Early Review: The Vault by Emily McKay

The Vault by Emily McKay

The Farm #3

There is no rest for the damned in this thrilling follow-up to Emily McKay's The Lair and The Farm, in a series New York Times bestselling author Chloe Neill calls, "Equal partsResident Evil and Hunger Games."

In a world where vampires rule and teenaged humans are quarantined as a food source, there is only one choice—resist or die. But fighting the vampires comes at a terrible cost to twin sisters Mel and Lily and their best friend Carter . . .

With Lily exposed to the vampire virus and lying in a coma, it’s up to Mel and Carter to search for the cure. Time is not on their side. With every passing heartbeat, Mel is becoming more and more purely vampire.

Desperate, Carter and Mel decide to split up. Carter will recruit human rebels from the Farm in San Angelo to infiltrate the guarded kingdom of the vampire Sabrina and steal the cure. Mel will go back to her mentor, her friend, her betrayer, Sebastian, who is the only one who can access an underground vault that may house the secret to the cure.

That is, if he’s still alive after she staked him to the ground. Now her worst enemy may be their best hope for curing Lily—and saving the human race.

Typically I'm not the biggest fan of rotating narrator perspectives, but in this case, it really worked well for me. I said the opposite about the previous installment as the rotations were a bit much for me, but this time around. I felt more attached to the characters than I would have otherwise. It really kept me sucked well into the story, and considering how intense things were, it made for a heck of a ride. I also really enjoyed how it upped the emotional aspects as it allowed to see multiple angles and sides, and gave me more than plenty characters to really root for. And honestly, aside from the romance that's the biggest thing I really ask for in a book, to be sucked into the story, and attached to the characters. And this one had it in spades.

Speaking of the romance. I loved how Lily and Carter's romance was still incredibly strong despite the almost insurmountable odds the book starts off with. There's just a really strong and believable connection between the two and I enjoyed it immensely. That being said, there's another budding romance that I won't go into specifics on to avoid spoilers, but suffice it to say that it stole the show for me this time around. My only complaint is that as this may be the final book, I won't get to see more of how it plays out, but I'm still largely satisfied with how it all played out.

This was one heck of a whirlwind ending to the series. I enjoyed the previous two installments, and THE VAULT gave me just the ending I hoped for. Don't get me wrong it's not all roses and happiness at the end, but a more realistic outcome considering the world. And considering there were several points throughout the book that things were so bleak that I honestly wasn't sure how things would turn out, the ending has me more than pleased. Well worth the read for fans of the series, this one is not to be missed!

(Received a copy from the publisher)

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Other Reviews:
     Girls with Books
   
Previous Books:
     1. The Farm
     2. The Lair

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Early Review: The Lair by Emily McKay

The Lair by Emily McKay

The Farm #2

In the battle against the vampiric Ticks, humanity was slowly but certainly headed for extinction. For months, twin sisters Lily and Mel had been "quarantined” with thousands of other young people being harvested for their blood—food for the Ticks. Finally escaping with a few friends, the twins are separated—and must continue the fight on their own . . .

After making it to a resistance base camp in Utah, Lily learned to survive at all costs. But when a Tick attack decimates the fighters, Lily and her pregnant friend, McKenna, decide to make the hard trek north to Canada—and safety.

Meanwhile, Mel is being taught how to survive by the very vampire that turned her. Living without her sister is hard, but dealing with the fact that her autism was cured by the vampire bite is an even bigger challenge.

But when a monstrous betrayal places Lily in mortal danger, Mel must set out to find her, save her, and begin to unravel the empire of destruction that the Ticks have built.

Despite narrowly escaping the Farm that held twins Lily and Mel they still aren't free yet. In fact Mel is simply chained in another way as she is now a vampire, and struggling to come to terms with that. Meanwhile Lily is still with Carter and McKenna as they travel to the resistance's base camp. But what they find there isn't the salvation that they hoped for as nothing is quite as it seems. They'll have to decide whether to stay or to cut their losses, but when the dangers outside are as great as the ones inside, how do you choose?

