Cover Image: The Farm

The Farm

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Member Reviews

I found the story line confused I was very tempted to stop reading, but it did improve and had promise, I enjoyed the characters as they went on there journeys, I found the epilogue did not explain enough for me

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Golden Oaks, or “The Farm” as it is known by residents, is a home for pregnant women designed to look after their every need. A nutritionally balanced menu, exercise planned out, and regular scans and checkups are available for all the guests. The women are all surrogates, carrying babies to term for a regular wage and huge delivery bonus at the end. With five star facilities and more money than ever within their earning potential, the job of a surrogate is attractive to many low paid workers.

Mae runs the whole operation and spends a lot of time making sure the clients are happy, and the hosts are developing healthy babies. It sounds like a 9 month spa break with all inclusive meals and a wage to boot. On the surface Golden Oaks is the perfect solution. Women who can’t, or don’t want to, carry babies to term paying healthy young women to do it for them.

The truth hiding behind the too good to be true sales pitch soon starts to reveal itself. Other hosts aren’t always true to their word, and some are more valuable to the company than others. Golden Oaks is a business at the end of the day and Mae has to do what is right to keep it profitable.

Joanne Ramos has done a lot of research into how this would work in real life. Contracts, clauses, scandals and the everyday interactions are planned out perfectly to make Golden Oaks seems realistic. As the story is told from a few of the main characters it is easy to feel you know all sides of the farm by the end of the book. My only downside was character development. I felt the back stories of many of the women were too detailed. They helped me understand the character motivations but could have been packaged up better to fit in with the Golden Oaks story. It is certainly not a huge criticism though, as the opposite would have been much worse!

The comparisons with The Handmaid’s Tale mixed with the knowledge of surrogacy made me wonder if it was the right book for me. I loved June and her story in The Handmaid’s Tale and I very much doubted this would stand up to comparison. I was pleased to enjoy it in a different way, being genuinely curious as the where the darker parts of The Farm might lead me. There is no graphic pregnancy imagery, but do expect a few sad moments dotted throughout the book.

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This was a really good debut novel. Reading the synopsis I thought this was a dystopian novel, but turns out this could be our near future.

The story is told from different points of view, something I really enjoy in books, and was really interesting in this one. It showed the differences in race and class.

I finished it a few days ago, but this one is going to stay with me a while.

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This was a compelling read. I loved the premise, and it touched on so many relevant themes - childbirth, surrogacy, race, class etc. I would've appreciated a bit more insight into the characters themselves, particularly their motivations for joining The Farm and how it impacted their lives afterwards. I'm not sure it necessarily needed so many perspectives, but I do struggle with multi-viewpoint books sometimes so that might just be me.

Overall I really enjoyed it, and it would sit amongst my top reads for 2019, but the ending did fall a little flat as it seemed like Jane's story finished exactly where she started, despite her journey throughout the book.

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Powerful novel, almost scary in how possible it is for this to happen. Believable characters on the whole, and well paced. Didn't quite believe the ending, but that's a personal opinion. I have happily recommended this to customers looking for strong female characters.

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Golden Oaks farm doesn’t grow tomatoes, wheat or potatoes. It grows babies. The surrogate mothers (Hosts) are paid to incubate their rich clients’ embryos. While at Golden Oaks, they have to adhere to strict rules, from giving up their phones to following a diet. The Farm is told from the viewpoint of four women: Jane and Reagan are two of the hosts, while Mae is the brains behind the lucrative business. Ate is Jane’s cousin. The Farm is thought-provoking and topical, but above all it’s a fantastic page-tuner of a story.

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Set in a barely dystopian version of now (barely, as in it feels completely plausible), the farm of the title is a high end surrogacy centre for the super rich where mainly black and Filipina “hosts” nurture foetuses in a luxury environment. The luxury is entirely for the foetus’ benefit: the hosts’ diet, interactions with the outside world, movement and even conversation with each other ( “English only” at Golden Oaks) is strictly monitored. The hosts are there because (in the main) they need the money and the element of choice becomes moot in the face of socio-economic deprivation. Out of what is a fairly depressing premise, Joanne Ramos has succeeded in creating a thought provoking page-turner.

