This book was different from any story I've read before. It grabbed me right from the beginning and I just wanted to keep reading to find out what was going to happen. The characters are all from very different backgrounds but it was easy to connect and understand each of their stories and feelings. It almost had the feel of a futuristic story at some points and it makes you wonder if something like this could be happening now or sometime in the future. A kind of scary thought!

I give this book 3 1/2 stars. I feel that it was too drawn on and we didn’t get answers to some of questions. Like who was the Client and why did they need to so many woman carrying the babies. It would have been nice to know the reasoning and to see the clients point of view. I think it would have made a better storyline. I was sad to not hear anything more of Lisa and how the author turned on Reagan. I also felt like at the end of the book Jane kind of turned her feelings away from Amalia.

The Farm is a title that I wanted to read as soon as I heard about it. The idea of a farm for surrogates sounded really interesting, but the way Joanne Ramos wrote the story made it feel incredibly believable to the point that I though places like this could actually exist. The Farm also shed light onto what life can be like for illegal immigrants and how they could be taken advantage of. I found this book not only to be entertaining, but also an important read.

The book is told from three different view points, which I thought was done well as each character clearly had their own voice. I think that it really added to the story to see this plot from multiple angles, although I thought Mae's point of view was a little unrealistic. I know that Mae was supposed to be the villain in this story, but I think she could have been written better because she fell a bit flat for me. I did like Jane, even though she was a bit naive. I think that aspect of her personality made the story more believable, even though I found myself wanting to yell at her for her stupid and impulsive decisions.

As far as the plot, I was a little disappointed. The Farm had a great idea behind it, but no good direction to take it in. I think I expected the plot to be more sinister. The beginning of the book was great, but after a while it became clear that this book wasn't really going anywhere. I do think it was an important book for me to read though, because I had never really fathomed how much people could really take advantage of illegal immigrants and I never really understood what life could be like for them.

I think that The Farm had a great idea behind it, but not a great plot. I was fascinated by the idea, which was why I picked up the book in the first place. The idea of a farm of surrogates carrying rich women's babies was intriguing, but when those surrogates were illegal immigrants the story introduced the possibility for an abuse of power which made for a much more interesting story. I really enjoyed reading this book because it opened my eyes to a perspective that I hadn't seen or understood before. While I didn't love the direction that the plot went, I did love how it opened my eyes and the idea behind the novel.

The Farm didn't like up to its dystopian potential. I never felt like anyone had really stepped out of the bounds of what might be considered acceptable. Maybe I have become jaded? I enjoyed learning about the main characters, their backgrounds and what brought them to The Farm, and the various experiences, but I never felt any indignation at what they were going through. I also felt including the story of the head of The Farm was more of a distraction where I think it was supposed to provide contrast. So while this might be good for a mindless summer read, it is not the shocking story I had hoped for.

The Farm, by Joanne Ramos, intrigued me from the moment I read the description. Pregnancy/Medical rights? Check. Immigration? Check. Power dynamics? Check. Female characters? Check. But, unfortunately, I felt as though this book just didn’t live up to its full potential.

All of those things that caught my attention were laid out within the book, but I hoped that Ramos would dive deeper into each area and instead it felt that many of these deeper issues barely had their surfaces skimmed. The idea of surrogacy on its own is not wholly controversial, but the class and power struggles that Ramos introduces could have made this a truly thought provoking novel that explored these deeper issues of class, race, and overall power. I wanted to learn more about Golden Oaks (“The Farm”) and its inner workings, and to see more explored about the immigration/class/race dynamics within the plot.

The characters were well written and I loved the female driven narrative. Ramos did an excellent writing strong women who felt very real. I appreciated that the story was not as predictable as I had originally thought it would be, but I felt that so much more could have been done with the story that was told.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House for the free electronic ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

We’re told never to judge a book by its cover, and yet it was the cover of The Farm by Joanne Ramos (in stores May 7) that drew me toward it. I’ve never read (or seen) A Handmaid’s Tale, and dystopian fiction is something I usually reserve for YA titles, but the juxtaposition of those pregnant bellies against the simple two-word text had me captivated already—I had to know what kind of world would have to exist for this to become a reality.

