About The Author
Emily Mckay has an English degree from the Texas A&M University. After finishing college, she went onto teach literature to middle school students, teaching them how to appreciate it. After following the advice "Write what you love to read" she began to look back on the so many romance novels she had read in the past, and decided to give up teaching to write full time.
The Story
In "The Before", Lily and Mel were just an ordinary pair of twin sisters, with a little more to tackle in life than others. Mel was suffering from Autism, whilst Lily tried her hardest to take care of her. After a genetic "accident" outbreak causes humans to mutate into monsters known as Ticks, they drive away the citizens of America, all teenagers are sent to "Farms". These "Farms" are situated in every state of America holding young people, donating teenagers blood every week to feed the Ticks living on the outside of the Farm fences.
Carter is an old friend of Lily's. When he arrives on the farm, Lily is a little cautious about Carter and doesn't want to warm to him as much as he wishes. When Carter discovers Lily's plan to escape the farm with Mel in tow, he offers to help her whilst requesting assistance from his very strong, very fast vampire military officer, Sebastian. With the Farm Dean chasing them down every road, and monstrous Ticks in tow at every turn, it is fight for safety or die trying.
Will Lily and Mel make it out of the Farm alive and safely to the border of Canada? Or will they get tracked by the Ticks and eaten alive?
Characterisation
A fine group of characters are built into this story and made to mix perfectly:
- Lily - Lead female protagonist, twin sister of Mel, fighting for survival in the dystopian world, and suspected human Abducturae
- Mel - Lily's twin sister, suffering from Autism and always talking in nursery rhymes.
- Carter - Lily's old friend and high school crush in "The Before". He was sent to military school after stealing his fathers car.
- Joe - Another friend of Lily's from school, he also lives on the farm and sells survival equipment to fellow teens.
- Sebastian - A Military officer and intimidating vampire, leading Carter and fellow military staff to farms around the country searching for his Abducturae.
Lily and Mel have both been on the Farm for the last 6 months, and are ready to fight their way to to Canada. Canada has since closed the border due to the infection and Lily has a feeling the Ticks wont follow them.
Carter is an old friend of Lily's from The Before. After attending high school for a while together Carter got himself into a lot of trouble after stealing his fathers very expensive car. He was caught by the police, charged and sent to military school. After meeting Sebastian, Carter finds out that there is a being on earth known as an "Abducturae", who is able to control the thoughts and feelings of the people around them, and also unintentionally manipulating other peoples emotions in accordance with the Abducturae's own. After hearing this from Sebastian, Carter has a feeling that Lily may be the one they are looking for, and so the search for Lily begins.
Plot Lines
Whilst reading The Farm, I noticed that the story was constantly going up and up. It never seemed to reach a point in which you needed to read a little while before an event began. From meeting Lily and Mel, the story goes into Lily beginning to put her escape plan into action, and then Carter is introduced into the story. After this an action escape is performed, however Lily and Mel fail, we them meet someone new. But after all this, the story is constantly on the go, never slowing down. Its a constant survival in the story, and so things cant slow down for a second.
The highest point in the storyline, the part that had me hooked to the page, was when Carter explains to Lily what an Abducturae is, and how he thinks she is connected to it. We start to learn about a lot of important and key points in the story. The points in the story which brings everything together as one huge story. Roberto, the Vampire leader in the States, is mentioned and explained into the story and how he links with the Abducturae theory.
Its a simple part of the story, but you are learning about everything together and realising the point to the story. You learn how Ticks become indestructible and how an Abducturae could change all of that.
OVERALL
Story: 8/10
Characterisation: 7/10
Re-readable: Yes
Recommendable: Yes
Overall I rate this book: 8/10
Over the past few years I have read a variety of different genres when it came to picking the perfect books to share with friends. Also over the years, when being given a book as a gift on a special occasion people never know what to get me in specific, and so they usually would look at a cover of a book and debate whether or not it would be something I would read. A few years ago all I would read were Fantasy and Vampire Fiction, typical teenage girl novels. And so people would buy me something to do with that. But after changing my taste and reading more widely I still allow myself to be attracted to a cover of a book to decide what I want to read. After seeing The Farm sitting on a shelf in a store, I was immediately attracted to it. I don't know what it was exactly, but once I had read the blurb I was hooked.
In no way does the book mention Vampires, or romance, or Fantasy or anything along those lines. But one I started I noticed that all three of those things were involved. Even though it wasn't your typical Vampire novel, whether you like sparkles or not, it wasn't a vampire romance. It has a small love story, and a separate fantasy feel to it.
I would recommend this book to fans of Fantasy/Young Fiction readers.
No comments:
Post a Comment