Somewhere hidden in the Hudson Valley, New York is
luxurious retreat with every amenity imaginable available. Participants
have access to organic meals, personal fitness trainers, massages,
beautiful and personal rooms. People who stay at the retreat reeive a
small fortune in exchange for living there for full nine months of their
pregnancy on the retreat property. The hosts are not allowed to leave
the property and have their movements monitored in hopes that they will
produce the perfect baby for someone else.
Jane is
recently divorced single mother, who lives with her older cousin, Ate in a boarding house. As
an immigrant from the Philippines, she has limited opportunities for a
better life. She is desperate to find a job that pays enough to take
care of her daughter. Without much options, she takes on the opportunity to be a host at the
Golden Oaks retreat. Jane becomes homesick and begins to miss her
daughter. She yearns to be reconnected with her life outside of Golden
Oaks. However, she cannot leave the retreat otherwise, she will lose out
of the bonus on deliverying her child.
When I first
read the summary of this novel, I was very excited to start reading it.
However, I felt disappointed after completing the novel. I felt like the
novel built up some great horrorific story about the retreat but,
didn't actually quite deliver. Yes, being monitored and having limited
outside interaction is scary but, quite understandable for the safety
and privacy of the clients. After reading the novel, the story felt
pointless especially, the ending. It was abrupt and jarring. I am not
sure what the purpose of not only the ending but, the entire book. After I
finished reading the novel, I was left wanting more from it. Maybe a secret plot of
producing multiple babies for each client and only the best speciem
survives (yes, this makes me terrible human to say that but, I was
hoping for something that was so shocking and scary). Although, I did
like that the author included a lot of minority women but, as one can
say, they were taken advantage of. Overall, I would have liked this book
if it had more going on and the writing was smoother and more fluid.
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