Synopsis
Nestled in the Hudson Valley is a sumptuous retreat boasting every amenity: organic meals, private fitness trainers, daily massages—and all of it for free. In fact, you get paid big money—more than you’ve ever dreamed of—to spend a few seasons in this luxurious locale. The catch? For nine months, you belong to the Farm. You cannot leave the grounds; your every move is monitored. Your former life will seem a world away as you dedicate yourself to the all-consuming task of producing the perfect baby for your überwealthy clients.

Jane, an immigrant from the Philippines and a struggling single mother, is thrilled to make it through the highly competitive Host selection process at the Farm. But now pregnant, fragile, consumed with worry for her own young daughter’s well-being, Jane grows desperate to reconnect with her life outside. Yet she cannot leave the Farm or she will lose the life-changing fee she’ll receive on delivery—or worse.

Heartbreaking, suspenseful, provocative, The Farm pushes our thinking on motherhood, money, and merit to the extremes, and raises crucial questions about the trade-offs women will make to fortify their futures and the futures of those they love.

My musings
I picked this up expecting The Handmaid’s Tale or a spin on one of the many dystopian YA trilogies I’ve read, but this was something different. It disturbed me—and I mean that in a good way—because the world wasn’t some far-in-the-future world that I won’t see in my lifetime…it was exactly the world we live in today. Golden Oaks was not created in order to give people children or give women who are down on their luck amazing employment: It’s strictly a money grab. And that terrifies me. Top it off with the fact that this novel touches heavily on immigration and socioeconomics, two hot-button topics at the moment especially, and it was feeling much too real.

It took me longer than usual to get through this, and I think it was because I was waiting for something *dystopian* to happen. Though the characters in this book are incredibly vivid and believable, the plot just trots along with Jane and Co.’s experiences, and while things surely happen to them, I was kind of waiting for the other shoe to drop. Joanne Ramos is a fabulous writer who can write each character’s perspectives in an individual yet complementary way that I don’t see often, and that is the reason I kept powering through.

Mae’s character arc is an interesting one. She is set up as being the antagonist of the story because she’s the one who came up with the program and who does whatever’s in her power to make is succeed—so she can open another site, of course. Near the end, it sort of comes to light that she feels bad for Jane and wants to make up for her wrongdoings by hiring her as her personal surrogate (and maid, really), and I question whether it was the author’s intention to redeem her in the end. Though Jane is treated very well, she, an immigrant, is still in service to Mae and Mae still opens her second location… so I’m not sure she really learned anything. The story ends on a happier note, so I just wish Ramos’s intentions for Mae’s arc were a little more clear.

3.5 STARS

This review will appear on my blog The Modest Reader on May 6 at 7 a.m. at https://themodestreader.com/2019/05/03/the-farm

3.5
Generally a thought-provoking read, touching on several issues such as motherhood, power, immigration, and feminism.

This novel is about a surrogacy business that quite possibly exist in the future - Golden Oaks. They hire high profile candidates who fulfill the requirements sought by the rich and powerful, to be the surrogate mothers of their child(ren). Those who can afford to pay more get the better, higher profile (fair-skinned, highly educated, intelligent, graduates of high-ranking universities, etc) Hosts. 'Everything sacred - outsourced, packaged, sold to the highest bidder!' And these Hosts get better treatment, benefits and salary too.

We're introduced to Jane (an immigrant mother desperately needing a job after being fired from one), Mae Yu (the head of the surrogacy business at Golden Oaks), Reagan (a high profile Golden Oaks Host) and Ate (Jane's hardworking cousin).

Motherhood comes with its challenges and Jane wasn't really prepared for it. She wanted to be a good mother to Amalia, her daughter, and in order to do that, she desperately needed a job after being fired from one. When noher job application was accepted at Golden Oaks, she took it but not without some reservations because this job as a surrogate mother, required her to be in the vicinity at all times and Mae Yu (the head of Golden Oaks) didn't allow her to see Amalia at all, for fear that seeing Amalia will add to her stress during her pregnancy.