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"The Farm" by Joanne Ramos is somehow wrongly called a dystopian novel - I would call it instead a surprisingly realistic and contemporary discussion about privilege, class, social and racial divides and reproductive rights. It is a book about a fertility clinic for the ultra rich called Golden Oaks, where pregnant women are allowed optimal conditions to bear children. But these women are not mothers. They are Hosts, raising babies for Clients under the watchful eyes of Coordinators and other staff who are supposed to make sure that women do not breach their contracts but instead stay on track of delivering healthy babies for rich families who do not have the time (or inclination) for getting pregnant and instead prefer to outsource this job to others - often poor, uneducated or those in desperate need of money. Told from the perspectives of four women, "The Farm" is the story of their motivations, ambitions and things that divide and connect them. The glimpse into this perfectly believable world was chilling and very realistic. However, it is also melodramatic in places. You will be disappointed if you are looking for lots of action, as not a lot happens in this book, really. and even the ending is slightly watered down. Instead, be prepared for discussions about nurture, privileges around people's actions, social standing that opens or closes different doors for them, background and race, which makes them desirable (Premium Hosts are white, educated American females) or untrustworthy and suspicious, and always disadvantaged in some way. It is also a story about motherhood and mothers who will sacrifice a great deal to give their children the best start, and about those who can make those sacrifices someone else's problems.

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This was a really strong concept, and the eerie undercurrents of reality running through gave it real momentum. The intersections of race and immigration and with the female body are very timely topics, and I'm glad this book covers them. I really wanted more of an insight into the wider world that was being built - and into the lives of the women affected. It felt like it wrapped up really quickly, but that last unexpected ending has really stayed with me.

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Definitely had mixed feelings on this one. The premise was great and, once you’ve given it a few chapters and got used to the writing style, it’s compelling, but I just didn’t gel with the characters. It is worth a read but not the best book I’ve read this year.

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I had high hopes and expectations for this book. The topic and overall concept was great, but it fell flat in the end.

I never got attached to Jane or Reagan.
I felt it wasn't "dramatic" enough and the novel ended in an abrupt way with no real conclusion.
We didn't get to know what happened to Ate or Lisa and Troy.
What happened with Reagan?

It was a 3.5 star read until the ending and I can only give it 2 stars for the initial idea and writing style. I'm quite disappointed. I really wanted to like it.
Nonetheless I do believe it would be a great book club book. Lots to discuss!

Thank you Netgalley for providing me with a copy of The Farm.

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I have mixed feelings about this one and it has taken me all day to face writing my thoughts out. I went in not knowing anything which may have been a mistake. It took a while to get to 'The Farm', and I was confused as to what kind of story it was going to be.
When Jane reaches The Farm the actions starts to ramp up and we meet other characters and begin to see where the story is heading. It clear from the start that all is not 'as it seems' and there is an air of mystery and tension all the way through.
I didn't connect that well with any of the characters, and I think this was because we keep jumping around to different character's points of view. I also found the plot quite basic with no real surprises, but I did enjoy the writing style and overall vibe and the themes of class and social inequality.
3.5/5

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I was extremely excited about this book when I first heard about it, and I'm sad to say that I was left feeling ever so slightly disappointed with it.

'The Farm' tells the tale of what is essentially a farm for surrogates. Women are paid vast amounts of money to carry and deliver babies, for other women. We follow Jane, and her journey through her time at the farm.

I found the story to fall a little flat. There seemed to be the makings of a really great tale, and then it felt like it was all falling to pieces at the end. Nothing really seemed to tie up for me - what exactly happened with Ate in the end? Was Jane there for her? What happened to Regan? To Troy, when they found out he was helping out?

I DID enjoy the book. I loved the character development and I was interested in what was going to happen. It's just for me, it all started to fall to pieces.

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When Jane is down on her luck she is introduced to the world of surrogate farming – wellness centres that reward surrogates for carrying wealthy babies – monitoring them every step of the way. But is The Farm too good to be true?

From the blurb I was intrigued by the premise of The Farm and thought it sounded mysterious and full of underlying menace which made me request the book to read. To that end I wasn’t disappointed; the underlying unease that runs through this book is masterful – it keeps its cards close to its chest and ramps up the tension and suspense the more you get to learn about the main characters – either the surrogates or the people running The Farm. Unfortunately for me that was where it stopped – I was expecting a big twist or an evil side of the project to fully come to fruition and unfortunately it just seemed to build all that tension just to fizzle out. I found the ending to be so disappointing – like the author was trying too hard to wrap up all the loose ends and make a happy ending.

