What do you think?
Rate this book
The Farmed
No one thought human beings would be forced to farm their own in order to survive nuclear war. But in 2030, the CIA set out to do just that. For 60 years, this genetically perfect race has been immune to all disease...until one day, a plague rips through their community, and suddenly they are not. Desperate to protect their elite, the government will stop at nothing to find a cure. But they didn’t count on Winnie, a seemingly common teenage girl, who isn’t very common at she’s telepathic, extremely fast, and incredibly strong. They arrested Winnie. They arrested Winnie’s mother. Now she is determined to stop the government and liberate her people. Even if it means losing everything she loves.
- GenresFiction
366 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 12, 2016
7 people are currently reading
442 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
August 17, 2019
I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway in exchange for an honest review, for which I am very grateful.
This book is a dystopian young adult novel. As such, it is executed very well. Winnie, the female protagonist, suddenly wakes up strapped onto a table, being fed intravenously, with no idea how she got there. She's there for several days, while her memories slowly come back, intermittently visited by a textbook "bad guy" villain. (Nothing is mentioned about bathroom problems while mobilized for five days! It's a kids book, so we can skip over that. :-) )
She receives several telepathic messages from her mother, thus learning that she, too, is telepathic. Her mother is also a prisoner. When she escapes, she discovers that she's also super fast and super strong. That one's a stretch, I think. How do you live not knowing you can do that? More and more memories return, as her rescuers lead her to San Francisco's now abandoned subway systems, where the "underground" folks live much better lives than Winnie and her folks. They are the sole survivors (or are they??) of a nuclear war, and are under the iron thumbs of an artificial race of genetic super people, who are among other things immune to any disease and apparently to aging. Naturally, they also live lives of luxury at the expense of the other class. Until now, when they suddenly discover they're being infected by a virus to which they aren't immune.
Winnie leads the underground on a revolution to overthrow the master race and rescue her mother. (One of the areas that also stretches the imagination. The newbie arrival leads the assault? Hmm...again, it's a kids novel.) Things don't go quite according to plan, and the underground survivors escape into the Wasteland (now unsettled areas supposedly devoid of other humans because of the war, or maybe not), which leads to the next novel.
Despite the little stretches of imagination, this was a well crafted story. It held my interest all the way through, even when it made me quirk an eyebrow here and there.
This book is a dystopian young adult novel. As such, it is executed very well. Winnie, the female protagonist, suddenly wakes up strapped onto a table, being fed intravenously, with no idea how she got there. She's there for several days, while her memories slowly come back, intermittently visited by a textbook "bad guy" villain. (Nothing is mentioned about bathroom problems while mobilized for five days! It's a kids book, so we can skip over that. :-) )
She receives several telepathic messages from her mother, thus learning that she, too, is telepathic. Her mother is also a prisoner. When she escapes, she discovers that she's also super fast and super strong. That one's a stretch, I think. How do you live not knowing you can do that? More and more memories return, as her rescuers lead her to San Francisco's now abandoned subway systems, where the "underground" folks live much better lives than Winnie and her folks. They are the sole survivors (or are they??) of a nuclear war, and are under the iron thumbs of an artificial race of genetic super people, who are among other things immune to any disease and apparently to aging. Naturally, they also live lives of luxury at the expense of the other class. Until now, when they suddenly discover they're being infected by a virus to which they aren't immune.
Winnie leads the underground on a revolution to overthrow the master race and rescue her mother. (One of the areas that also stretches the imagination. The newbie arrival leads the assault? Hmm...again, it's a kids novel.) Things don't go quite according to plan, and the underground survivors escape into the Wasteland (now unsettled areas supposedly devoid of other humans because of the war, or maybe not), which leads to the next novel.
Despite the little stretches of imagination, this was a well crafted story. It held my interest all the way through, even when it made me quirk an eyebrow here and there.
August 23, 2016
The Farmed by Lisa Caskey is a dystopian science-fantasy novel set in the late 21st century in the remnants of San Francisco. I categorize this as having a fantasy element because there is telepathy, while not being magic, it is a speculative metapower outside the realms of science and technology. This is the first book in a trilogy, the second book is The Mutated.
