But it's also home, of sorts. Because beyond the electric fence awaits a fate much, much worse.But Lily has a plan.
She and Mel are going to escape - into the ravaged land outside, a place of freedom and chaos and horrors...
It's a prison, a blood bank, a death camp - where fear and paranoia rule. But it's also home, of sorts. Because beyond the electric fence awaits a fate much, much worse.But Lily has a plan.
She and Mel are going to escape - into the ravaged land outside, a place of freedom and chaos and horrors...
The Farm is a strange creature. There are
parts of the story I absolutely loved – the idea of teenagers blood being more
attractive to vampires, the downfall of the United States within six months and
having one of the main characters as an autistic. These helps to makes a
post-apocalyptic on the run story (which is a fairly popular starting place
these days) a little different.
However,
I never really bonded with one of the main characters, Lily. She seems highly
argumentative for no reason other than she has to be. She is demanding,
untrusting and I couldn’t help thinking a lot of conflict and issues would be
avoided if only she shut up occasionally and listened! I didn’t hate her – she had
a lot of responsibilities and how she managed to keep everything going over the
last six months is impressive, but she seems to be belligerent for the sake of
it and her frequent changes of opinion regarding not-trusting anyone one minute
and then changing her mind is infuriating.
All
that said – I really liked Carter, Lily’s former crush and all-round bad guy.
He seems to be doing his best and the way he looked after Mel was lovely. Most
of the other characters are not developed much. Not that you notice when
reading – the story is very fast paced with plenty of exciting action and some interesting
ideas regarding the power of charisma. I admit I zoomed through the pages
almost as fast as my train was going (which considering there was no delay that
day was pretty quick!). I liked the idea of vampires being that territorial and
the Farm itself is a pretty creepy institution. There is some potential with
this story and I am curious about what would happen next. I just hope Lily
calms down and finally learns to stop arguing for the sake of it!
Recommended
for fans of Sarah Crossan and Veronica Rossi. 7.5 out of 10
Sounds interesting. You know, until you pointed it out, I hadn't noticed that many post-apocalyptic tales start with somebody on the run.
ReplyDeleteI need to read this one but I'm a little anxious, so many mixed reviews everywhere...
ReplyDeleteYea, a character like that would bother me as well. Still, how could you not like a female character named Mel?? ;) I do want to read it, but I may wait for the second book. i wanna know if Lily will not be so frustrating.
ReplyDeleteAhaha! Well, you know my opinion about Lily... I wanted to STRANGLE her! Glad to know you are sharing my point of view to some extent, Mel! :) Really enjoyed your review!
ReplyDeleteMaybe they'll develop in the next book? Sounds interesting. :) Thank you.
ReplyDelete