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3.43 AVERAGE
3.43 AVERAGE
I really enjoyed this take on vampires. It's so different to anything I've experienced in any form of media, and I'm excited to see where this goes. My only criticism is that Carter's POV was third person compared to Lily and Mel being first person, and that threw me off a bit.
I had a hard time finishing this book. It had a neat premise and interesting elements, but seemed to unfold slowly. Also characters seemed vague and one dimensional.
I wanted to really, really like this...I only kind of did. This book had a lot of potential but there were just some things throughout that took away from me really loving it.
We find out that the world has changed and now populated by Ticks. These are genetically altered people that eat teenagers hearts. The Farm is where all teenagers were sent by families (mandated by the government) to protect the population. Unfortunately, they appear to be run by some corrupt people and once someone hits the age of 18, they tend to vanish. At the same time, the population of The Farm are "donating" their blood every few days....ok - I'm on board with this.
Lily and Mel are twins who have been at The Farm for 6 months. Mel is autistic and Lily has been taking care of them and working on a plan to escape The Farm before they turn 18. Right around this time, Carter shows up. He is someone Lily and Mel knew from Before and we come to find out he has a reason he has been looking for Lily. He believes she is an abductura (someone who can control emotions) and along with the rebel group he is with, they think Lily will save everyone. I'm still fully on board with this which is why I was thinking I would love this.
The things that took away from the book for me were the characters - I didn't really love them. I was back and forth on my feelings for Lily - she did some annoying things but then she would do something that would make me like her. Carter - I get that he was supposed to be the "bad boy" in high school and although I did like him, the fact that he told Lily that he knew what she was because he didn't want to fall for her but did (in high school) just makes me think he clearly didn't use his brain all the time...I mean what girl wants to be told "hey - I love you but I don't want to love you" (I'm totally paraphrasing here).
There were some minor editing issues throughout the book and the point of view changes were fine - it just felt odd to be in first person for Lily's chapters and move to third person for Carter's.
The end was interesting and I won't give anything away. I will most likely continue to read the series as I am curious enough to want to see what happens.
We find out that the world has changed and now populated by Ticks. These are genetically altered people that eat teenagers hearts. The Farm is where all teenagers were sent by families (mandated by the government) to protect the population. Unfortunately, they appear to be run by some corrupt people and once someone hits the age of 18, they tend to vanish. At the same time, the population of The Farm are "donating" their blood every few days....ok - I'm on board with this.
Lily and Mel are twins who have been at The Farm for 6 months. Mel is autistic and Lily has been taking care of them and working on a plan to escape The Farm before they turn 18. Right around this time, Carter shows up. He is someone Lily and Mel knew from Before and we come to find out he has a reason he has been looking for Lily. He believes she is an abductura (someone who can control emotions) and along with the rebel group he is with, they think Lily will save everyone. I'm still fully on board with this which is why I was thinking I would love this.
The things that took away from the book for me were the characters - I didn't really love them. I was back and forth on my feelings for Lily - she did some annoying things but then she would do something that would make me like her. Carter - I get that he was supposed to be the "bad boy" in high school and although I did like him, the fact that he told Lily that he knew what she was because he didn't want to fall for her but did (in high school) just makes me think he clearly didn't use his brain all the time...I mean what girl wants to be told "hey - I love you but I don't want to love you" (I'm totally paraphrasing here).
There were some minor editing issues throughout the book and the point of view changes were fine - it just felt odd to be in first person for Lily's chapters and move to third person for Carter's.
The end was interesting and I won't give anything away. I will most likely continue to read the series as I am curious enough to want to see what happens.
Read for BookClub (Paperback)
Overall Rating: 4.00
Story Rating: 4.00
Character Rating: 4.00
First Thought When Finished: Holy crap y'all there was no Love Triangle and very little angst! That scores an auto 4 from me in the YA world! I reward good behavior.
Story Thoughts: I have to admit that parts of The Farm reminded me of The Hunt. However, that was just in tone not really in the story. I think The Farm succeeded in pulling me into the story with the really unique characters. I did wonder why all the parents would just give up all their kids. Even if the government was saying too, I have to imagine that some would fight back? They might have but we didn't really see it. I am hoping that this is addressed in book 2! That was really the only YA cliche I saw in The Farm.
Character Thoughts: I love that there were a wide array of characters/character types in The Farm. Each was different and yet they all worked together quit well. The end left me wondering where one of the characters was going to go personality wise but I will be picking up book 2 for this reason. I love when there are unusual character types and they aren't relegated to secondary roles. Well done Emily, well done!
