Jessica Woodbury's Reviews > The Farm

Let's start off with some important clarifications: this isn't women's fiction (that weird category that just means books about women doing things women do that we expect women will read). If I were going to put it in a genre I would choose Horror. That may sound strange, but Horror is less about what happens in a book (or about genre at all, you may say) and more about the feelings a book creates. This is a book full of tension. I was stressed out most of the time I was reading it. Casual details would make me gasp in alarm. The premise of this book isn't just satire or cultural commentary (though it is both of those as well), it's body horror. The Farm is a place where being a surrogate isn't just loaning your womb to someone in need, it's a place where your entire body is now under corporate control. And if that isn't a terrifying topic worthy of a horror novel, I don't know what is.

What I think Ramos does here very nicely is present this story through three very different sets of eyes. There is Jane, a Filipina immigrant who has managed to find low-wage and domestic help work in the US through her cousin, but is struggling to keep jobs when she can't afford care for her infant daughter. There is Reagan, a well-off white girl who ends up as a surrogate because she doesn't know what she wants to do and it seems like a quick cash grab. And there is Mae, the striving Asian-American woman who has been entrusted with running the facility where Jane and Reagan end up. We get to see the full class spectrum through these characters and the clients they work for, and we get to see just how far Mae will go to achieve the positive outcomes she wants to deliver for her demanding, high-end clients. We also get to see how unprepared Jane is for this kind of situation, where her background and experience only make her more vulnerable.

It's a gutsy book and particularly good to dish about, so if you have a book club that enjoys a juicy discussion this would be an A+ pick.