You just know that after the combined success of Twilight and The Hunger Games a bunch of authors pitched queries saying "what if we mixed vampires with dystopia?" And thus the "dystopian vampire" genre was born. And I'm not complaining. I have enjoyed many books written in this vein including the Immortal Rules books by Julie Kagawa and The Hunt by Andrew Fukuda. I've just finished The Farm by Emily McKay, whose second book in the series comes out next month (The Lair). This is a fast-paced action thriller with some romance and lots of questions left unanswered, but not in a bad way. It uses a shifting point of view technique between three characters - the heroine (Lily), her potential love interest (Carter), and her autistic twin sister (Mel). Interestingly, Lily and Mel's chapters are written in the first person while Carter's chapters are written in third person. This seems to be an increasingly popular technique in modern writing and was used to powerful effect by Anna Banks in her Syrena Legacy books. I particularly liked McKay's tongue-in-cheek digs at contemporary culture, including the Twilight-led vampire craze.
While Lily's voice rings through loud and clear in the novel as a kick-ass heroine who makes a lot of mistakes, but takes no prisoners, Mel's voice was a little more difficult to get a handle on. It was rendered effectively by the author but I wasn't sure how much it actually contributed to the story. It seemed pretty peripheral. I got the sense it was important to hear Mel speak in this book because her character apparently changes a lot in the second book (I won't give away any spoilers) and it's probably necessary to plant the groundwork in the first book so we can appreciate the change in the second. Carter is a great character because his loyalties are so divided and he's trying to do the right thing in circumstances where there are no easy choices - and the poor guy is battling his attraction to Lily the whole way through the book for reasons that become apparent but I won't go into it here because I don't want to give anything away.
This is not high-level literature by any stretch of the imagination. It's action and thrills all the way. I was a little concerned about its suitability for younger audiences when I read on the cover blurb that it was billed as a cross between Resident Evil and The Hunger Games. But it's really not that bad. There's not that much blood and gore on the pages so I don't think it should be off-putting for any parents who want their children to have a good fun read. And there's no explicit sexual content either. So don't be deterred by the advertising material. It's pretty accessible and entertaining for younger readers all around.
While Lily's voice rings through loud and clear in the novel as a kick-ass heroine who makes a lot of mistakes, but takes no prisoners, Mel's voice was a little more difficult to get a handle on. It was rendered effectively by the author but I wasn't sure how much it actually contributed to the story. It seemed pretty peripheral. I got the sense it was important to hear Mel speak in this book because her character apparently changes a lot in the second book (I won't give away any spoilers) and it's probably necessary to plant the groundwork in the first book so we can appreciate the change in the second. Carter is a great character because his loyalties are so divided and he's trying to do the right thing in circumstances where there are no easy choices - and the poor guy is battling his attraction to Lily the whole way through the book for reasons that become apparent but I won't go into it here because I don't want to give anything away.
This is not high-level literature by any stretch of the imagination. It's action and thrills all the way. I was a little concerned about its suitability for younger audiences when I read on the cover blurb that it was billed as a cross between Resident Evil and The Hunger Games. But it's really not that bad. There's not that much blood and gore on the pages so I don't think it should be off-putting for any parents who want their children to have a good fun read. And there's no explicit sexual content either. So don't be deterred by the advertising material. It's pretty accessible and entertaining for younger readers all around.
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