The story opens with teen protagonist Winifred Kimball awaking strapped to a table in prison (reformatory), she has no memory of how she got there or why. As Winnie's recollections return, the world and conspiracy are unveiled, leading to her soon-to-be role in the conflict between the totalitarian Council and insurrectionist underground (The Enterprise). If this setup sounds familiar, it should, two successful franchises, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins and Veronica Roth's Divergent follow powered teens battling the corrupt establishment. Those are just well known examples, there are several other similar movies in the works (and a couple that already flopped). With all that energy being spent I can only assume there's an audience for it.
Winifred eventually escapes the reformatory with the assistance of Eric, but not before learning her mother is also a captive. In the process, Winnie learns that she has special abilities. She gets to the underground where the insurrectionists live better than than the downtrodden people trapped in the Loin. She is introduced to the resistance leader (the Captain) and his security adviser (Joe) and one of the Captain's many children, Rose. It turns out her rescuer Eric is also one of the leader's children.
Things start out well, but take a turn for the worse when she expresses a desire to go after a journal bequeathed by her recently deceased grandmother. The underground won't let her do anything that risks the Council recapturing her. Essentially, she's simply become a prisoner to a different group.
There are some twists and turns as she learns more about her origins and legacy, about her abilities and such. Most of this occurs after she recovers her grandfather's journal (the entries of which are interleaved chapters through the course of the book). After some maneuvering, relationship upheaval and trust issues, Winnie pushes matters to create a final showdown situation with the council leader Chancellor Valentina Travieso.
Rating (1-5)
Execution : 3.4-4.0 -- The initial presentation of the story is fragmented, partly I assume to emulate Winnie's fragmented consciousness. As a writer myself, I can see this to a degree, but I wonder if the effect is worth the cost in reader orientation. Add to this, blocks of exposition that slow things down and you have technique hampering the story-telling. Show not tell is a mantra I follow and I look for it in a book I'm reading. I'm on-board with Author Caskey's concept, but I cringe when characters 'find themselves' doing 'something'. The hidden-ability trope is well-established, so there are many good examples to steal (uh emulate). The use of physical registers and sensory is key to raising narratives to the next level. There is also a certain amount of bathos in this where the diction isn't keeping pace with the action.
My last comment is just the handling of telepathy. I find doing it with italics and no quotes a cumbersome and jarring mechanism. For my own writing I use < > for telepathic exchanges, and I surround electronic communication (phones, radios, etc.) with asterisks. This way when a character sends a telepathic message, <Are you there?> she asked in her thoughts. It becomes a visual que. This way punctuation and attribution rules can be also be applied the same as regular dialogue.
Setting : 3.4 -- The world-building in The Farmed is inconsistent to me. Add to it that this type of world has been depicted numerous times going back to the now deemed classic 1960's novel A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr. It's almost to the point now that nuclear Armageddon has become passe in favor of the zombie apocalypse. That aside, a more earnest attempt to explain how the mutually assured destruction deadlock ended up broken. Today, except for a few tiny island nations led by kooks and whack-jobs, nobody actually believes a nuclear exchange can be survived. It is unlikely that any of these smaller actors have enough warheads to get through the nets of the major players. Anyone who believes the U.S. has actually given up all it's anti-ICBM technology is naive. Further, with San Francisco being a major port it would be a target of interest behind the naval/aerospace installations at San Diego. It's not hard to get my buy-in, I just need more specific effort spent on the sequence of events that makes it possible.
The other obstacle is what sequence of events removes the scourge of governmental blockers opposed to any and all stem research (just because). The anti-intellectual pro-creation conservative zombies continue to hinder and reconstruct opposition to genetic research regardless of it's potential good. How did we get rid of them?
Lastly, radiation and mutation-- I'll leave it at-- not so much.
Character :3.65 -- Overall, author Caskey does a decent job of portraying Winifred, her youth and inexperience. As a picky reader, I would have liked more 'showing' and less telling. At times, it felt a bit melodramatic and forced to me. In this, I mean characters getting worked up by something when worse things and possibilities have already happened. Causes and effects of things didn't always track for me. Visually speaking, character tags were needed, and the visual details of the supporting cast needed reinforcement throughout. Characters like Joe (it would have helped a lot if it had been spelled Jo to help identify female). I really wanted the subordinate characters to be more strongly typed and portrayed, so they acted more like foils than plot and subplot facilitators.
