Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing for giving me the opportunity to read this book for my honest opinion.
I had a difficult time keeping up with the story and the characters. I wasn't sure how to decipher Ate name, was it like the past tense of eaten or was it pronounced Ot? That alone was enough to make it irritating to read and keep focused.
The main story is about a surrogate mother Jane residing at the Golden Oaks Resort or Farm. She was only supposed to be there for a year but it does not go that way. Things change when you are dealing with rich people. They have different rules and ideas for how things are done. Now Jane feels like a prisoner in a baby making arena. She cannot get ahold of anyone because there are cameras everywhere and the phones are bugged.
She just wants to get back to Ate and her own little daughter, but how?

I read this book before bed and went to sleep anticipating the morning, when I'd be able to keep reading. Ramos treats all of her characters, even the villains, with empathy, It challenged me as a reader to push against my own ideas of privilege. I'm already telling all my friends about this book, I can't wait for it to be out in the world.

Would you be willing to give up your life for a few seasons? A relationship, family, education? What if you could spend up to nine months at a gorgeous locale with all of your needs cared for by a devoted team? Well, some women make this very decision to become Hosts for those who need surrogates. They become temporary guests at The Farm, called Golden Oaks.

Mostly immigrant women are involved here and have very little choice when it comes to this difficult decision. Among these women we meet Jane. She was a struggling single mother with an excellent job as a baby nurse. Due to extreme circumstances, Jane is forced to find other employment because of an unfortunate event at her most recent job, With another baby nurse, her cousin Ate, to help care for her young daughter, Jane becomes pregnant as part of her new employment. An incentivized Host. Carrying a baby for wealthy Clients.

Strict rules enforce secrecy. The Hosts only job is to follow a course set in front of them that will allow them to carry to term in the safest, healthiest way possible. Whether or not the money for acting as a Host is worth it compares to the emotional toll placed upon these young women. Will the emotional attachment these women cope with be enough of a trade off to have many women, from several other walks of life, be something that becomes a secure part of the future?

The story is told from multiple points of view, including that of Mae, another powerful character as it was she who designed the surrogacy program. As mentioned, most of the women who become Hosts are immigrants, so race and financial inequality are explored. Truly makes one think. As a mother, I don’t think I could give up my child no matter the financial gain.

I appreciated The Farm very much. I liked it and I disliked it, but I am most certainly glad to have read it. That is why this difficult book rates five stars. It is by far, completely unlike most of what I read. Kind of made me think a bit of The Handmade’s Tale. This book provides a provocative look into a future when you can simply place an ad for things such as having babies simply for financial gain.

The Farm explores racial inequality in a different world. This book further touches on the difficult things forced upon these women. Their freedom is definitely stifled. Again, is it all worth it? A bit futuristic. A bit science fiction. A bit horror (it would be spoilery to say why). Joanne Ramos has truly hit it out of the park. This debut novel is something that will remain with me for a long time.

Many thanks to NetGalley (although I noticed this book via Shelf Awareness Pro) and to Random House for this book to review in exchange for my honest opinion.

*As this book is slated for release May 7, 2019, I will publish this on my blog on or after April 15, 2019.

The plot intrigued me but the Tagalong words pulled me right out of the book. I don’t understand the word Ate: for like big old foster sister or something. I thought she was eating all book till I figured out Ate was a person.

I like the Filipino idea of a main character but the plot was boring and I found myself unable to care bout these surrogate baby mamas who have no free will no options no anything. It tried to be too much of a modern, materialistic Handmaids Tale but failed. Good plot idea but bad follow through. 2/5 stars.

Giving birth to a stranger’s child is a lucrative business, as long as you play by the rules.


Quietly located in New York’s Hudson Valley is a luxury retreat boasting every amenity: organic meals, personal fitness trainers, daily massages, a pool - and all of it for free. In fact, you’re paid big money to stay here—more than you’ve ever dreamed of. But there is a catch? For nine months, you cannot leave the grounds, every move you make is recorded, ant you are allowed wedno contact with your former life. You are to dedicate yourself to the task of producing the perfect baby. Someone else’s baby...

Jane is an immigrant from the Philippines who is in desperate search of a better future when she commits to being a “Host” at Golden Oaks also known as the Farm, by the residents. She is now impregnated, fragile and consumed with worry for her family. Her year old daughter is being cared for by her cousin in her absence. Jane is determined to reconnect with her child. But she cannot leave the Farm or she will lose the much needed monetary fee she’ll receive on the delivery of the child. Is it worth losing that time in your baby’s life?

Ramos writing is splendid and the plot deep and intelligent. I liked that the story is thought provoking, given the point of view of immigrants and impoverished women willing to “host” for money. It would be enticing, living in the lap of luxury for nine months, eating 5 star dining, but no Diet Coke Snickers Bars), giving away the baby. Oh yeah you have to give the baby up and never see her/him again.

My only complaint about the book:
There are a lot of characters to keep apart and unfortunately I wasn’t able to really become involved with any of them.

