So it took me a while to write this review because it took me a veryyyyy long time to get through this book. I just could not get into it and had to stop a little after 50% of the book because it was just very boring in my opinion. I was instantly intrigued by the story and found the contempt both interesting and timely. But I could not grow to really care for any of the characters. Despite the fact that they are going through something very dark and questionable, I just didn’t feel like I got a chance to know any of them. As soon as I became interested in one character, the perspective switched. I greatly dislike when novels do that. Switching through multiple perspectives is fine, but don’t do it before I get to learn something very important or interesting about the character the chapter is about. I had to just give up. Also, the writing just seemed very amateur and weak which was disappointing. All in all, I think my expectations of the book were too high and if the ending delivered, it wasn’t worth the read to find out. I gave it 3 stars for the idea but I found it leveled out at around 2.5.

3.5 stars

The Farm snuck into my dreams several times through my reading of it - and I *guess* that's a compliment? A horror novel of sorts (surrogacy farm - a place for keeping perfect specimen mother pods - women exploited by another who gives perfectly cultivated babies to other wealthier (women) families), it's dystopian, disturbing, and distressing. This book has it all if you're keen to read about disenfranchised women's worst nightmare - being only valued for their fertile bodies.

I wanted to feel more for Jane, the main character. I wanted to understand the director of the the farm, Mae Yu. I had no empathy for anyone really as I read this book. I suspect this problem of mine comes from a weird expectation I had to feel the same feelings I had while reading The Handmaid's Tale. I saw that others also wanted to compare it to Atwood and I feel like this is more a commentary on how we need far more fictional explorations of women's bodies, reproductive rights, the marketing of fertility to women, and so on.

A surprising and fast-paced parable for the contemporary age. What a great review from Joanne Ramos. Highly recommended!

The book was definitely engrossing in that I wanted to know what happens next. It’s an original story and I did like the book. But I had a hard time feeling attached to any of the characters. I'm not sure I'd recommend it strongly.

I've tried three times to read this book, but it's just not happening.
It's too boring. Jane isn't fleshed out enough for me to care and I need a character to latch onto to carry me through the story.

A humorous page-turner, full of the ups and downs of pregnant women and the people who pay for them. Odd enough for the everyday reader. Recommended for those who appreciate fiction with a strange twist.

The farm is weird, anxiety-invoking, depressing, and uncomfortable. That being said, I still think it’s an excellent book. No one is pure good or evil - everyone is a mix. I found myself switching loyalties halfway through a paragraph, rooting for Jane one page and tearing her down the next. The scariest bit is that while this is a work of fiction, I can 100% see this scenario playing out in present day. It’s like a more realistic ‘Handmaids Tale.’ If this idea doesn’t make you crazy (and even if it does), read this book.

The farm is a place where women go to be surrogates for wealthy families. They are cared for with organic meals, the best exercise routines, and top notch medical care to protect the high profile babies they carry. Most of the “hosts” are immigrants that have chosen to be a host for the large delivery bonus when they give birth. Jane is no different, except that in order to come to the farm and be a host she had to leave her own baby behind with her cousin. When Jane and her cousin have an argument and her cousin stops answering her calls, Jane has to take matters into her own hands to check on the well being of her own child.

I enjoyed this book, but something was missing. The story was interesting but I think it was just missing that extra umph to really pull it all together.

I really liked this slow-burner of a novel about a program for the wealthy who want surrogate parents. Ramos creates what I found to be a very believable scenario and raises a lot of really interesting issues regarding parenthood, wealth, immigration, race and class. A corporation creates a home for young women to bear the children of the wealthy. The program is run by Mae, a Chinese-American woman in her thirties. Golden Oaks is Mae’s brainchild, and it’s a thing of beauty. Up to thirty young women, carefully chosen as surrogate parents, live in a fine manor in upstate New York where they are given the best health care, nutrition, and environmental supports. Even their emotional states are well-cared for, because of course that benefits the baby.

Despite its finery, Golden Oaks is aptly called “The Farm” by some of its residents, because with all this care comes monitoring and very little freedom. These women are now bearing children for a Client, and the Client comes first. They sign a detailed contract giving up many of their rights in exchange for very large bonuses at each trimester and when the children are born.

The Farm is told from the perspective of Mae and two of the Farm’s residents, Jane and Reagan, as well as Jane’s cousin Ate. Jane is a young Filipina who has just had a baby and can’t make ends meet. Her cousin Ate is a baby/nursing specialist for a lot of wealthy clients. She tells Jane about the Farm and offers to care for Jane’s daughter Amalia while Jane is away (once you’re on the Farm, you can’t see anyone for nine months). Jane can make enough money in nine months to get back on her feet and give Amalia a better life when she gets back. It’s a tough choice, to give up the first year taking care of your child, but a reasonable one.

This book has been marketed as a Handmaid’s Tale type of dystopia, but readers expecting that will be disappointed. There’s nothing futuristic about this novel because everything in it could easily happen today. We already wear health trackers on our wrists and have listening devices in our homes.