I liked that the story constantly changed perspectives which really showed the class and wealth differences in the characters. I liked some of the political messages the book was trying to portray but I came away from it feeling like it wasted its potential by not giving us a hard hitting ending that would have left you thinking about the topic and the issues it brought up further.

Overall The Farm is an interesting read – it just could have gone further with a better ending to produce a suspenseful and well-paced read. Thank you to NetGalley and Bloomsbury Publishing Plc for the chance to read the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

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Ramos novel The Farm, seems to want to court controversy but doesn’t really hit the mark and despite the over premise seems to be missing a villain or someone that creates an evil which never really happens.

The Farm starts out as we trace the lives of four women who tend to fit certain stereotypes and lack a bit of depth beyond this. We have the immigrant coming for a better life who is a single mother, the middle class girl who wants to make a difference, the child of immigrants who has fought for a seat on the corporate ladder, another immigrant who is supporting her family overseas and last and not least the lower class girl who is a conspiracy theorist who is sexually free. We have this web of characters that really shouldn’t work but does in its own bizarre fashion.

The book is extremely readable and has some thought provoking matters which are an interesting. There is always a hint of the devil around the corner but this never really flourishes or appears. When the story reaches its big climax it is to the point of er…ok. That was very low key.

I know reading the above points me as a person that did not enjoy the book and funnily enough, I actually enjoyed it. I liked the characters and the setting, it was very absorbing and kept me glued to the very end. I was so involved in the story that I read it within 48 hours from beginning during a busy week.

Overall, this is a good novel and is slightly let down as a dark tale in the vein of Handmaid’s Tale which I think let’s the novel down as this is not dark and there is no evil in the book. If you count evil as signing a contract and sticking to this contract as evil, then I guess, it may have hit a point.

In short, it is a tale of four women and their validation in the world of surrogacy and what this means when put in the hands of a corporation. It is a good read and deeply enjoyable on many levels but doesn’t have the climax that it should have had. It seems that everything is rather down played. Enjoyable for what it is and I would recommend it.

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I am in charge of our Senior School library and am looking for a diverse array of new books to furnish their shelves with and inspire our young people to read a wider and more diverse range of books as they move through the senior school. It is hard sometimes to find books that will grab the attention of young people as their time is short and we are competing against technology and online entertainments.
This was a thought-provoking and well-written read that will appeal to young readers across the board. It had a really strong voice and a compelling narrative that I think would capture their attention and draw them in. It kept me engrossed and I think that it's so important that the books that we purchase for both our young people and our staff are appealing to as broad a range of readers as possible - as well as providing them with something a little 'different' that they might not have come across in school libraries before.
This was a really enjoyable read and I will definitely be purchasing a copy for school so that our young people can enjoy it for themselves. A satisfying and well-crafted read that I keep thinking about long after closing its final page - and that definitely makes it a must-buy for me!

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At some point, this book was touted as a dystopia and somewhat compared to “The Handmaid’s Tale”, at least in certain blurbs I saw back then, but lest readers approach it thinking they’re going into a dystopian read: it is not (and expecting it to be would probably do it disservice). Or, at least, it’s not more dystopian than the world we currently live in, where you can get everything anyway if you’re wealthy enough (including surrogate mothers).

The story follows four characters: Jane, a naïve Filipina-American girl who gets roped into becoming a “Host” at Golden Oaks (the “Farm” from the title); Ate, her shrewd cousin who is intent on making money in order to take care of her family back in the Philippines; Mae, the Golden Oaks’ director, banking on this new lucrative business to secure her end-of-year bonus; and Reagan, a “Premium Host” who’s been wooed by Mae to carry the child of a billionaire woman from China.

One thing is to be said about Golden Oaks, for starters: it is incredibly believable—if such a place doesn’t already exist somewhere, surely it will exist at some point? A golden prison whose “inmates” submitted themselves voluntarily in exchange for fat money incentives and bonuses, it has a lot of advantages (healthy food, exercise, massages… all in all, quite “privileged” surroundings), but also clearly plays a part in the kind of exploitation that is already going on, when it comes to people (especially of immigrant backgrounds) who can’t be choosers when it comes to jobs.

