What do you think?
Rate this book
Ripe
A year into her dream job at a cutthroat Silicon Valley startup, Cassie finds herself trapped in a corporate nightmare. In addition to the long hours, toxic bosses, and unethical projects, she struggles to reconcile the glittering promise of a city where obscene wealth lives alongside abject poverty. Ivy League grads complain about the snack selection from a conference room with a view of unhoused people bathing in the bay. Startup burnouts leap into the paths of commuter trains, and men set themselves on fire in the streets.
Though isolated, Cassie is never alone. From her earliest memory, a miniature black hole has been her constant companion. It feeds on her depression and anxiety, its size changing in relation to her distress. The black hole watches, but it also waits. Its relentless pull draws Cassie ever-closer as the world around her unravels.
When her CEO’s demands cross an illegal threshold and she ends up unexpectedly pregnant, Cassie must decide whether the tempting fruits of Silicon Valley are really worth it. Sharp but vulnerable, funny yet unsettling, Ripe portrays one millennial woman’s journey through a late-capitalist hellscape and offers an incisive look at the absurdities of modern life.
Though isolated, Cassie is never alone. From her earliest memory, a miniature black hole has been her constant companion. It feeds on her depression and anxiety, its size changing in relation to her distress. The black hole watches, but it also waits. Its relentless pull draws Cassie ever-closer as the world around her unravels.
When her CEO’s demands cross an illegal threshold and she ends up unexpectedly pregnant, Cassie must decide whether the tempting fruits of Silicon Valley are really worth it. Sharp but vulnerable, funny yet unsettling, Ripe portrays one millennial woman’s journey through a late-capitalist hellscape and offers an incisive look at the absurdities of modern life.
288 pages, Hardcover
First published July 11, 2023
1,523 people are currently reading
114k people want to read
About the author
Sarah Rose Etter
13books1,243followersSarah Rose Etter is the author of Tongue Party, and The Book of X, winner of a Shirley Jackson Award for Best Novel. Her second novel, RIPE, is forthcoming from Scribner in July 2023.
Her work has appeared in Time, Guernica, BOMB, The Bennington Review, The Cut, VICE, and elsewhere. She has been awarded residences at the Jack Kerouac House, the Disquiet International program in Portugal, and the Gullkistan Writing Residency in Iceland.
She earned her BA in English from Pennsylvania State University and her MFA in fiction from Rosemont College. She lives in Los Angeles. For more info, visit SarahRoseEtter.com.
Her work has appeared in Time, Guernica, BOMB, The Bennington Review, The Cut, VICE, and elsewhere. She has been awarded residences at the Jack Kerouac House, the Disquiet International program in Portugal, and the Gullkistan Writing Residency in Iceland.
She earned her BA in English from Pennsylvania State University and her MFA in fiction from Rosemont College. She lives in Los Angeles. For more info, visit SarahRoseEtter.com.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 5,620 reviews
February 19, 2025
i have dedicated my life to trying to exclusively read literary fiction about women having mental breakdowns.
this was a big success on that front.
this, a novel about a woman who lives her life (one of sisyphean work at a glamorous startup that contrasts to the failures of late-stage capitalism all around her) in the company of a cute and portable black hole, was gruesome and accurate. life do be like that!
me, my pointless stressful job, the quotidian devastation in my city day-to-day, and my black hole (mental illnesses) enjoyed our on-page pre-apocalyptic representation.
i did encounter the classic problem with satirical literary fiction, namely that it's impossible to know whether, for example, cartoonish and flat background characters are a Style Choice in their outright villainy or just kind of a weak oversight, but we come to expect that.
and this was clever and original and casually ruinous.
bottom line: another win for my favorite subgenre.
(thanks to the publisher for the copy)
this was a big success on that front.
this, a novel about a woman who lives her life (one of sisyphean work at a glamorous startup that contrasts to the failures of late-stage capitalism all around her) in the company of a cute and portable black hole, was gruesome and accurate. life do be like that!
me, my pointless stressful job, the quotidian devastation in my city day-to-day, and my black hole (mental illnesses) enjoyed our on-page pre-apocalyptic representation.
i did encounter the classic problem with satirical literary fiction, namely that it's impossible to know whether, for example, cartoonish and flat background characters are a Style Choice in their outright villainy or just kind of a weak oversight, but we come to expect that.
and this was clever and original and casually ruinous.
bottom line: another win for my favorite subgenre.
(thanks to the publisher for the copy)
July 9, 2023
This novel is a masterclass in creating tension. As Cassie navigates life in San Francisco, a stressful tech job, a lousy mother, someone else’s boyfriend and the intensity of displacement, she is also followed by a black hole always shifting in size. This novel had me STRESSED. Cassie’s loneliness and pain are inescapable. There are glimmers of brightness but always short lived. This is the kind of novel that reminds us that the apocalypse is now. Dystopia is here.
Read
March 14, 2023I'm biased, but I think I wrote a banger this time!
July 30, 2023
4.75 stars
as a depressed girl who has lived in the bay area, this was TOO real and i felt deeply understood
as a depressed girl who has lived in the bay area, this was TOO real and i felt deeply understood
May 21, 2023
When you're young, every part of life seems big and monumental. Once older, you can see it for what it is: smaller pieces of a larger game you have no choice but to play.
The description doesn't do this novel justice, if you ask me. It presents the story as a contemporary, set in Silicon Valley, that deals with depression and a toxic workplace... and while this isn't untrue, it doesn't capture what actually does.