Final Thoughts: I am not a huge YA reader but this series will stay on my Radar! I am curious to see where it goes from here!
Overall Rating: 4.00
Story Rating: 4.00
Character Rating: 4.00
First Thought When Finished: Holy crap y'all there was no Love Triangle and very little angst! That scores an auto 4 from me in the YA world! I reward good behavior.
Story Thoughts: I have to admit that parts of The Farm reminded me of The Hunt. However, that was just in tone not really in the story. I think The Farm succeeded in pulling me into the story with the really unique characters. I did wonder why all the parents would just give up all their kids. Even if the government was saying too, I have to imagine that some would fight back? They might have but we didn't really see it. I am hoping that this is addressed in book 2! That was really the only YA cliche I saw in The Farm.
Character Thoughts: I love that there were a wide array of characters/character types in The Farm. Each was different and yet they all worked together quit well. The end left me wondering where one of the characters was going to go personality wise but I will be picking up book 2 for this reason. I love when there are unusual character types and they aren't relegated to secondary roles. Well done Emily, well done!
Final Thoughts: I am not a huge YA reader but this series will stay on my Radar! I am curious to see where it goes from here!
3/5 stars
I read this about 4 years ago and I absolutely hated it. I've owned it since then and never picked it up again until recently. After reading it again, my opinions aren't as negative. I still didn't particularly enjoy it, but I thought it was alright. Some parts of the plot just seemed thrown in because hey why not. It's an ok read if you just need sometime to get you out of boredom, but I don't think you'd be reading the best novel in the world. It had a lot of potential, but it was just lackluster.
I read this about 4 years ago and I absolutely hated it. I've owned it since then and never picked it up again until recently. After reading it again, my opinions aren't as negative. I still didn't particularly enjoy it, but I thought it was alright. Some parts of the plot just seemed thrown in because hey why not. It's an ok read if you just need sometime to get you out of boredom, but I don't think you'd be reading the best novel in the world. It had a lot of potential, but it was just lackluster.
I liked that this book was on the border of YA and Adult, it dealt with the age range of Young Adult, but at the same time, it didn't skirt around issues that teenagers face normally. I've noticed that most YA won't curse or really address the issue of sex, but this book managed to cover what it really was like for teenagers before their world exploded and then what it was like after.
I really liked that this book could double as a YA for more mature readers within the genre. While there isn't sex all over this book it is a topic that comes up a few times when talking about Lily and Carter. There is also the constant mention of "Breeders", young women who chose to have babies and therefore are used like tissues by the Collabs, jock like young boys who choose to work with the Dean of The Farm.
All of these terms are a little confusing when trying to explain it to you right now. I thought it was interesting that all of these Farms (yes, human Farms) were set up on college campuses. It reminded me a little bit of The Loners, the way that the jocks and sporty guys joined the collaborators and the girls (its insinuated the ones that have looser ethics) join the breeders which means that Collabs can sleep with them whenever.
I loved the devotion that Lily and Mel had to each other and how Carter pushed to help them both even though it was for his own reasons. I liked that Carter didn't talk to Mel like she was autistic, but rather like she was a normal person. When you look at how they got from point A to point B, its really shocking to realize that this book only took place during a span of 4 days or so.
Of Note: I saw Jenn from Crazy For Books with it on the first day of BEA. I asked her what it was about and her response was "I'm not sure, something about ticks and bugs." which being the girly girl that I am, made me go, 'ick.' When I saw that my mom has snagged a copy, I asked her to read it and let me know if it was a good read, and when my mom handed it to me and was like "OMG. This book was great!" I knew I had to read it even though the publication wasn't until December and I read it in June.
So if you're unsure about this book because the description mentions Ticks, know that its about vampires and their twisted monster cousins and not the bugs, because if it were killer bugs, there would be no surviving. Anyway, give this book a chance if you're looking to explore outside of YA, but you're not sure where to go. There was no love triangle which was great, and you get a little bit more maturity.
I really liked that this book could double as a YA for more mature readers within the genre. While there isn't sex all over this book it is a topic that comes up a few times when talking about Lily and Carter. There is also the constant mention of "Breeders", young women who chose to have babies and therefore are used like tissues by the Collabs, jock like young boys who choose to work with the Dean of The Farm.
All of these terms are a little confusing when trying to explain it to you right now. I thought it was interesting that all of these Farms (yes, human Farms) were set up on college campuses. It reminded me a little bit of The Loners, the way that the jocks and sporty guys joined the collaborators and the girls (its insinuated the ones that have looser ethics) join the breeders which means that Collabs can sleep with them whenever.