There was a whole lot going on with this book with the switch back and forth between Mel and Lily. Granted in the previous book these perspective switches happened as well, but Mel's sections were much shorter. This time around she played a much more prominent role front and center, and honestly I'm not entirely sure how I feel about that, simply due to the fact that her autism is now cured. Sure, it was very interesting seeing her grow and start to come to terms with the changes in herself, but honestly a lot of what I really liked about this series was the dynamic between Mel and Lily, which is now gone. I will say that I do like the way it was handled with Mel lamenting the loss of her music, but I'm still a bit unsure about it. Perhaps it stems from the fact that I don't think she needed to be cured, but in the end I guess that doesn't really matter, and I'm mostly happy with the way it was handled, even if it went against my personal preference.

I'm still in awe at how intense this book was, from the romance to the constant threat of the ticks, plus the overall arcing issue of the vampires and politics, and survival. I could go on and on. As I said previously there was a whole lot going on in THE LAIR. Luckily it never quite slipped from a lot into too much. But that being said, it was a very intense ride, and opened up a lot of door and possibilities. It's times like these where reviewing can be very hard as you can't get into any specifics without spoiling things. So I'll just have to suffice with saying this book is definitely worth reading for the fast pace alone, and that's not even getting into the fabulous cast of characters, who almost steal the show themselves. Again there's a whole lot going on since there is so many of them, but each one is fully three dimensional, and more than make the book.

This book has left me tied in knots from all the twists and turns, and I like the characters have no idea who to trust with everything so up in the air. But that's what keeps things interesting and me sucked completely into this series. Of course the cliffhanger ending only further cemented my interest in the series, much to my dismay as they drive me nuts. I'll definitely be counting down until the next book in the series releases.

(Received a copy from the publisher)

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Other Reviews:
     The Maniacal Bookworm

Previous Books:
     1. The Farm

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Early Review & Giveaway: The Farm by Emily McKay

The Farm by Emily McKay 

The Farm #1

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...

When the monsters known as Ticks swarmed across the country leaving a bloody path of terror behind them, the world was forever changed. Now all of the teenagers live in quarantined camps for their "protection" while farming their own blood out. But Lily believes there is something even more sinister at work than just being a blood source for the Ticks. She's determined to escape to ensure both she, and her autistic twin sister Mel don't meet a worse fate. But just as she's ready to put her plan into action, Lily runs into someone from her past that she once had a crush on. He has invaluable information about the outside world, but there's something mysterious about his circumstances. Lily doesn't know who to trust in this deadly of survival as she is one wrong move from losing it all.

As saturated as the genre has become, Vampires are becoming a tired and worn out thing for many readers. While I can't say that I'll ever lose my favor for them as they were my first love in the genre, I will admit it is becoming increasingly rare to find something unique and refreshing when it comes to vampires. The Farm, however, has it in spades. Sure, some of the elements are familiar, but when you but put all of them together, it made for an incredibly unique read. Perhaps that is because the ticks aren't your romanticized version of vampires, but bloodthirsty beings who live only for the kill that were slightly reminiscent of zombies, only much, much, much faster. The farms only added to the feeling of danger as the corruption from the leadership was astounding. As some of the more sinister secrets were revealed, I only got sucked further down the rabbit hole.

Mel's portions of the book were beautiful, lyrical, and.... I didn't understand them one bit. But, that isn't a bad thing, as I think Emily McKay did an extraordinary job of capturing Mel's at her very essence, and it wouldn't have done her justice to try and change her way of thinking just to make it so a normal reader could follow the flow easily. Having a brother with special needs growing up, I am a little bit more sensitive than most to this type of thing, but even I sometimes have a hard times seeing the intelligence underneath the lesser functioning nature. Emily McKay showed that not only was Mel's different way of thinking beautiful, but in many ways she was by far the most intelligent of all the characters. She had a way to see past all of the things that stand in our way to the heart of the real problem. Another thing that really impressed me was the way Emily handled Lily's reactions to Mel. Lily had such a fierce protectiveness towards Mel, and has dedicated her life to protecting her. That being said, there were several points throughout the book where Lily was ready to snap and almost lashed out at Mel for her inability to really cooperate. I just think this made everything more real because no matter how much you love and care for someone, there will be times where it just becomes too much for the caregiver and they have to take a step back.

The Farm really caught me off guard. I went into it expecting yet another vampire book, but what I got was an absolutely gripping and thrilling ride that was incredibly impressive. After the way things ended, I am rather desperate to get my hands on the next installment. Vampire and zombie fans alike will not want to miss this fantastic new Paranormal YA Series. An absolute must buy!!

(Received a copy from the publisher)

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• The Reading Fever
• Once Upon a Twilight
• Reader of Fictions

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