It is books like this that get under my skin. I can read about gore, abuse, war, horrific tragedy and, while I am moved, I don't feel depressed. This book is depressing. And I feel it should come with a warning to those struggling with depression precisely because it is so good at capturing the darkness of that feeling, that head place where everything in the world takes on an ugliness.
uses elements of magical realism-- namely, a black hole that follows Cassie around, waxing and waning with her mood --and the writing itself is sometimes dreamy and poetic. At times, it feels slightly satirical. It is certainly not what I would describe as a regular contemporary novel. But I did find the short, hard-hitting chapters really compelling and effective.
You wake up one day and realise what you've become, what you allow, and you have to stare down into the pit at yourself, at your own choices, at the ways in which you have been cunning and stupid and false and wretched to keep up with the world around you.
How does anyone bear themselves?
Cassie attempts to survive in a job that constantly demands more from her than she can physically give. She attempts to have a relationship with a man who, no matter how appealing, will never be truly available to her. She attempts to keep going, get up, go to work, keep smiling, as the homeless sleep on the streets around her, as the company she works for exploits another eager young worker. She feels herself playing the game, shitting on others to keep her job, and hates herself for it. To cope, she imagines she is two people-- the real her, and her fake self.
The ending felt a little unfinished to me, but I have no clue how you should end a story like this.
Warning for depression, abuse, substance abuse and
July 27, 2023
Great cover, very uninspired storytelling: Our first-person narrator Cassie is stuck working in a clichéd Silicon Valley startup, doing coke and partaking in ridiculous work rituals (a job she still doesn't quit) while also being the clichéd affair of a chef with a girlfriend including the obligatory unwanted pregnancy (a relationship she still doesn't quit). Befallen by existential inertia, Cassie does - well, mostly nothing. An actual black hole is following her around, and the pomegranate metaphors abound (Persephone, fertility, power, spirituality, blablabla), while the text effectively mirrors Cassie's ruminations and alienation, but there's just nothing else there: No interesting plot, no well thought out aesthetic decisions (I mean an actual black hole, come on), no nothing. It's pretty hard to care about Cassie, because there is nothing that renders her intriguing or special as a character - just naming her after Cassandra, a mythological figure uttering true prophesies, is not enough, where is the meat on that bone?
Although, wait: There are messages about impending disasters. Like "late-stage digital capitalism = bad". Like "living costs in the Valley = unsustainable". Like "human existence = difficult". This is not proper social criticism, it has zero nuance. Topic-wise, Etter aims at the themes of , but minus the wit or the daring ideas. This is extremely tame. Have I mentioned that the cover is great though? :-)
Although, wait: There are messages about impending disasters. Like "late-stage digital capitalism = bad". Like "living costs in the Valley = unsustainable". Like "human existence = difficult". This is not proper social criticism, it has zero nuance. Topic-wise, Etter aims at the themes of , but minus the wit or the daring ideas. This is extremely tame. Have I mentioned that the cover is great though? :-)
July 21, 2023
sometimes books come into your life at the perfect time. but also, sometimes books come into your life at the worst time. i was already having a little existential spiral about hyper-capitalism and work culture, and then i read this book, so now i’m having a BIG existential spiral about hyper-capitalism and work culture. living is hell! working is hell! modernity is hell! good book though.
October 29, 2023
I’ve seen a lot of people say don’t read this book if you’re depressed, so there’s your warning.
As a severely depressed millennial stuck in a soul crushing 9-5 (well it’s 8-4:30), this book made me feel SEENT. Main character Cassie leaves the east coast to take a job in Silicon Valley and we follow her and the literal black hole that she sees everywhere through her day to day. I think I highlighted something every chapter. The author did such a good job of describing the absolute dread that comes with being stuck in this capitalist hellscape. This was for me. I’ll be thinking about it for a while.
As a severely depressed millennial stuck in a soul crushing 9-5 (well it’s 8-4:30), this book made me feel SEENT. Main character Cassie leaves the east coast to take a job in Silicon Valley and we follow her and the literal black hole that she sees everywhere through her day to day. I think I highlighted something every chapter. The author did such a good job of describing the absolute dread that comes with being stuck in this capitalist hellscape. This was for me. I’ll be thinking about it for a while.
August 6, 2023
3.5 stars
At first I was solely annoyed with this book. It's kind of pretentious, calling people working in Silicon Valley "believers" (ofc excluding our Silicon-Valley-startup-employed protagonist from that group of brainless sheep) and using a floating black hole as a not so subtle metaphor for depression.
But then the protagonist started to grow on me and I became curious about her horrible job and equally miserable life.
A bleak tale about capitalism and losing one's identity in order to satisfy its demands.
At first I was solely annoyed with this book. It's kind of pretentious, calling people working in Silicon Valley "believers" (ofc excluding our Silicon-Valley-startup-employed protagonist from that group of brainless sheep) and using a floating black hole as a not so subtle metaphor for depression.
But then the protagonist started to grow on me and I became curious about her horrible job and equally miserable life.
A bleak tale about capitalism and losing one's identity in order to satisfy its demands.
August 4, 2023
We need to put a moratorium on millennial women writing these watered down Jean Rhys knockoff books about vague dread that are obviously meant to land on tiktok compilations of "weird lit books about the void for depressed girlies"
August 14, 2023
i hated this - an empty shell of a novel that says nothing new, and worse buys into some boring tropes about fertility (empty unless bearing fruit) i think we are supposed to see nicole as a 'baddie', but she said the only sensible thing in the whole book 'if you hate it here, why don't you leave?' (tbf the same could be said for me - if you hate reading sad white women novels, why do you keep reading them?)
October 10, 2023
I thought this book did a nice job of portraying the soul-destroying effects of capitalism for a woman living and working in Silicon Valley. I liked how Sarah Rose Etter portrayed some of the complicated dynamics of our protagonist’s work life, such as how her female boss treats her so awfully (exemplifying that women can be horrible to women) and how the protagonist is complicit in making a new hire move 15 hours away from his family (highlighting how we can all commit cruel actions for a paycheck). It all felt a bit millennial malaise which I think may resonate with some folks.
Unfortunately I didn’t find the writing that compelling in Ripe. I think there’s a lot of overdrawn sentences and images that to me, felt too obvious in their attempts to elicit emotion. For example, Etter constantly used the image of a “black hole� to represent the protagonist’s depression/mental anguish as well as her “fake self� to show the protagonist’s disembodiment/performance for other people. I felt the writing would have been more effective if she had found more subtle or specific ways to phrase her main character’s emotional experience. Etter also included so many different sources of anguish � an oppressive workplace environment, an unintended pregnancy, conflict-ridden friendships, abusive/cruel parents, a dissatisfying romantic relationship � and it was disappointing to me that none of these, aside from maybe the oppressive workplace environment, had time to really develop and have a full story arc.
So, I can see why this book has amassed some popularity even though I didn’t love it. Onto the next!
Unfortunately I didn’t find the writing that compelling in Ripe. I think there’s a lot of overdrawn sentences and images that to me, felt too obvious in their attempts to elicit emotion. For example, Etter constantly used the image of a “black hole� to represent the protagonist’s depression/mental anguish as well as her “fake self� to show the protagonist’s disembodiment/performance for other people. I felt the writing would have been more effective if she had found more subtle or specific ways to phrase her main character’s emotional experience. Etter also included so many different sources of anguish � an oppressive workplace environment, an unintended pregnancy, conflict-ridden friendships, abusive/cruel parents, a dissatisfying romantic relationship � and it was disappointing to me that none of these, aside from maybe the oppressive workplace environment, had time to really develop and have a full story arc.
So, I can see why this book has amassed some popularity even though I didn’t love it. Onto the next!
December 15, 2023
noun: black hole; a region of space having a gravitational field so intense that no matter or radiation can escape.
informal: a place where people or things, especially money, disappear without trace.
I'm still trying to wrap my head around this book and what I read. You could say that my ideas on this book are fading into the abyss, but that is only because it kind of blew my mind. The matter produced by this book (my ideas) are scattered in space (my brain) like the big bang. For as long as Cassie can remember, a black hole has been following her, fluctuating with her mood and the environment she is in. Cassie works in tech in Silicon Valley and is regularly reprimanded by her boss for not doing enough, despite the fact that she works her ass off every day.
Her mental health and personal relationships are suffering, and the stress of her profession and personal life is resurfacing old trauma. Her relationship with her mother broke my heart and gave me chills at one point, as I stared at the page with tears welling up in my eyes. This novel has really swept me away. It was everything I had hoped for and more. Cassie describes herself as having two selves: her actual self and her pretend self, which is all too relatable. Donnie Darko meets Beau is Afraid meets Succession (if it were about technology) meets Mother! kind of?
Ripe depicts the darkness that comes with capitalism and the harshness of the world as we know it through the use of magical realism, sci-fi/dystopia aspects (some stuff far too real...). I highly recommend reading this book, and hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Ripe comes out July 11! Many thanks to the publisher for my review copy!
informal: a place where people or things, especially money, disappear without trace.
I'm still trying to wrap my head around this book and what I read. You could say that my ideas on this book are fading into the abyss, but that is only because it kind of blew my mind. The matter produced by this book (my ideas) are scattered in space (my brain) like the big bang. For as long as Cassie can remember, a black hole has been following her, fluctuating with her mood and the environment she is in. Cassie works in tech in Silicon Valley and is regularly reprimanded by her boss for not doing enough, despite the fact that she works her ass off every day.
Her mental health and personal relationships are suffering, and the stress of her profession and personal life is resurfacing old trauma. Her relationship with her mother broke my heart and gave me chills at one point, as I stared at the page with tears welling up in my eyes. This novel has really swept me away. It was everything I had hoped for and more. Cassie describes herself as having two selves: her actual self and her pretend self, which is all too relatable. Donnie Darko meets Beau is Afraid meets Succession (if it were about technology) meets Mother! kind of?
Ripe depicts the darkness that comes with capitalism and the harshness of the world as we know it through the use of magical realism, sci-fi/dystopia aspects (some stuff far too real...). I highly recommend reading this book, and hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Ripe comes out July 11! Many thanks to the publisher for my review copy!
August 7, 2023
Not for me.
Ripe has all the potential of a decent novel but ends up lacking in substance.
Cassie is underdeveloped as a character and as a result, it's hard to feel anything for her. The only real insight into her character is through the black hole that is used as a metaphor for her depression. If used sparingly this could have added to the narrative, however its overuse became cringy. All the other characters are one dimensional and offer nothing other than to further the narrative.
Etter's dialogue is forced and unnatural causing the book to feel rushed and like an unedited first draft. There are several plot points that could have been interesting and used to flesh out the novel however these are either dropped or meander along pointlessly.
Overall, perhaps a decent airport/holiday read if you like easy reads but otherwise due to the poor dialogue, underdeveloped characters and vacant plot, I can't recommend.
Thanks to NetGalley and VERVE books for the ARC.
Ripe has all the potential of a decent novel but ends up lacking in substance.
Cassie is underdeveloped as a character and as a result, it's hard to feel anything for her. The only real insight into her character is through the black hole that is used as a metaphor for her depression. If used sparingly this could have added to the narrative, however its overuse became cringy. All the other characters are one dimensional and offer nothing other than to further the narrative.
Etter's dialogue is forced and unnatural causing the book to feel rushed and like an unedited first draft. There are several plot points that could have been interesting and used to flesh out the novel however these are either dropped or meander along pointlessly.
Overall, perhaps a decent airport/holiday read if you like easy reads but otherwise due to the poor dialogue, underdeveloped characters and vacant plot, I can't recommend.
Thanks to NetGalley and VERVE books for the ARC.
April 13, 2025
� 3 stars
ripe is a lot of things: a commentary on capitalist hellscape, female autonomy, depression, anxiety, faith, complicated family dynamics, desire, etc., which is why i enjoyed it but also partly why i disliked it.
now, i am a lover of melancholic books, but this one was just plain depressing. there's absolutely not a single moment where you feel at peace; it's the kind of sadness that makes you uncomfortable. this novel has no real plot, we mostly follow our main character, cassie, as she slowly descends into her own mind and meets her eventual demise.
this is one of those 3-star ratings where, when a book is good, then it is really good, but when it's bad...it's really bad.
the good:
- women slowly going insane
- ridiculously obvious use of a black hole as a metaphor for depression and anxiety
- how uncomfortable it made me feel
- a big fuck you to capitalism
the bad:
- weird (and a bit senseless) sub-plot points that slowed down the pacing
- experimental and flamboyant writing that's a bit cringe at times
- the amount of things that the author tried to accomplish which ultimately made the story feel muddy
� bottomline. we are all just walking black holes. (trans: was good but could be better)
𖥻 � you wake up one day and realize what you've become, what you allow, and you have to stare down into the pit at yourself, your own choices, at the ways in which you have been cunning and stupid and false and wretched to keep up with the world around you. �
ripe is a lot of things: a commentary on capitalist hellscape, female autonomy, depression, anxiety, faith, complicated family dynamics, desire, etc., which is why i enjoyed it but also partly why i disliked it.
now, i am a lover of melancholic books, but this one was just plain depressing. there's absolutely not a single moment where you feel at peace; it's the kind of sadness that makes you uncomfortable. this novel has no real plot, we mostly follow our main character, cassie, as she slowly descends into her own mind and meets her eventual demise.
this is one of those 3-star ratings where, when a book is good, then it is really good, but when it's bad...it's really bad.
the good:
- women slowly going insane
- ridiculously obvious use of a black hole as a metaphor for depression and anxiety
- how uncomfortable it made me feel
- a big fuck you to capitalism
the bad:
- weird (and a bit senseless) sub-plot points that slowed down the pacing
- experimental and flamboyant writing that's a bit cringe at times
- the amount of things that the author tried to accomplish which ultimately made the story feel muddy
� " i could spin into a storm, a woman turned hurricane, all wild winds and violent rain. but i am too sad to muster the strength, too tired, too lost, too faded, too limp. �
� bottomline. we are all just walking black holes. (trans: was good but could be better)
January 19, 2024
the ending!!! this is one for the girls who hate living in a corporate world
July 9, 2023
thank you netgalley for the arc !
˚₊� ͟͟͞͞➳❥ 5/5 stars
� perfect for lovers of otessa moshfegh, mona awad and sayaka murata, ripe will cast its spell on you in a darkly enchanting story as we follow a spiralling woman scrambling for purchase in the stifling landscape of silicon valley. we bear witness to her brutal pain as she continually abuses substances to numb herself, is forced to make obeisances to her bullying superiors at work, wears her bleeding heart on her sleeve in an unrequited affair with an unavailable chef and relentlessly sacrifices her soul to simply make a living. invoking nightmarish sequences and throwing the cruelty of city life into relief, etter crafts an unforgettable cautionary tale against hustle culture and establishes this book as a formidable success of the sad girl fic sub-genre.
� what a haunting little book. i went into ripe fairly blind, not quite sure what to make of the promised premise; it is at once both what i expected and everything i did not. i want to warn anyone who’s thinking of reading this that it is extremely depressing and i’d make sure you’re in the right headspace to confront this beast.
� they’ll tell you this is a dystopian work and if we go by what the universally acknowledged definition for dystopia is (pilfered from oxford:“animaginedstate or society in which there is great suffering or injustice typically one that is totalitarian or post-apocalyptic�) then i’d concur but with a caveat. dystopian fiction is speculative, it resonates with us and may even at times feel almost preternaturally prescient with its investigation of issues which plague us in our own modern day world - yet at the back of our heads there is that niggling little refrain of this is fiction. as such, it’s likely to slacken your jaw in horror but highly unlikely to take place in our lifetime if ever. if we take this into consideration, i’d argue against pigeonholing this book as a dystopian novel. in far too many senses i’d say we’ve been toeing the line of submerging earth into the urban hellscape which backdrops the events of ripe. the casual violence of city life, the wilful blinkers adorned by the rich towards a society racked with homelessness, a culture of endless debt and ‘hustling� in a dead-end job where your pay barely covers your rent is not a dystopia - it is the here and now.
� despite having a dreamlike feel to it, the only element of magic realism is that our protagonist, cassie, has spent her hapless life tailed by a ‘black hole�. this singular instance of ‘magic� serves as a bleak proxy for the desolation of her soul and a way out, so to speak. that is, a double-edged sword for either the promise of an end or the possibility of travelling through space-time into a new dimension, the evermore desired re-do. whenever cassie is troubled by, say, a callous act of hers she feels all but extorted into making or a conversation with her abusive mother, the black hole dilates correspondingly. it is in many ways more ‘cassie� than cassie herself is by this point as it ostensibly seems to know when she is aggrieved or not, even as her own grasp of her emotions is dilatory, if not presently beyond her understanding (being high more often than not). she is as much a witness to her own life as we are - in many ways even more so than us. she imagines herself as having essentially rent her ‘self� in two as a way of coping with everything: a public necessarily disingenuous front she puts forth for the sake of survival and the private, deeply troubled truth of her. when she is at her happiest amongst art or speaking to her father, the sentences are rife with her emotion instead of the spectral prose we’re usually faced with wherein her own perspective feels as cut off from the story as she is disassociated from her own body.
� the ending is horrendously perfect and hard-hitting. i’m not operating under the misapprehension that many fans will be gained for it but in my eyes it’s the only ending here.
� conclusion :
this beautifully composed elegy on the loneliness of hustling and playing the game and the wounds wrought by cassie’s own hands to her soul all for the sake of then having the same game play her - will grab you by the throat, refusing to let go even long after you’ve turned the last page. this is a must-read!!
˚₊� ͟͟͞͞➳❥ 5/5 stars
� perfect for lovers of otessa moshfegh, mona awad and sayaka murata, ripe will cast its spell on you in a darkly enchanting story as we follow a spiralling woman scrambling for purchase in the stifling landscape of silicon valley. we bear witness to her brutal pain as she continually abuses substances to numb herself, is forced to make obeisances to her bullying superiors at work, wears her bleeding heart on her sleeve in an unrequited affair with an unavailable chef and relentlessly sacrifices her soul to simply make a living. invoking nightmarish sequences and throwing the cruelty of city life into relief, etter crafts an unforgettable cautionary tale against hustle culture and establishes this book as a formidable success of the sad girl fic sub-genre.
� what a haunting little book. i went into ripe fairly blind, not quite sure what to make of the promised premise; it is at once both what i expected and everything i did not. i want to warn anyone who’s thinking of reading this that it is extremely depressing and i’d make sure you’re in the right headspace to confront this beast.
� they’ll tell you this is a dystopian work and if we go by what the universally acknowledged definition for dystopia is (pilfered from oxford:“animaginedstate or society in which there is great suffering or injustice typically one that is totalitarian or post-apocalyptic�) then i’d concur but with a caveat. dystopian fiction is speculative, it resonates with us and may even at times feel almost preternaturally prescient with its investigation of issues which plague us in our own modern day world - yet at the back of our heads there is that niggling little refrain of this is fiction. as such, it’s likely to slacken your jaw in horror but highly unlikely to take place in our lifetime if ever. if we take this into consideration, i’d argue against pigeonholing this book as a dystopian novel. in far too many senses i’d say we’ve been toeing the line of submerging earth into the urban hellscape which backdrops the events of ripe. the casual violence of city life, the wilful blinkers adorned by the rich towards a society racked with homelessness, a culture of endless debt and ‘hustling� in a dead-end job where your pay barely covers your rent is not a dystopia - it is the here and now.
� despite having a dreamlike feel to it, the only element of magic realism is that our protagonist, cassie, has spent her hapless life tailed by a ‘black hole�. this singular instance of ‘magic� serves as a bleak proxy for the desolation of her soul and a way out, so to speak. that is, a double-edged sword for either the promise of an end or the possibility of travelling through space-time into a new dimension, the evermore desired re-do. whenever cassie is troubled by, say, a callous act of hers she feels all but extorted into making or a conversation with her abusive mother, the black hole dilates correspondingly. it is in many ways more ‘cassie� than cassie herself is by this point as it ostensibly seems to know when she is aggrieved or not, even as her own grasp of her emotions is dilatory, if not presently beyond her understanding (being high more often than not). she is as much a witness to her own life as we are - in many ways even more so than us. she imagines herself as having essentially rent her ‘self� in two as a way of coping with everything: a public necessarily disingenuous front she puts forth for the sake of survival and the private, deeply troubled truth of her. when she is at her happiest amongst art or speaking to her father, the sentences are rife with her emotion instead of the spectral prose we’re usually faced with wherein her own perspective feels as cut off from the story as she is disassociated from her own body.
� the ending is horrendously perfect and hard-hitting. i’m not operating under the misapprehension that many fans will be gained for it but in my eyes it’s the only ending here.
� conclusion :
this beautifully composed elegy on the loneliness of hustling and playing the game and the wounds wrought by cassie’s own hands to her soul all for the sake of then having the same game play her - will grab you by the throat, refusing to let go even long after you’ve turned the last page. this is a must-read!!
September 11, 2023
I feel like at the beginning of the year this cover was everyone. I could not turn around without the praises of this book being sung by advance reviewers everywhere. It was going to be
THE
book of the fall season. If this is
THE
book of the fall season I no longer wish to be considered a reader....
I will take some credit for this not working on. On some level, you could argue that I went in with false notions about what the book was about, and because the book was not about those things then, of course, I was going to be a little letdown. I'd counter that going into this book and thinking we were going to get a good look at this woman's work and how this start-up and the toxic culture she finds herself in isn't actually too far off from what the jacket copy says is going to happen. Only that has very little to do with the actual narrative?