One of the bits I thought needed work was the development of Winifred's talents. The diction and visuals used to describe her physicality in combat needed to be more vivid, with choreography that matched the character's ability. Also, it's a hard sell that a character would be unaware of their strength or speed.
Overall : 4.0 -- This is a decent read. I would have liked a little more surprise or twist to the end, but this is part of a series. The characters could use some extra pop which I hope author Caskey will address in the next volume. While the setting/setup is very similar to previous offerings there's still the potential to do something different with the scenario. I have a weakness for superheroes and if author Caskey is headed that direction, I'm on board.
April 15, 2018
"A for Adam," was one of my favorite lines from Lisa Caskey's The Farmed. 'A' is also for awesome, which is what I thought of this sci-fi dystopian YA novel. Caskey paints a disturbing future with the United States in ruins, destroyed by nuclear war. A perfect breeding ground (pun intended) for government conspiracy, oppression, human farming, and an underground society of rebels. When I first started the book, the social hierarchy (those in power, those not, and the rebels) reminded me of something I had recently watched, and, by the end of the book, I recalled what it was--the USA network show, Colony, but without an alien invasion. Like Colony, The Farmed delivers on the tension between the have's and the have not's. That coupled with human genetic experimentation makes for an excellent read!
The main character, Winifred Kimball, known as Winnie, wakes up to find herself a prisoner in San Francisco, one of the last cities left. Her captors are the Council, a powerful group in charge of what remains of the United States. Winnie is special, and even though she's from...the Loin (the have not's), the Council has big plans for her. That sets the stage for what endures for the remainder of the novel--a great escape, tons of action, a telepathic new bestie named Rose, an underground adventure, and all-beef hot dogs. Not to mention a dreamy love interest named Eric, disturbing hallucinations, fajita night, and much more!
This is a great read for anyone who liked the series, Colony or The Passage by Justin Cronin. Seriously, pick this one up, you won't regret it.
The main character, Winifred Kimball, known as Winnie, wakes up to find herself a prisoner in San Francisco, one of the last cities left. Her captors are the Council, a powerful group in charge of what remains of the United States. Winnie is special, and even though she's from...the Loin (the have not's), the Council has big plans for her. That sets the stage for what endures for the remainder of the novel--a great escape, tons of action, a telepathic new bestie named Rose, an underground adventure, and all-beef hot dogs. Not to mention a dreamy love interest named Eric, disturbing hallucinations, fajita night, and much more!
This is a great read for anyone who liked the series, Colony or The Passage by Justin Cronin. Seriously, pick this one up, you won't regret it.
August 11, 2019
Lisa Caskey’s The Farmed has been on my TBR list for a while so I was excited to finally read it. A YA dystopian novel set in the future tells the story of Winnifred (Winnie) Kimball, an eighteen-year-old living in San Francisco. SanFran is more like a prison in the future than today’s version as beyond its borders people mutated by a nuclear strike roam the countryside. Inside, the poor work to support the rich. Winnie is one of the poor living with her mother. The novel starts with Winnie waking up strapped to a table with no memory of how she got there or why she’s being held captive.
An intriguing start leads to an exciting set of events that brings Winnie to a resistance group. The plot zips along and we learn more and more about how the world devolved into its current state from Winnie’s great-grandfather’s journal as we discover the heroine’s interesting abilities at the same time.
A lot of key elements of a YA dystopian novel are here: suspense, action, and romance. What is also present that I didn’t expect was a surprising amount of scientific detail and research that went into the book. I was surprised how absorbed I was in this novel. It never lagged at any point and I stayed invested in the characters, especially Winnie. I hope to pick up the next installment soon.
An intriguing start leads to an exciting set of events that brings Winnie to a resistance group. The plot zips along and we learn more and more about how the world devolved into its current state from Winnie’s great-grandfather’s journal as we discover the heroine’s interesting abilities at the same time.
A lot of key elements of a YA dystopian novel are here: suspense, action, and romance. What is also present that I didn’t expect was a surprising amount of scientific detail and research that went into the book. I was surprised how absorbed I was in this novel. It never lagged at any point and I stayed invested in the characters, especially Winnie. I hope to pick up the next installment soon.
April 21, 2019
This was a wonderful book! I especially loved the journal entries in between the story about a different timeline. It was well done and the story was great! I can't wait to read the next one!