I loved the devotion that Lily and Mel had to each other and how Carter pushed to help them both even though it was for his own reasons. I liked that Carter didn't talk to Mel like she was autistic, but rather like she was a normal person. When you look at how they got from point A to point B, its really shocking to realize that this book only took place during a span of 4 days or so.
Of Note: I saw Jenn from Crazy For Books with it on the first day of BEA. I asked her what it was about and her response was "I'm not sure, something about ticks and bugs." which being the girly girl that I am, made me go, 'ick.' When I saw that my mom has snagged a copy, I asked her to read it and let me know if it was a good read, and when my mom handed it to me and was like "OMG. This book was great!" I knew I had to read it even though the publication wasn't until December and I read it in June.
So if you're unsure about this book because the description mentions Ticks, know that its about vampires and their twisted monster cousins and not the bugs, because if it were killer bugs, there would be no surviving. Anyway, give this book a chance if you're looking to explore outside of YA, but you're not sure where to go. There was no love triangle which was great, and you get a little bit more maturity.
This book was just....there. It wasn't bad necessarily, but it wasn't really all that good either. I felt NOTHING while reading. Absolutely nothing. No intrigue, no disgust (and there were plenty of disgusting things), no emotion whatsoever. Not good. I think that's what ultimately scored such a low rating for this book is that I didn't give a crap about the story or the characters. Even when things were actually happening I didn't care. There was no anticipation, no suspense.
The whole abductura thing was interesting, but despite that being unique I didn't feel as if the book really stood out. To be honest, now that I've finished the book I feel like there were times when it kind of felt *almost* like a knockoff of The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa. Sebastian seemed like a knockoff of Jackal, the Ticks a knockoff of Rabids. Just the general feel of the novel. And really, I don't know why - because that's where the similarities end. I guess it just reminded me of the book. Not that it actually was a knockoff. But because the comparison is there in my mind, and of course it's got nothing on Julie's series, it ruins it a little for me.
The world building was watery at best. There was a vague mention of genetic mutation leading to the Ticks, but it didn't go into detail. I have no idea what year it's supposed to be. I didn't really understand the point of the Farms. To protect the kids? Or to harvest them? The structure wasn't explained. The Dean leads the Farm, and the "Collabs" police it, but that's about all we get. Why? How? I NEED MORE THAN THAT. Why the hell were the kids called "Greens?" Where did the term abductura come from? Then there was vague talk of this Roberto person taking over the world...for what? I don't even know. I even struggled to picture the Ticks:
Their chests were massive and bulging with muscles, their arms out of proportion with the rest of their bodies. The disparity made them look clumsy, but they moved with surprising agility, dancing along the bank, desperate to attack us but unwilling to jump into the river to get to us. [...] I imagined I could distinguish the grotesquely distended jaw. The inhumanly large teeth.
And also the fact that they have "leonine teeth" was mentioned at least twice. Another paragraph mentioned one being covered in "patchy hair, several inches long." So, in my mind, they looked like apes. How terrifying.
I was going to talk about the strange creatures called nutria, but as I was writing this review I looked it up. Apparently it's a real thing? I've never heard of it, and it wasn't explained. The only description we get is that it's the size of a medium dog, it scuttles, and it has orange teeth. Turns out it's a large rodent, so why didn't the book state that? If it's a term that 95% of the population probably won't know (or maybe I'm just so ignorant about rodent species that I'm projecting that ignorance on the rest of the population? Please correct me if I'm wrong!), why not just toss in a quick explanation for understanding? I'm sure as hell not going to stop reading to go look it up. (And I didn't, and that's why I thought it was a fictional creature.) But how random is that, anyway? Have YOU ever seen one of these things randomly wandering out in the wild? Didn't think so.
I do have to give kudos for the switching POVs, though. There were three: Lily, Mel, and Carter. Mel's was very disjointed on the account that she had autism, Lily's was 1st person, and Carter's was 3rd person. It was very easy to tell them apart.
As far as the characters...Lily was just...there. Just like that book was. She wasn't particularly inspirational. She tried to be strong, but sometimes ended up being too naive and stubborn and alway ran headlong into danger. She was fiercely protective of her sister, that was probably her best attribute. Carter had little to no personality to speak of. Honestly, I think the person with the most personality was Mel.