We follow Cassie in two-ish timelines in this book, the her of the present at 32 years old, having worked at this start-up that doesn't really make much sense but has an astronomical evaluation, in the midst of an affair and party to a polyamorous relationship she was unaware of at the start of the narrative. And the Cassie of the past, growing up in seemingly Middle America with a mother who hated her and a father that was the respite from the abusive whims of said mother who hates her. There's also this constant mentioning of the Black Hole that has been following her literally since she exited her mother's vagina... other reviewers have argued this is a metaphor for some kind of mental illness, maybe depression, but it was just poorly done if that's the case.
While we do follow a little bit of her life at his start-up and her foolishly being the one to admit in company meetings that they should break the law in order to undermine a similar start-up that makes nebulous sense, most of the narrative is spent on Cassie believing that she might be pregnant. She's unsure, doesn't know, but is worried because what no one told me before I picked the book up, Cassie is a whole crackhead. She does cocaine like most people drink coffee, and while she is being abused in the workplace, most of the pages are dedicated to this feared pregnancy and how she is going to tell this man she's been sleeping with because she's only just found out that he has a serious girlfriend and that she is the experiment and so can she really tell him? All while continuing to do her morning cocaine, slurp down oysters, and get wasted at the bar with two characters who are apparently her friends.
I say apparently because we are trapped in Cassie's head to a degree that is painful. It was claustrophobic to a degree that I have to give Etter credit for, but at the same time, I wanted out. I couldn't stand being in there, it was limited to an almost absurd degree. I wanted nothing more than for Cassie to have conversations with other characters, actual meaningful conversations, or to not think about the Black Hole� that had been following her. So much of this book felt like we were going in circles because of how warped Cassie's perception of everything was....
I think that there is a germ of a good idea in this book. The concepts that Etter attempted to touch on could have been a good book.. or maybe a short story. But as written I cannot recommend anyone suffer through this. If you do choose to ignore me than I can only hope that you do not pick up the audiobook because that was easily the worst decision I've made all year
I will take some credit for this not working on. On some level, you could argue that I went in with false notions about what the book was about, and because the book was not about those things then, of course, I was going to be a little letdown. I'd counter that going into this book and thinking we were going to get a good look at this woman's work and how this start-up and the toxic culture she finds herself in isn't actually too far off from what the jacket copy says is going to happen. Only that has very little to do with the actual narrative?
We follow Cassie in two-ish timelines in this book, the her of the present at 32 years old, having worked at this start-up that doesn't really make much sense but has an astronomical evaluation, in the midst of an affair and party to a polyamorous relationship she was unaware of at the start of the narrative. And the Cassie of the past, growing up in seemingly Middle America with a mother who hated her and a father that was the respite from the abusive whims of said mother who hates her. There's also this constant mentioning of the Black Hole that has been following her literally since she exited her mother's vagina... other reviewers have argued this is a metaphor for some kind of mental illness, maybe depression, but it was just poorly done if that's the case.
While we do follow a little bit of her life at his start-up and her foolishly being the one to admit in company meetings that they should break the law in order to undermine a similar start-up that makes nebulous sense, most of the narrative is spent on Cassie believing that she might be pregnant. She's unsure, doesn't know, but is worried because what no one told me before I picked the book up, Cassie is a whole crackhead. She does cocaine like most people drink coffee, and while she is being abused in the workplace, most of the pages are dedicated to this feared pregnancy and how she is going to tell this man she's been sleeping with because she's only just found out that he has a serious girlfriend and that she is the experiment and so can she really tell him? All while continuing to do her morning cocaine, slurp down oysters, and get wasted at the bar with two characters who are apparently her friends.
I say apparently because we are trapped in Cassie's head to a degree that is painful. It was claustrophobic to a degree that I have to give Etter credit for, but at the same time, I wanted out. I couldn't stand being in there, it was limited to an almost absurd degree. I wanted nothing more than for Cassie to have conversations with other characters, actual meaningful conversations, or to not think about the Black Hole� that had been following her. So much of this book felt like we were going in circles because of how warped Cassie's perception of everything was....
I think that there is a germ of a good idea in this book. The concepts that Etter attempted to touch on could have been a good book.. or maybe a short story. But as written I cannot recommend anyone suffer through this. If you do choose to ignore me than I can only hope that you do not pick up the audiobook because that was easily the worst decision I've made all year
July 18, 2023
late stage everything!!!!
July 27, 2023
About the book: “From an award-winning writer whose work Roxane Gay calls “utterly unique and remarkable� comes a surreal novel about a woman in Silicon Valley who must decide how much she’s willing to give up for success—for fans of My Year of Rest and Relaxation and Her Body and Other Parties.�
Ripe is the type of book I wanted to read slowly and truly savor. The writing is filled with nuance if you spend enough time to appreciate it. The main character, Cassie’s, dynamics with her parents are captivating with a loving father, firmly pushing her out of the nest, and a toxic mother.
Cassie lands her dream job, which plunks her down in even more toxicity. She finds love, but that turns out to have limits and is not what she hopes for. Things get harder and harder for her as she tries to cope with her environment. Her mental health plummets, as a result. Ripe reminded me a little of Sorrow and Bliss in how brutally honestly yet tenderly it addresses the mental health of the main character.