Struggled to finish this book. The writing was simply not what I expected. The premise was intriguing, but where’s the beef, so to speak? Nothing happens that will engage the readers and might even put off.. The author used a lot of Tagalog words that non-native speakers will struggle with. Like the word “Ate” which is pronounced a-teh can be weird to see it as the past tense of “eat.” I appreciated it a lot that Filipinos are being put out there as main characters, but this sadly was not the vehicle to propel it. Nothing much happens here that could be viewed as revelatory like the supposed viral video towards the end.

I was drawn to this book because of its description, but I really feel that it didn't deliver. I was expecting to read about the sacrifices that women make in regards to motherhood and money, and I was interested to see what Ramos did with race, as the protagonist is a struggling immigrant from the Philippines who is desperately trying to make a life for herself and her daughter. Instead, this reads as a "guilty pleasure" that is like an adult version of the novels I read as a teenage girl about catty cliques and boarding schools, except that these are grown characters and they're at a surrogacy "farm." The writing isn't altogether bad, but these characters are awful - they're conceited, vain, materialistic women, completely clichéd stereotypes that made for quite a dull read. I couldn't bring myself to care about any of them, and I wanted to stop reading several times. Race is thrown around casually and often, but nothing constructive is done with it, though it very well may have been foregrounded. I wish that the narrative wasn't broken up by different characters either, as the third-person voice made this kind of organization completely unnecessary: there is nothing distinctive about them and the chapters all read in a predictable way. I wish that the focus was entirely on Jane and her story, and that she wasn't cast as a typical "immigrant" but had been more developed.

The Farm
By: Joanne Ramos
Nestled in New York’s Hudson Valley is a luxury retreat boasting every amenity: organic meals, personal fitness trainers, daily massages—and all of it for free. In fact, you’re paid big money to stay here—more than you’ve ever dreamed of. The catch? For nine months, you cannot leave the grounds, your movements are monitored, and you are cut off from your former life while you dedicate yourself to the task of producing the perfect baby. For someone else
Jane, an immigrant from the Philippines, is in desperate search of a better future when she commits to being a “Host” at Golden Oaks—or the Farm, as residents call it. But now pregnant, fragile, consumed with worry for her family, Jane is determined to reconnect with her life outside. Yet she cannot leave the Farm or she will lose the life-changing fee she’ll receive on the delivery of her child.
Gripping, provocative, heartbreaking, The Farm pushes to the extremes our thinking on motherhood, money, and merit and raises crucial questions about the trade-offs women will make to fortify their futures and the futures of those they love.
The book started out slow, then picked up into you had to keep reading. Jane and others like her I connected with. I enjoyed the book and questioned in the end...is this already happening now? How much is too much to sell yourself and future? Quite sad.
I received this book from NetGalley and Random House for an honest review. Thank you.

I have mixed reviews for this book. I dove in deep and read the entire book in just a few days and I was highly invested in the characters especially Jane. However, I was a bit disappointed by the ending. I was waiting for the big twist or thrill in the end. Overall, this was a nice read and it did have an interesting play amongst the women central to the story about a surrogacy farm, that seems very relevant today.

In Joanne Ramoes' 2019 release entitled <i>The Farm</i>. She dares to shine a glaring light on the very sensitive subject of what has become the most highly prized boon in the world of 'human commodities '.
The womb.
Or more to the point.
The paid use of one's womb to carry the offspring of another.

In this case. The carrier being Jane. A young Filipino woman recently fired from her position as a baby nurse to an affluent Caucasian family.
Seemingly out of options, and desperate to make a better life for herself and her 6-month old daughter, Amalia.

Her solution...
Golden Oaks, a state-of-the-art, first of it's kind facility. Built to cater to those wealthy clients who due to infertility or for the sake of aesthetics; are willing to allow a woman of their choosing to carry their unborn.

For a price.
And while the cost to both Jane and her fellow surrogates, of time, freedom, personal autonomy, and personal relationships are all pretty much the same across the board.
The compensation rates vary according to race and education level. With the college educated Caucasian leading the list on all fronts.

Exploitation and manipulation of Jane and the others by the clients is just the tip of the iceberg however.
With the introduction of Mae Yu, Executive Director of Operations at Golden Oaks. We are presented a woman determined to make the business of buying and selling womb space. The gateway through which she ushers in her American Dream.

And what system of usery could be complete without it taking place even among those cast lowest on this convoluted totem pole.
That's right folks.
Even the surrogates are casting their lots in the "what's in this for me game." With unschooled Jane being their prime target.
And for her part...
Jane plays the unwitting "lamb to the slaughter" to perfection .
A part that leaves her with progressively more to lose as time goes on.
But one in which readers don't become aware of the magnitude of Jane's loses until story's end.

The truths told here are ones that have been experienced by minorities and disenfranchised peoples the world over.
And while this is an admittedly a difficult read. It is both very timely and extremely important.

I was fortunate enough to get an advance copy of The Farm, and I absolutely loved it. The topic is extremely timely, but nestled in the story are age-old questions about privilege, hard choices, free will, femininity, motherhood, etc. The characters, to me, were all well-developed and I was able to identify with many of them, even when I would have preferred not to have done so. The novel is well-paced and engaging and I had a hard time putting it down. This is a book I can't wait to discuss with other readers and is a truly captivating debut from Joanne Ramos.

