Alessandra is reading…

The Farm by Tom Rob Smith- Review

“It’s how we feel about ourselves when we’re alone that must guide our decisions.”

The Farm, Tom Rob Smith

Daniel’s parents retired to a farm in Sweden, or that’s what he believes. Daniel and his parents have been out of touch for a few months and when he first hears his mother’s voice, it’s not what he expects. His father says that she’s psychotic, imagining things and in the hospital. His mother says everyone is against her and his father is a liar, that she needs the police. Who does he believe?

This was a pretty compelling read, I did more than the first 150 pages in one night. I would’ve finished by the next day if not for time reasons, that’s how suspenseful this was.

“A person can always be sure of what they don’t know. They might not be sure of what they know.”

The Farm, Tom Rob Smith

The credibility of Daniel’s mother and her institutionalization was quite interesting, and somewhat reminded me of a disagreement I had with another bookstagrammer a couple of weeks ago. Her take on male authors writing unreliable, unstable, etc. (her list went on) female characters is that she’s tired of it and angry about it. She asked if other women were angry too. My response was in the minority where I basically said “No, it’s just fiction.” I guess that wasn’t a sufficient nor acceptable answer. I still stand by that, because it’s how this story progressed and the story wouldn’t have worked without the mother’s erratic unreliability.

“A great friendshipcan be swept aside in an evening, a lover changed into an enemy in a single admission.”

The Farm, Tom Rob Smith

!Spoiler below!

As that bookstagrammer said, it’s a stereotype. But let’s imagine it had happened to Daniel’s father. Just know, I can’t vouch for men in this respect. (And if you haven’t seen my About Me page, I’m a woman btw.) Men can be fathers and become protective over their children. But women are protective of their children as mothers, yet they are also protective of other people’s children. Women are intuitively more empathetic, more emotional – because evolutionarily, that’s what we’re needed for. We have a different bond with our children, we’re emotionally attuned (not saying that men aren’t). Would Daniel’s father have gone through so much personal turmoil to save a young girl? Would his father have ruined his marriage, made his retirement home a dangerous place, turned retired life into a stressful life, or traveled to another country to see his son who is the last person who may or may not believe him regarding the situation? I think not. But in Smith’s story, the only way for Tilde to go through all of this was for her to not be entirely sound of mind. And guess what…it’s just fiction. I’m a woman, and I enjoyed this story of fiction. Does that mean there’s something wrong with me? No. I’m okay with being against what the majority thinks or is doing anyway, I’ve always been like that.

Tilde’s trauma revealed at the end made a ton of sense from her reactions to everything, especially her thought process.

Read on and, I reiterate, read whatever the fuck you want.