As a mother myself, I understood what Jane felt everytime she video chatted with Amalia and Ate. It made her want to see Amalia even more - to be there for her, to comfort her when she cries, to not miss any of her firsts - smile, laugh, crawl, step, etc.

It is frustrating and heartbreaking for a mother to have to take such good care of someone else's baby but not her own. And to top it all, she couldn't even have her own say on decisions pertaining to her own body. Gasp!! All Hosts at Golden Oaks had rules to follow. And every decision made on their bodies and the babies they carry are decided by their high-paying clients, because you know, clients are always 'right', right? Throughout Jane's stay and other Hosts at Golden Oaks, their every movement were monitored, conversations listened to, nutrition and meals had to be strictly adhered to, even their exercise routines which varied according to each Host's needs because every pregnancy is different.

And everything is decided upon what's best for the Host's baby, in other words, everything had to be in accordance to their clients' demands. And the Hosts, people like Jane, who mostly needed this 'job' for the money, had to, albeit reluctantly, follow the rules and give in to their whims and fancies.

This novel also took a brutal, honest look at being an immigrant and how much harder immigrants have to work to survive. What's discouraging though is how unfairly the immigrants can be treated by those in power and the privileged, and how much they have to accept and kow-tow to the higher-ups in order to survive.

The ending to me, was, yes, a little unrealistic in a way, but real for me in a sense that Jane's future is still uncertain. As an immigrant there's no guarantee that by working harder than anyone else the future's going to be better, because truth is, their fate is in the hands of others. Sad but true. Jane accepted what was offered to her, but I'm sure not without reservations because of what had happened.

As mentioned, the novel touched on several important issues, told through numerous characters. Every issue was broadly touched and every character had almost an equal part in the story, making it lose the impact I was hoping for. But it did have enough to leave us some food for thought, though not for long.

Thank you Netgalley and Random House Publishing for providing a free eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are mine.

A literary page-turner is a rare find. I was completely engrossed with the story and impressed by the depth of a large cast of characters.

A place where babies can be made to order; Hosts kept well feed, exercised and anything else necessary to make the perfect baby; and the rich mamas control all that their Host experience. What could possibly go wrong?

Joanne Ramos writes an entertaining, yet intellectual story about a baby farm. Since we have discovered how things can be genetically engineered, why not babies? This book is intriguing and thought provoking. Would you be a surrogate for a rich person/couple? Would you need to know why they didn’t have their own child – infertility, inconvenience, health? Would it matter? What if you were cut off from the outside would for 8 months, your life put on hold? How much money would make it worth it? Is any amount enough?

This book also examines social status. The Clients are uber rich while the majority of the Hosts are from third world countries and extremely poor. A few Hosts are middle class which confuses the Hosts. The business just keeps getting richer and richer.

I enjoyed the storyline. The book was written in a comfortable voice from several VOPs. It certainly lends credibility to the notion of a baby farm when you can see the innerworkings from several different racial/social class people. There are twists, turns and surprises that will keep you reading long into the night. The only part that was a bit off-putting was the political vitriol, but it was infrequent enough to barely warrant a mention.


I received an ARC from Random House Publishing through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This is no way affects my opinion or rating of this book.

I totally enjoyed this novel. Its about women and their trials and tribulations in a surrogacy facility called the farm for the very wealthy. It hits on lots of relevant topics and is full of racial and economic inequity. One character is a Filipino woman who is always hustling to make a life for her kids living back home who she hasn’t seen for decades. She winds up at the farm where she meets others who experience surrogacy in a way much different from her. It’s a good read. I will recommend it to my friends. My thanks to Netgalley, the publisher and the author for an advance copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

The Farm is about women living at a surrogacy camp, offered large financial compensation for the ones selected. The premise and the back cover blurb were interesting, but the execution didn't live up to them for me. It was an okay read.


I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to NetGalley and the published.