August 9, 2019
Great book! I could see this fictional story becoming a future reality. I can’t wait to read the next one.
July 10, 2016
The Farmed is an enjoyable, straight-forward dystopian tale. It's got the plucky heroine, the handsome love interest, and the evil government figures that readers of this genre come for. But there is one, significant way that it goes beyond typical teen dystopian lit: consequences.
In this tale, not everyone lives happily ever after. Not everything works out hunky-dory by the end. And most importantly, the actions of the main characters can have consequences; big ones. You don't get to blow things up without the loss of innocent lives. And you don't get to engage in gunfights with evil government agents without seeing a team-member or two shot in the process.
I don't want to mislead you. This isn't a dark story, and it doesn't veer all the way into the "Oh my God who's gonna die next" territory of, say, The Walking Dead. But the story does a better job of showing that it's not all glory and fun when you're using violence to overthrow a despotic regime. And that's a good thing. Too many novels in this genre gloss over the ugliness of violence or war.
Another way that this novel excels is in the editing. This is one of my pet peeves when reading, but in this novel, the editing is superb for a self-published author. Any grammar mistakes or typos you find will be relatively minor and won't distract from your ability to immerse yourself in the story.
There are a few places where the tale doesn't live up to its potential: Sometimes things are a little too straight-forward, like "I know I just met you a half-hour ago, but I feel like I can trust you so I'm going to tell you my deepest secret," or "Hmm, OK, let's have the 18-year old girl we just met lead the assault on our enemies." That sort of thing. It occasionally stretched my ability to suspend disbelief. Also, the linear progression of the story made me nervous. I kept waiting for the twists, reversals and betrayals that books like this have taught me to expect. But when the twists came, they were more like... curves.
But those complaints are relatively minor. Overall, it's a fun story that's worth reading. The society itself is constructed in an interesting way, and is somewhat more within the realm of possibility than many other books, and the story has a peppy heroine you can't help but root for. If you like the teen dystopian genre, give it a try.
In this tale, not everyone lives happily ever after. Not everything works out hunky-dory by the end. And most importantly, the actions of the main characters can have consequences; big ones. You don't get to blow things up without the loss of innocent lives. And you don't get to engage in gunfights with evil government agents without seeing a team-member or two shot in the process.
I don't want to mislead you. This isn't a dark story, and it doesn't veer all the way into the "Oh my God who's gonna die next" territory of, say, The Walking Dead. But the story does a better job of showing that it's not all glory and fun when you're using violence to overthrow a despotic regime. And that's a good thing. Too many novels in this genre gloss over the ugliness of violence or war.
Another way that this novel excels is in the editing. This is one of my pet peeves when reading, but in this novel, the editing is superb for a self-published author. Any grammar mistakes or typos you find will be relatively minor and won't distract from your ability to immerse yourself in the story.
There are a few places where the tale doesn't live up to its potential: Sometimes things are a little too straight-forward, like "I know I just met you a half-hour ago, but I feel like I can trust you so I'm going to tell you my deepest secret," or "Hmm, OK, let's have the 18-year old girl we just met lead the assault on our enemies." That sort of thing. It occasionally stretched my ability to suspend disbelief. Also, the linear progression of the story made me nervous. I kept waiting for the twists, reversals and betrayals that books like this have taught me to expect. But when the twists came, they were more like... curves.
But those complaints are relatively minor. Overall, it's a fun story that's worth reading. The society itself is constructed in an interesting way, and is somewhat more within the realm of possibility than many other books, and the story has a peppy heroine you can't help but root for. If you like the teen dystopian genre, give it a try.
April 10, 2022
Lisa Caskey is great at story telling and keeping you engaged with the storyline.
I was very captivated with Winnie and her story going from bland Loin citizen to smart, strong, and aggressive "Hero".
Looking forward to continuing Winnie's journey in the second book in this series, "The Mutated"
☆ edit to add that the audiobook is just as Amazing to listen to (04.10.22) ☆
I was very captivated with Winnie and her story going from bland Loin citizen to smart, strong, and aggressive "Hero".
Looking forward to continuing Winnie's journey in the second book in this series, "The Mutated"
☆ edit to add that the audiobook is just as Amazing to listen to (04.10.22) ☆
November 3, 2019
I enjoyed this book. The concept was interesting and the way the book was written is easy to read but not boring.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews