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Nadia's Reviews > The Farm
The Farm
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This was an ok read, but could have been even better.
The Farm is a place where young women are recruited to become surrogate mothers for wealthy clients. The recruits are watched at all times, even their emails are monitored, they have a prescribed diet and an exercise plan they have to adhere to. Motivated by the hefty cash bonus paid upon baby delivery, Jane, a single mother from the Philippines, signs up. Jane doesn't mind being at the Farm at first but soon starts missing her little daughter who is less than a year old and was left behind to be looked after by Jane's cousin.
What the book does well is highlighting the economic disparity between rich and poor, the struggles of immigrants and ethnic minorities and their financial motivation to join the Farm. I also appreciated the insight into the lives of Filipino women living in the US. However, one of the problems I had with this book was that there were too many side stories and characters thrown in that were totally unnecessary as they did not add anything to the overall story. The story is told from a number of POV, following stories of a couple of girls at the Farm, the Farm director and Jane's cousin. I did care about Jane and her story and I wished there was more focus on her as the main character.
The ending of the story surprised me, but not in a good way. It felt as if the author wanted a happy ending for every character at all costs, when clearly, things happened between certain characters that they would struggle to put behind them in real life.
Overall, I think the premise of the book is unique and thought-provoking but in my opinion, the author did not push the envelop far enough. What could have been a jaw-dropping dystopia ended up being just an average novel.
Many thanks to the publisher for my review copy.
The Farm is a place where young women are recruited to become surrogate mothers for wealthy clients. The recruits are watched at all times, even their emails are monitored, they have a prescribed diet and an exercise plan they have to adhere to. Motivated by the hefty cash bonus paid upon baby delivery, Jane, a single mother from the Philippines, signs up. Jane doesn't mind being at the Farm at first but soon starts missing her little daughter who is less than a year old and was left behind to be looked after by Jane's cousin.
What the book does well is highlighting the economic disparity between rich and poor, the struggles of immigrants and ethnic minorities and their financial motivation to join the Farm. I also appreciated the insight into the lives of Filipino women living in the US. However, one of the problems I had with this book was that there were too many side stories and characters thrown in that were totally unnecessary as they did not add anything to the overall story. The story is told from a number of POV, following stories of a couple of girls at the Farm, the Farm director and Jane's cousin. I did care about Jane and her story and I wished there was more focus on her as the main character.
The ending of the story surprised me, but not in a good way. It felt as if the author wanted a happy ending for every character at all costs, when clearly, things happened between certain characters that they would struggle to put behind them in real life.
Overall, I think the premise of the book is unique and thought-provoking but in my opinion, the author did not push the envelop far enough. What could have been a jaw-dropping dystopia ended up being just an average novel.
Many thanks to the publisher for my review copy.
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Sandra
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Mar 16, 2019 07:35AM
Great review Nadia, it does sound an interesting concept, shame it didn’t work for you !
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Thank you very much, Sandra! 💗
A good idea for a novel I agree :) An OK book is not bad, but there is always this feeling: 'I expected more', I know it, Nadia :) Great review!
Thank you, Beata! Yes, exactly... I had high hopes but it just wasn't there. Still good for a debut novel thou!
Thank you, Susanne! 🌷
Paula wrote: "Hope your next one is better, Nadia!"Thanks Paula! I just finished The Girl He Used to Know which was amazing, so all good! :)
Yep. Yep. Yep. You summed this one up perfectly, Nadia 💖
Felicia wrote: "Yep. Yep. Yep. You summed this one up perfectly, Nadia 💖"Thanks Felicia!! 🌷
I'm with Felicia, you summed this one up perfectly. I think it suffered from not knowing what direction to take it in... and ended up in too many, and none of them really worked. Terrific review, Nadia!
Thank you so much, Cheri! 🌺Seems like we all expected more than we got in the end...
I feel the same way about this book. The premise is interesting, but it was poorly executed. I was disappointed.
But did you really feel like it was a happy ending, especially for Jane?
I just finished this book. Of the reviews I’ve read, yours comes closest to depicting what I think after finishing. The ending was dissatisfying to me because I didn’t see enough character growth. Jane was a surrogate again??? Really? And Mae’s condescension about Jane’s parenting at the end was almost too much for me. What happened to Lisa and Troy’s video and the potential scandal? I feel like I wanted more at the end of this book (but I don’t know exactly what...more payback, more justice?)