The premise of The Farm intrigued me - an idyllic resort setting for surrogate women, who, for a price, give up their entire life to just relax and deliver a healthy baby. This book touched upon themes of race, class, privilege and money. The main character is Jane, a Filipino woman with a six-month old daughter already. The book switches between her perspective, Reagan's perspective (her roommate at The Farm), Mae (the director of The Farm) and Ate (Reagan's aunt).
Jane has a hard time adjusting to camp, mostly because she had to leave her daughter behind. This book makes the point of how far would a mother go to protect their child.
Overall, this was well-written. I liked the story, but felt it was lacking... something. I can't quite put my finger on it, but I feel like these themes were introduced, the idea was great, but it didn't fully deliver. I didn't love the ending/epilogue as it felt too forced and unrealistic. I guess I was hoping for more on the things people do for money and the theme of greed and it was missing.

The synopsis of this book really intrigued me and it reminded me of something like The Handmaid's Tale. Although The Handmaid's Tale is obviously set in a completely different dystopian world, it does deal with wealthy, privileged individuals using others for surrogacy, if you can call it that in Atwood's book. So I went into The Farm expecting something different, based off the synopsis, then what the book actually turned out to be.

So basically the book revolved around Jane, an immigrant from the Philippines who is a struggling single mother and gets selected to be a Host at the Farm. They will pay her a life changing amount of money upon delivery, but she has to the stay on The Farm for the entire duration of her pregnancy.

This book wasn't what I was expecting, which was that their be some sort of suspense or horror within the story. It did remind me of The Handmaid's Tale in the sense that they don't treat women or their bodies well at all. And it is clear that this is a story of the wealthy taking advantage of poor immigrant women who are having a hard time making ends meet. The story is unique, but the neither the story or the characters really caught my attention the way I thought they would. Or perhaps I have just read too many variations of stories similar to this one.

Thank you to the publisher & NetGalley or sending me an ARC of this book.

The social commentary in The Farm is excellently done. With great tact, all sides of race and class were represented. This would be a great book for a book club!

The Farm is one of those books that are difficult to review. Though well written and timely, it is not at at what I expected out of the book. In fact, if it would have been marketed to me in a different way, I would have most likely enjoyed the book more.

Golden Oaks is a place where young women go to "grow" babies for women who are absurdly rich. The story follows a few of the girls who are hosts at Golden Oaks. But, a lot of the story centers around the creator of the facility. There is also a decent amount of story line for Ate, Jane's cousin. While this was interesting, it wasn't what I thought The Farm was going to be about.

Golden Oaks felt more like a prison when I was reading than it did a spa like facility. In fact, I found myself comparing it to Orange Is the New Black in some ways. I thought that the description of Golden Oaks would have felt more luxe and less prison.

Mae, the creator of Golden Oaks, treats the hosts like commodities - not people. They are referred to by number, they are lied to and manipulated, their freedom is heavily restricted, and they are often left in the dark about what is going on with their own bodies. I don't know how the facility can legally get away with this sort of violation of rights. I understand how they can with the hosts who may be illegal immigrants or poor, but some of the hosts are from well to do families. I am surprised that no kind of legal action was brought up on the part of the facility at any point.

Also, I noted the coincidence of the hosts calling Golden Oaks The Farm and Mae called the Golden Oaks project: Project MacDonald. It was just a little too on the nose for my taste and felt a bit tacky.

The characters were not exceptionally developed; but, enough so that I was mildly invested in what happened to them. That was my feeling throughout the entire book, actually - a sort of luke warm interest.

I think that I would recommend this book to some people. Depending on their taste in books and what they are looking for. It wasn't a bad read. It just wasn't exceptional.

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House for the digital ARC of The Farm in exchange for an honest review.

The Farm has a phenomenal premise with well-executed imagery. The grounds of the "farm" and described so that you feel you're there yourself and the characters are all lifelike and realistic. BUT, I didn't like this book as much as I'd hoped I would when I eagerly picked it up. The situations Jane finds herself in the farm lacked the emotion and drama that I'd hoped for. While she was so upset at how confining the farm was, I honestly felt like a lot of the situations weren't that big of a deal and were completely fair under the terms she'd offered to work for the farm. And while I know that Ramos wanted to be true to the soft-spoken, Filipino woman she wanted to portray, I found Jane too meek and boring to really root for her.