While it’s not a clear-cut dystopia, the world of “The Farm” nevertheless deals with contemporary problems that do have a whiff of dystopia, namely class and exploitation. Mae and her people (her clients included) go about this with a complete dichotomy of recruiting the Hosts by showing Golden Oaks as a sort of luxury retreat and their role as surrogates as meaningful and contributing to the good in the world… and at the same time, the Hosts are given numbers (not to their faces), and discussed in terms of class and backgrounds. This why Reagan, for instance, is a Premium Host and chosen to carry a very special baby: she’s white, from a clearly upper-middle-class family, she majored cum laude from Duke University, and she’s pretty to boot. Clients can subscribe to different “packages”, and a Reagan will always have more worth than a Jane. At some point, Mae and her boss even discuss introducing a new level, that of impoverished white women from blue-collar families, as a sort of “Premium-at-a-discount”. In itself, it is positively disgusting, and capitalism pushed to a very visible extreme, without any shame. The whole thing is all the more disturbing that Mae’s narrative makes it appear as somewhat sensible: of course, the Hosts are well-compensated—although differently depending on whether they’re Premium or not…

This said, there were a few things that seriously bothered me here:

- The story is told in the third person and in the present tense. I’m not too keen on whole books written this way. It was tolerable, but I can only stomach that much. Probably a case of “it’s not the book, it’s me”, though.

- Jane is clearly of this brand of people who continuously make the worst decisions and choose the worst course of action at the worst moment possible (acknowledged in the novel itself, as Reagan reflects upon this). It makes for plot twists, sure, and it plays into the how the book indeed denounces the exploitation of immigrants, who don’t necessarily know all the “rules” when it comes to becoming part of their host country. Yet at the same time, it made Jane rather worthy of several eye rolls, and also sends some sort of underlying message that, well, she’s so naïve and stupid, so surely it’s her fault for getting into such situations. I’m always on the fence with such characters. I do not want to play the victim blaming game, because that’s rubbish, but it’s not so easy either to find her endearing rather than annoying.

- I’m still not sure of where the story wanted to go. There’s a looming thread of vaguely impending doom through the narrative, as if something really sinister is lurking, but that “something”, in the end, doesn’t materialise, or not the way you would expect. Whatever happens is mostly the product of short-sightedness on the part of the people involved (yes, Mae as well): because they don’t communicate properly, or because they fail to realise that continuously giving incentives to people and then taking them away at the last moment is NOT a good way of ensuring things will go smoothly. The situation unfolding in the last third or so is the result of one huge misunderstanding, and considering the degree of monitoring at Golden Oaks and Mae’s suppose shrewdness, it’s like several people just forgot their brains somewhere at some point. (Ate and her friends are not immune to that either, by the way.)

So, “The Farm” had an important message, but that message wasn’t delivered efficiently through storytelling, which muddled it.

- The characters are rather one-dimensional. Jane is the naïve immigrant who is constantly exploited. Mae is the exploiter and that’s all. Reagan is the typical woke girl struggling with her privilege but not realising that the good she wants to do may just be tainted. Lisa is kinda the resident sex addict and gossipmonger. Apart from these, I’m still not sure who exactly they are.

- The ending was… abrupt? The epilogue dragged a little, while the actual resolution, right before it, pretty much happened behind closed doors.

Conclusion: A good theme to tackle, and chilling when you realise that the way it’s presented makes it appear “sensible” while still underlining its inhuman aspects, so as a reader, you’re never left off the hook in that regard. On the other hand, I found it fell flat, and I never really connected with the characters.

P.S. Regarding the aforementioned comparison with “The Handmaid’s Tale”: publishing houses should stop doing that, because more often than not, it makes me wonder if the people writing those “comparison blurbs” have actually read the book(s) involved. Mostly the common point here is “surrogate mothers”, but “The Farm” never gets to THT’s horrifying level. Let’s be clear here: that’s not a fault of the novel, which is still interesting in its own ways. But I feel such comparisons do harm, since more than just one reader will pick the book because of this comparison, and consequently be disappointed.

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Poverty stricken immigrants appear to be taken advantage of by clients of The Farm - a surrogacy company acting on behalf of wealthy clients. Jane, a Filipino struggles with childcare issues, lack of money, loyalty to family and wanting to better herself. The Farm at Golden Oaks comes along when she is desperate to make a change. Amusing at times the book addresses many issues but I was left feeling lacking, ends were tied up neatly and everything ended happily .

Thanks to the author, publishers and Netgalley for a copy of the book

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A brilliant book about women, their motivations, and motherhood. I couldn’t put this down, it was so pacy and fantastically well written.

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Unfortunately this book is not what I expected. I had hopes that this would have a handmaids tale vibe, however that wasn’t the case. This was definitely character driven which left me wanting more plot.

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