The issues raised about the commodification of women and babies are complicated. Most of the surrogates are low-income women of color, for whom The Farm is an extremely tempting option. And the white surrogates are considered “premium hosts.” But surrogacy isn’t all bad, and this book spends time on the positives and the negatives. Sure, surrogacy involves a human being basically selling their body for nine months. But on the flip side, we already can sell eggs and blood, and many low-income people have far less attractive options. It’s true that surrogacy means the wealthy can basically buy someone to face the health risks and discomfort of pregnancy for them. But there are women who enjoy being pregnant and don’t have a problem with carrying a baby for someone else. And maybe that someone couldn’t have a child any other way. If it’s thoughtfully done, can it benefit both parties?

I liked the subtlety of the issues faced by the surrogates in this book. There’s a moment where Reagan is getting an ultrasound, where she realizes the doctors are talking about her body not to her, but to her Client, where I began to truly feel uneasy. Then Reagan’s body is poked, prodded, and bared to the medical team and the Client without anyone asking her, and she realizes she is truly a possession, not someone who is cherished and helping people, as she likes to see herself.

I always appreciate a book where there are no clear heroes and villains, and The Farm does that well. Mae can certainly be villainous but she isn’t all bad, and Jane, Reagan and Ate have positive and negative qualities that are understandable given their circumstances.

I thought this book was slow-moving at first; it spends too long on Ate’s baby-consulting practice before getting to Golden Oaks. Also I had mixed feelings about the ending, which felt too neat to me, and the writing has a “hit you over the head” quality that didn’t feel true to the complexity and heightened emotion conveyed in the rest of the book. But that said I still found this a thoughtful, entertaining, and at times chilling read.

Note: I received a complimentary advance copy of this book from NetGalley and Random House. This book was published May 7, 2019.

Reading the synopsis was very intriguing. Although I didn't care for the book as much as I was hoping, it could have way more potential to someone else. To me, as someone who reads a lot, and reads a lot of novels of this sort, The farm just fell a bit flat for me. Not that it didn't have good ideas or expressions, it was just lacking in development. I was hoping for a more dramatic ending, or feeling throughout the novel, and it just didn't give the readers that "umph" or push to make it that eye-opener type world it was trying to convey.

The Farm is an interesting narrative on surrogacy, the people who profit from it, and all of the tiny details surrounding it. In the story, women are chosen to be surrogate mothers and then are sent to live on a resort where they are monitored 24/7 from where they go, to the food they eat and the amount of exercise they get. While it certainly paints an picture of a confusing and morally grey landscape, it was not the book I expected. One of the genre's this book is filed under on goodreads is "dystopian" which I do not believe describes this book at all. Rather, it explores race and privilege, reproductive rights and the rights of immigrants. It is the kind of book that makes you really think and left me feeling contemplative.

In Joanne Ramos’ new novel, The Farm, dozens of beautiful, healthy, young women are surrogates for women who want to be mothers. The pregnant surrogates are well-paid, provided with meals, housing, and top-class medical care, but forbidden from leaving the Golden Oaks medical retreat (known as The Farm to residents). The surrogacy payments are life-changing for the girls, who are willing to sign over their most basic privacy rights for the cash. Meanwhile, the mothers have paid top dollar for their new babies, because they’re unable or unwilling to carry their own children. The story explores race, class, and the meaning of motherhood, without ever losing touch with the characters and storyline that make it readable fiction.

Really, really loved the first 80% - lost steam at the very end, but I still enjoyed it quite a bit.

The story is a copy of a few better-told books which were shocking when they first came to print like Atwood's the handmaid's tale, but unlike other pieces of speculative / satirical / horror fiction, this story has no depth or soul - you don't care for anyone.

Thanks to the publisher for the ARC but it would be better if publishing houses encouraged fresh ideas instead of cashing in on the wave of the moment.

It would also be nice if authors stopped using New York as the base of all that is cool and weird and horrible and disgusting in the world, as if to give their stories a shine that wouldn't be there if the story were set in Montana or Alaska.

This was an interesting concept, and made you think about immigrants in our country and all that they deal with. I loved that it made you think hard about your circumstances, but parts of it just didn’t resonate with me. Overall, an enjoyable book that made me want to keep reading.

The Farm is a luxury retreat in New York's Hudson Valley where women are paid big money to stay. They have every amenity that you could possibly think of, so what's the catch? The women who stay are not allowed to leave the farm for nine months, they are constantly monitored, and are cut off from their former lives while they produce the perfect baby for someone else.

While the premise of the book was interesting, this one just did not do it for me. I think I went into this book with a different idea on what the synopsis was promising and it did not match up with what was presented. Thanks to NetGalley and Random House for the ARC.

Oh scary book like Handmaid's tale by Margaret Atwood. Pass. I would have liked this more, but why write this book now. It is hard enough to watch the TV show let alone deal with a book that is very similar from a philosophical stand point.

This book started very slow for me.

I started it while pregnant and finished when I had a newborn so it was really speaking to me.

I enjoyed the kind of utopian aspect of it while also appreciating how real it was.

I was really looking forward to this one, after reading The Handmaid's Tale. But this one fell short. I found it hard to keep interested in the book, when I put it down it wasn't one that I wanted to pick back up. I am not sure if it was the content, the writing style, or both that threw me off, but after making it about half way through I put it down for good, i just didn't want to force myself to continue to read it anymore. I loved the idea of it and may recommend it to others, but it wasn't for me.

Thank you NetGalley and Publisher for this early copy!

DNF. I tried my best to read this but I did not connect with the writing style. I'm hoping that I can try again in the future because it sounds like an interesting read.