Jane is an immigrant and newly single mother. When her cousin suggests a job as a surrogate, Jane sees an answer to all of her money issues. She is selected for the Host program at Golden Oaks and is promised a very large sum of money in nine monthly installments and a "bonus" at the end of the pregnancy. The only catch, Jane must leave her infant daughter in the care of her cousin while she is away. But of course...Golden Oaks is not what it seems.

This book really moves slow. There is not much action until the end of the novel and I found myself skimming often wondering what the main plot really was. I had a love/hate relationship with the multiple viewpoints. At times I felt like there was too much the other characters were saying that really had nothing to do with the story line. I also loved the multiple viewpoints because it gave you context into the other's lives at the same time. Example, when Jane is worrying that her daughter isn't where she is supposed to be the viewpoint changes to her cousin's and you know that Mali is in the care of Ate.

Overall, the book was not bad. I can appreciate the book as a mom. These characters really show the extremes that mothers will go to to care for, protect and raise their children in all situations. And even the extreme measures people take to become a mother...

This plot line was fairly unique in current fiction: surrogacy but with a twist. The writing certainly kept up the suspense and the characters were interesting. Even the setting was pretty well developed. I somehow felt there was more foreshadowed that never came to be so the ending left me feeling a bit disappointed and yet curious about the fate of some of the minor players in the novel.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House for the ARC to read and review.

This book has struck a chord with many readers leaving a wide range of starred reviews. Going into this book the reader knows that it is the story about a high end surrogacy centre on a beautiful property with services to ensure a calm, healthy pregnancy. The twist in the story (that is upfront and in the descriptions) is that the women who act as well paid surrogates cannot leave the centre during the pregnancy.

The story is quite suspenseful and held my interest for the whole ride. For me what was more profound was the sub plot of who made up the surrogates. Most of the surrogates were persons of colour who came from meager upbringings and home situations. The ‘choice’ to become a surrogate, while their own, was one where they had little power over their own body. The fertilized embryos came from individuals who could afford this option and who had all the say in the day to day lifestyles of another human for 9 months. I was struck by the power imbalance in this relationship in this story and suspect that is where some of the dystopian story reviews hailed from.

I am giving this book ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ for its’ ability to open discussion, provoke thought and entertain. This book comes out May 7, 2019. Thank you to @netgalley and @randomhouse for this ARC in exchange for an honest review

The Farm explores the business of surrogacy... where women are chosen, “hired”, implanted, and then forced to sever most connections to the outside world and family during their nine month stay at a location in upstate NY... all with the promise of more money than they can imagine. The only catch, is that everything is monitored from their GPS location, to any outside communication (via phone or email), as well as any extra weight gain, stress levels, illness treatment (should they become ill). Any deviation could result in losing their payout at the end of the pregnancy. This story follows a handful of main characters and their sides of the story, as things come to a head when one of the main pregnant characters must come up with a way to reconnect with an ill family member on the outside during her stay. Bound by a surrogacy contract, as well as a payout that will only be made upon 100% compliance with the strict rules, we watch the struggle of one woman and the consequences she must face if she chooses to break the contract to care for her family on the outside. Overall, this story flowed very well and the characters were portrayed well (even when a few of them were, in my opinion, somewhat despicable human beings). I would totally recommend reading this book for something a little different and yet captivating

This is the story of Jane, a Philippine-American living in poverty with her cousin and infant daughter in a dormitory in Queens. Her cousin, Ate gets her a job as a surrogate in a large facility where the uber-wealthy pay to have their babies carried until birth.

This is an interesting book that raises some issues about the economic divide and what people are willing to do to make a better life for themselves. I didn't feel like it really went anywhere with it, though. The last two chapters raced through, tying up the ends, while letting some characters just fall by the wayside.

I didn't find the ending satisfying. I think it could have gone another way. Or maybe it was just going to be bleak?

My thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.