The Farm by Emily McKay

Summary:
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...(from GoodReads)

Review:
I was really excited to receive a copy of The Farm in the mail because I had heard good things about it and it has a great rating on GoodReads. Luckily, The Farm was just as amazing as I expected and definitely breathed new life into the vampire genre.

The beginning of The Farm was a little confusing, especially because the world Lily lives in is so different than ours, and very different than the usual apocalyptic fare we're used to. Pretty much vampires have taken over the world, and they are intelligent, fast, and powerful. But there are also these vampire/zombie hybrids called Ticks, and all they care about is feeding. There are no human characteristics to them, which I thought was a very interesting addition. So there are many threats, not even including the humans that run the farms that all teenagers are forced to reside in.

Lily also has a twin sister who is autistic that she must care for. Lily's first concern is always to protect Mel and I thought it was nice to see two sisters who love each other so much. Their trio is complete when Lily's old school friend Carter is introduced. It's nice that we occasionally get his and Mel's perspectives, even though the book is mostly about Lily. Carter's POV definitely clears up some of the questions the readers have.

The Farm is exciting, thrilling, emotional and overall a very well-written novel. There's a twist at the end that I guessed about halfway through, but other readers might still be surprised. The Farm ends on a cliffhanger and I'm so excited to see what happens. When is the next book coming out?!?

For anyone who wants to read The Farm, I'm hosting a contest that ends tomorrow (Dec 5, 8 pm EST). Click here for details!!!!

Rating: 9 out of 10.
Release Date: Dec 4, 2012
FTC: from publisher.

2012/Berkley Trade/420 pages.