by Emily McKay
Paperback, 420 pages
Published December 4th 2012 by Berkley Trade
ISBN 0425257800 (ISBN13: 9780425257807)
Blurb
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…
The Good
- The twist on vampire mythology. McKay took what we know about vampires and flipped it on its head. These vampires don’t sparkle; they herd people up and farm them for their blood. This was such an interesting idea, and I really wish there had been more focus on it throughout the book.
- Mel. I loved that one of the main characters had autism and that she was given a voice. Mel is not some invalid that needs to be taken care of. In fact, she is oftentimes more aware of what is going on than her sister is.
The Bad
- The abductura plot. McKay’s human farming plot line is wonderful, but it gets muddied by the abductura plot line that is uninteresting and completely unbelievable. I understand this is fiction, but when the characters in the book are even making fun of the story as it unfolds, you know there is something a little off. This book could have been absolutely amazing if McKay had left out this part of the story and focused entirely on the human farming aspect and the Tick disease.
- Lily. Lily spends the majority of the book whining, fretting over Mel, and putting herself into unnecessary danger mostly because she is too pig-headed to listen to what anyone tells her. She is one of the most frustrating characters I have encountered in a while.
- The pace. The story moved entirely too slowly for me, but that is probably in large part due to the fact that I did not care for Lily or the abductura plot line, which are the main focuses of the book.
Overall Rating
I loved the idea of human-farming, territorial vampires. This was such a fresh, unique plot, but it got completely overshadowed by the less interesting abductura plot line. This, combined with Lily’s ridiculous level of stubbornness unfortunately ruined what could have otherwise been a fantastic book.