Ripe has everything I want in a book. I won’t forget the style of the writing, the clarity of Cassie’s anguish and resilience, and the entirely immersive reading experience of spending time with her. Definitely a favorite this year, and I’m certain we’ll be hearing more about this one.
I received a gifted copy.
Many of my reviews can also be found on my blog: and instagram:
Ripe is the type of book I wanted to read slowly and truly savor. The writing is filled with nuance if you spend enough time to appreciate it. The main character, Cassie’s, dynamics with her parents are captivating with a loving father, firmly pushing her out of the nest, and a toxic mother.
Cassie lands her dream job, which plunks her down in even more toxicity. She finds love, but that turns out to have limits and is not what she hopes for. Things get harder and harder for her as she tries to cope with her environment. Her mental health plummets, as a result. Ripe reminded me a little of Sorrow and Bliss in how brutally honestly yet tenderly it addresses the mental health of the main character.
Ripe has everything I want in a book. I won’t forget the style of the writing, the clarity of Cassie’s anguish and resilience, and the entirely immersive reading experience of spending time with her. Definitely a favorite this year, and I’m certain we’ll be hearing more about this one.
I received a gifted copy.
Many of my reviews can also be found on my blog: and instagram:
June 23, 2024
� 4 � �
yea so i totally thought this was gonna be a fun little weird girl litfic but now i'm just laying in bed sobbing at 1am 🥲
I remember the words of a physicist: Anything that can happen will happen. What we resist the most is eventually what must befall us.
it took a bit to get into the writing, but after the 50% mark i genuinely could not put this book down. reading Ripe felt like slowly getting lost in a black hole, tugged by the ever-increasing dread and loneliness surrounding our main character.
Cassie's depression being displayed as a black hole that just does not go away was such a brilliant metaphor for how depression can linger; even in her few joyful moments, the black hole (however small) is still present in her view, as if waiting for the chance to grow again.
the progression, the increasing hardships, the SADNESS was all just so much to bear but so REAL in it's depiction,,, 🫂 having a satirical take on silicon valley as the sub-plot was a much needed gift when the weight of the book became too much.
જ⁀� 👥�pre-read:
let's see how weird this gets >:D
yea so i totally thought this was gonna be a fun little weird girl litfic but now i'm just laying in bed sobbing at 1am 🥲
I remember the words of a physicist: Anything that can happen will happen. What we resist the most is eventually what must befall us.
it took a bit to get into the writing, but after the 50% mark i genuinely could not put this book down. reading Ripe felt like slowly getting lost in a black hole, tugged by the ever-increasing dread and loneliness surrounding our main character.
Cassie's depression being displayed as a black hole that just does not go away was such a brilliant metaphor for how depression can linger; even in her few joyful moments, the black hole (however small) is still present in her view, as if waiting for the chance to grow again.
the progression, the increasing hardships, the SADNESS was all just so much to bear but so REAL in it's depiction,,, 🫂 having a satirical take on silicon valley as the sub-plot was a much needed gift when the weight of the book became too much.
જ⁀� 👥�pre-read:
let's see how weird this gets >:D
August 18, 2023
The best part of this book was when it ended so I could move on to something else. I struggled with the main character from the beginning. I wanted to sympathize with her depression but she was just so awful. Her views of everyone and everything made her come off pretensious. Her constant poor choices and lack of doing anything to change her situation were agitating.
There were glimmers of hope for this book, but they were short-lived and buried by the constant "eg" and "black hole" metaphor. Both of which were extremely distracting and irritating. I found myself rolling my eyes and sighing every time either of them were mentioned, and they were mentioned every couple minutes.
There were glimmers of hope for this book, but they were short-lived and buried by the constant "eg" and "black hole" metaphor. Both of which were extremely distracting and irritating. I found myself rolling my eyes and sighing every time either of them were mentioned, and they were mentioned every couple minutes.
July 15, 2023
I waited and waited for something to happen. Then I waited some more. All I got was e.g. this and e.g. that and a story that felt like nothing but groundwork for a broken person who won't even try to fix herself.
November 25, 2022
go and immediately put this on your 2023 TBR & then come back to read the rest of this.
holy moly. I was stoked when I got the approval for this on net galley so thanks much to @scribnerbooks for blessing me with this. so beautifully written & I couldn’t put it down.
a story of a woman with a black hole that’s followed her as long as she can remember . always lurking there and reacting.
and that same woman working a soul sucking, corporate job in Silicon Valley (in early 2020 although that’s not stated outright).
just the general format is something I haven’t seen before - the definitions, personal reflection and then real time plot. it was so well thought out & you can tell that on first read.
there are so many little details weaved throughout and I can’t even begin to describe them because the novel has blown my mind👩🍳�
I don’t do this often with galley reads but I cannot wait to own a hard copy of this and tuck it right on my shelf next to Moshfegh and Rooney.
pub date: July 11, 2023 (write that down)
holy moly. I was stoked when I got the approval for this on net galley so thanks much to @scribnerbooks for blessing me with this. so beautifully written & I couldn’t put it down.
a story of a woman with a black hole that’s followed her as long as she can remember . always lurking there and reacting.
and that same woman working a soul sucking, corporate job in Silicon Valley (in early 2020 although that’s not stated outright).
just the general format is something I haven’t seen before - the definitions, personal reflection and then real time plot. it was so well thought out & you can tell that on first read.
there are so many little details weaved throughout and I can’t even begin to describe them because the novel has blown my mind👩🍳�
I don’t do this often with galley reads but I cannot wait to own a hard copy of this and tuck it right on my shelf next to Moshfegh and Rooney.
pub date: July 11, 2023 (write that down)
January 27, 2023
Oh I was INTO THIS. I can't wait for all of the sad girl lit fic people to read this when it comes out. Ripe reminded me a lot of the book Severance, and I think in some ways this is what I wanted My Year of Rest Relaxation to be when I first went into that one.