The stand out feature of The Farm is the multiple narrators and each of their complex backstories. The alternating narrators ensures that secrets are revealed in a timely manner and makes for a very well-paced novel. Although each of the women have their flaws and specific motives, I didn’t find any of them particularly likable. All of the characters were pretty middle of the road for me and I can’t put my finger on why that is, especially considering the issues they face and suspenseful deceit-filled plot.

The Farm isn’t in a genre that I would usually read but it was definitely interesting. The author did a good job of creating the setting and allowing a view into the struggles that immigrants face when in a new country. Not only that but what pregnant women go through and what women do for their dreams. It was interesting to see a place with women from different cultures sharing the same experiences and reacting similar yet different.

What I didn’t like was the beginning, it was hard to follow with all the new characters the novel was introducing. It felt like there were too many scenes and it was choppy and didn’t flow well. It’s written in third person which isn’t my favorite. I prefer to read in first person to really get inside the characters’ mind. I think it would have made more sense if it was in first person to know what really was going on. It did get better once you knew the story line.

The Farm was like a puzzle, trying to put all the information into something that made sense. Like a mystery. As I got more information from the novel, it became more and more shocking. It almost became like an action movie towards the end. Where you cheer for the character to reach the goal.

An advance complimentary copy of this book was supplied by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.

Wow!! What a fantastic read! The Farm doesn’t debut May 7, 2019, so I want to thank Net Galley, the author, and her publishers Penguin Random House my copy is an advanced copy for a review. This debut is provocative, dark, and deliciously written. Once I started it, I could not put it down. It intertwines four women journeys , as they chase the American dream in the most unusual way. A mix between The Help and The Handmaid’s Tale, I highly recommend marking your calendar for May, and treating yourself to a copy of this wonderful book as soon as it’s released. You won’t regret it. A true must-read.

This book is marketed as a thriller. It wasn’t a thriller. I can see relevance in this novel, but it was flat and not what it promised, so therefore, I was disappointed.

I was beyond excited to read this-- I loved the handmaid's tail and this has been on my list since I heard about it! I absolutely loved it. It gave me chills and had me thinking about society in a whole new way. 5 stars!

I became so deeply invested in the lives of these women and the world they inhabit. The author engaged me initially with the diverse cultural representation and kept me just slightly ill at ease knowing how uneven their socio-economic backgrounds would make the different women. I love a novel that invokes the need to have conversations and discuss with friends at length all the ethical and political points at play.

This propulsive debut novel takes on the commodification of pregnancy. It feels vaguely dystopian, but also not at all far-fetched in this current era of late-stage capitalism where anything and everything can be optimized for a profit at the expense of human labor (labor being work, not necessarily the process of childbirth, though this word choice is certainly not coincidental).

Jane, a working-class immigrant trying to take care of her newborn daughter, accepts an opportunity at a secluded retreat called Golden Oaks where she’ll be paid a large sum of money in exchange for carrying the baby of a wealthy client. For the duration of her pregnancy, Jane will live at Golden Oaks and pamper herself to ensure the healthiest baby. The catch is that she will be separated from her daughter, however the payment upon delivery will be enough to keep them both financially comfortable.

Feeling as if she has no other choice, Jane accepts the offer, but soon finds that the burden of being away from her daughter is too much to bear—and that the people who run Golden Oaks aren’t being entirely honest with her.

The narrative alternates between a few characters: Jane; Mae, the ambitious woman who runs Golden Oaks; Reagan, another surrogate at the facility; and Ate, Jane’s aunt who is tasked with taking care of Jane’s daughter.

For the most part, the multi-narrative approach works well, providing insight into each character’s motives and actions. There are points at which both the plot and certain characters’ choices aren’t entirely believable, but these are the kinds of flaws that can be expected from a debut novel.

The plot itself is engaging and at times even suspenseful, but the real strengths lie in the more subtle themes throughout the book: the striking class divisions, the stark reality of working-poor immigrants having to make impossible choices in pursuit of the American Dream, the lengths to which mothers will go for their children, and the ways that capitalism places profits over people.

In other words, there are a lot of interesting, timely ideas packed into an imperfect yet highly readable narrative...and honestly, I’ll take it!

The Farm by Joanne Ramos was different from what I expected. Originally thought THE FARM took place somewhere in the not-so-distant future. However, there was nothing about this surrogacy farm that couldn't exist today. The book portrayed a chilling reality that explores privilege from the POVs of the "haves and haves not" The story ends abruptly giving everyone an unrealistic "happily ever after". An interest and well paced read.

Thank you to the publisher, author, and NetGalley for the opportunity to preview the book.

I appreciate the value of this book and think many of the important topics Ramos brings to light are necessary to have dialogue around, such as racial and economic inequality, entitlement and privilege, and immigration. However, I would have liked to experience more connection with the characters. I didn't really feel for, or empathize with, clients or hosts.