The romance was...ugh. UGH. It was quite hot and cold, had little to no foundation (Lily had a crush on Carter in school but had very few interactions with him, and even they were hot and cold). Carter didn't seem to know what the hell he wanted. One minute he would act like he cared, the next he would be all aloof and broody. And then he blamed his feelings on Lily being an abductura, insinuating that he only felt that way about her because she was persuading him to. She was right, that is insulting. Plus, WHO THE HELL is going to be kissing a guy while their f*cking sister is missing? SERIOUSLY?! That part really irritated me. Maybe it's just me, but making out seems a little unimportant compared to an abducted sister and, ya know, imminent death at the hands of freaky ape-like creatures.
And you know something? For this supposedly being a book about vampires, we only meet ONE actual vampire. Huh.
Will I continue with this series? I'm not really interested, so probably not.
This review was originally posted on Novel Heartbeat. To see a breakdown of my assessment, please visit the full review here.
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
inspiring
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I really enjoyed this book. I first heard about it the day before it released. I rushed to the bookstore and grabbed my copy, which was fresh out of the box. The Farm had a bunch of elements I love: young adult, dystopian, vampires, end of the world, a fierce heroine, and a little bit of romance, all of which are basically the recipe to the perfect book for me. I am glad it turned out to be as good as I’d hoped.
The story is told from Lily’s point of view for the most part, but a some chapters are told from Carter’s, though not in first person, and a couple of chapters are from Mel’s point of view, Lily’s autistic twin sister. Each chapter is clearly labeled to avoid confusion, but the different points of view are pretty obvious and well done. What I liked the most about The Farm is Lily’s character. She was so believable. I loved her voice. She described everything around her well, but she also had a personality that really came out in her narration. The author captured the essence of a teenager well without overdoing it and making the narration too juvenile. I thought it had the perfect balance.
The world was incredibly interesting to me. Lily didn’t know much beyond the fence besides memories of the way it was before she ended up in the Farm, but she finds more and more out along the way and struggles to sort of understand it all. The Farm itself was interesting and horrifying. There were tons of real world references that sort of brought it all together and made so much of the story seem plausible. It also added a bit of humor and reliability to it, also. While Lily’s world and the vampires inhabiting it are violent, Lily herself is such a great narrator. She is humorous and doesn’t really whine or dwell on anything too much. Her first priority is her sister’s safety and well being and, while it’s obvious she falls for Carter, she doesn’t swoon and become incredibly distracted or weak. As much as I love romance in books, sometimes it overpowers the main story line and I was relieved that it didn’t happen in The Farm.
The plot was action packed and full of twists and I never knew what was happening or who I could trust. The adventure was thrilling to me and captivating. I would definitely recommend this book. While it’s a bit dark and violent, Lily’s character brings some humor and light to the story because of the way she tells it, so I would recommend this book to people who were intrigued by the world of The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa, but felt it was too dark and violent for their taste. I thought The Farm was unique and original, despite the fact that the premise may sound a bit similar to The Immortal Rules. It was definitely a different story altogether. I will definitely continue the series.
The story is told from Lily’s point of view for the most part, but a some chapters are told from Carter’s, though not in first person, and a couple of chapters are from Mel’s point of view, Lily’s autistic twin sister. Each chapter is clearly labeled to avoid confusion, but the different points of view are pretty obvious and well done. What I liked the most about The Farm is Lily’s character. She was so believable. I loved her voice. She described everything around her well, but she also had a personality that really came out in her narration. The author captured the essence of a teenager well without overdoing it and making the narration too juvenile. I thought it had the perfect balance.
The world was incredibly interesting to me. Lily didn’t know much beyond the fence besides memories of the way it was before she ended up in the Farm, but she finds more and more out along the way and struggles to sort of understand it all. The Farm itself was interesting and horrifying. There were tons of real world references that sort of brought it all together and made so much of the story seem plausible. It also added a bit of humor and reliability to it, also. While Lily’s world and the vampires inhabiting it are violent, Lily herself is such a great narrator. She is humorous and doesn’t really whine or dwell on anything too much. Her first priority is her sister’s safety and well being and, while it’s obvious she falls for Carter, she doesn’t swoon and become incredibly distracted or weak. As much as I love romance in books, sometimes it overpowers the main story line and I was relieved that it didn’t happen in The Farm.
The plot was action packed and full of twists and I never knew what was happening or who I could trust. The adventure was thrilling to me and captivating. I would definitely recommend this book. While it’s a bit dark and violent, Lily’s character brings some humor and light to the story because of the way she tells it, so I would recommend this book to people who were intrigued by the world of The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa, but felt it was too dark and violent for their taste. I thought The Farm was unique and original, despite the fact that the premise may sound a bit similar to The Immortal Rules. It was definitely a different story altogether. I will definitely continue the series.