This book gave me a lot of anxiety thinking about work (particularly while working a tech-related job), hustle culture, and societal expectations. It's not even a little subtle with its satire of those things and in its "black hole as a metaphor for depression and anxiety" device. But it's clever, I could not put it down, and I have a feeling I'll be thinking about this one for a while.
Ripe is another one of those books I wouldn't necessarily recommend to everyone, but it was absolutely for me. Thank you to NetGalley for the eARC to review! I have a feeling I'm going to want to get a physical copy when this comes out.
This book gave me a lot of anxiety thinking about work (particularly while working a tech-related job), hustle culture, and societal expectations. It's not even a little subtle with its satire of those things and in its "black hole as a metaphor for depression and anxiety" device. But it's clever, I could not put it down, and I have a feeling I'll be thinking about this one for a while.
Ripe is another one of those books I wouldn't necessarily recommend to everyone, but it was absolutely for me. Thank you to NetGalley for the eARC to review! I have a feeling I'm going to want to get a physical copy when this comes out.
December 24, 2023
Am I becoming a weird lit-fic girlie?
Commentary on depression. homelessness. Capitalism.
Depressing as hell.
Drugs Gross , cocaine (silicone valley / sanfran )
A city of extremes. Yep.
21% "how many more hours of My life will I spend listening to men talk about themselves" OMG 🫢🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣💯💯💯
This mc is so frustrating. She is so passive in her own life. She just let's life happen to her it's like have some agency.
Wow this mom is so triggering. I wish the mc would stand up to her good lord say something!!!!!
okay this book ...WOW. I am speechless
Commentary on depression. homelessness. Capitalism.
Depressing as hell.
Drugs Gross , cocaine (silicone valley / sanfran )
A city of extremes. Yep.
21% "how many more hours of My life will I spend listening to men talk about themselves" OMG 🫢🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣💯💯💯
This mc is so frustrating. She is so passive in her own life. She just let's life happen to her it's like have some agency.
Wow this mom is so triggering. I wish the mc would stand up to her good lord say something!!!!!
okay this book ...WOW. I am speechless
June 4, 2024
Ummm what did I just read?? 3.75 stars rounded up
August 8, 2023
the most painfully beautiful rendering of existential dread i have ever read
June 29, 2023
Ripe follows Cassie, a young 30 something working a grueling tech job in CA’s Silicon Valley. Cassie is violently depressed and has been since the day she was born? A “black hole� follows her every move and while this metaphor for her depression worked really well for a while, eventually its mention on every page became too much and a bit overkill.
Cassie is extremely passive, she lets anyone say or do anything to her without any sort of fight back. This was exhausting to read, but Cassie felt mostly fleshed out as a real person. Every other character, of which there are several, was SO exaggerated and cartoonish that I was convinced this was a satire. Every coworker, every Uber driver, her family, her friends are all turned up to a level 10 in their cruelness, their absurdity, their toxicity. It was entirely unbelievable that every person in her life acted like this.
There are two competing & overarching metaphors in this story, that of the pomegranate and that of the black hole. The black hole as depression and the endless facts and bits about real black holes was so prominent that I felt the additional of the pomegranate as whatever it was supposed to signify was again, too much.
There is then the way the story is told through dictionary definitions, followed by several “e.g.� paragraphs that continue the narrative, some related to the previous definition, others not so much. This stylistic decision was an odd one and again just added to the sense that there were too many competing ideas. As if the author had several ideas for how she wanted to tell this story, couldn’t land on one, so decided to incorporate it all.
All of this without mentioning weird inconsistencies and conveniences added to heighten the tension, even though they didn’t really make sense.
Despite everything mentioned, this was compulsively readable and Etter’s non-dialogue writing was compelling in many places. Add some subtlety, nuance, and restraint and this could be a real winner.
Cassie is extremely passive, she lets anyone say or do anything to her without any sort of fight back. This was exhausting to read, but Cassie felt mostly fleshed out as a real person. Every other character, of which there are several, was SO exaggerated and cartoonish that I was convinced this was a satire. Every coworker, every Uber driver, her family, her friends are all turned up to a level 10 in their cruelness, their absurdity, their toxicity. It was entirely unbelievable that every person in her life acted like this.
There are two competing & overarching metaphors in this story, that of the pomegranate and that of the black hole. The black hole as depression and the endless facts and bits about real black holes was so prominent that I felt the additional of the pomegranate as whatever it was supposed to signify was again, too much.
There is then the way the story is told through dictionary definitions, followed by several “e.g.� paragraphs that continue the narrative, some related to the previous definition, others not so much. This stylistic decision was an odd one and again just added to the sense that there were too many competing ideas. As if the author had several ideas for how she wanted to tell this story, couldn’t land on one, so decided to incorporate it all.
All of this without mentioning weird inconsistencies and conveniences added to heighten the tension, even though they didn’t really make sense.
Despite everything mentioned, this was compulsively readable and Etter’s non-dialogue writing was compelling in many places. Add some subtlety, nuance, and restraint and this could be a real winner.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 5,620 reviews
Can't find what you're looking for?
Get help and learn more about the design.