Mimi's Bookcase

Synopsis: 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...


My Opinion: To my surprise, I enjoyed it!
The synopsis sounds a bit like The Forest of Hands and Teeth except with vampires but I thought it was better written than the latter.

To me, this novel is a real page-turner. It's entertaining, gripping, a bit scary and frankly interesting. I enjoyed the world created by the author. It reminded me a bit of Resident Evil as written by Chloe Neill on the cover though not as terrifying.

Another thing I liked about this book is that it's written from several points of view and not just from the heroine's which is definitely a BIG. I especially enjoyed reading Mel's parts and loved the fact that an author took the challenge to add an autistic character in a YA fantasy novel (it's actually the reason I decided to give it a try).
On the other hand, I didn't like Lily all that much. She's better than a lot of other YA novel heroines but I found her a bit insufferable after some time. She's smart, brave, strong-headed and she doesn't trust people easily which is a good thing and totally understandable given the situation but her stubbornness became annoying after the first half.
As for Carter, I liked him fine. He's not a fantastic character but he's interesting enough and I quite liked that we got inside his head, I don't think I would have enjoyed spending the whole read wondering if he's good or bad and what is his agenda.
The character I enjoyed the most except Mel is Sebastian and I can't wait to read more about him... no, I won't tell you who he is!

The Farm is a fast-paced, thrilling and exciting read despite its few flaws. Be prepared to spend hours reading!

To summarize: A good YA fantasy novel. I can't wait for the 2nd installment!