I wasn’t really a fan of this one. It’s nice as a profound and poetic take on capitalist tech culture but I didn’t really enjoy it as a story. I kept waiting for something to happen but nothing ever did. Cassie’s life is terrible: her job is terrible, her love life is terrible, her family is terrible, the city is terrible — I get it. It was kind of repetitive and it lacked any real climax.

Also, be warned that this is sort of a Covid book. It takes place in the first weeks of the pandemic and makes frequent mention of Covid.

Overall, I think this book is fine, it’s just not my cup of tea. But I did enjoy Etter’s poetic writing style and I liked the concept of Cassie's black hole.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for the ARC!

This was an impressive book. It was dark and raw. The references to the fruit, along with each chapter beginning with a specific word and definition was beautiful. There was plenty of metaphor which I could also see being classified as hints of magical realism.

This was an emotional book with many sensitive topics including or eluding to pregnancy, abusive relationships, suicide, and abortion.

I recommend this if you are familiar with the absurd nature that the tech industry operates at. Also, if you are fed up with this world and want to feel sad. This book made me realize how lonely life can get.

I’ve been looking forward to this novel ever since I saw the cover (which is absolutely eye-catching and stunning) and read the premise, so I was beyond excited to receive an ARC from NetGalley. And wow. There was so much about this novel that I loved, even though it is in no way a happy or joyful read. Etter’s voice is so powerful; biting and bracing and intense. I found myself annotating line after line, aching at the bittersweet beauty of the main character Cassie’s thoughts & feelings. I loved how this novel explored class systems. segregated cities and communities; the difference between the haves and the have-nots. She really captured how soulless corporate America is, captured the struggle of trying to find yourself when you feel your future is already planned out, yawning dark and cavernous in front of you. The struggle in trying to save your own soul before it is irreparably damaged, selling out just to rise in the pyramid….so much of this novel resonated with me, but I don’t know that I have the words to adequately describe the experience of reading this novel. The ending left a tiny bit to be desired, but at the same time, I had already guessed that this novel might end the way it does. Overall just a stunningly beautiful melancholic novel that I will likely return to again and again anytime I’d like something toothsome to read.

Thank you so much to NetGalley, the publisher and the author.

I'm half convinced this book was an alternative reality I had about me working in the tech industry, but it was not.

Ripe follows Cassie, a senior officer navigating her way through a start-up Silicon Valley company with a black hole following her around her day to day life.

I liked the way this book was structured with its Oxford definitions of words and listing off examples in Cassie's life—both past and present. It's definitely an interesting book, one of the most interesting I've read all year. I think it's probably because I live in Silicon Valley that made this hit closer (literally) to home. Ripe gives you insight on the tech industry as a whole and how it's not always as glamorous as it seems. It shows you the stresses of the industry and just how people are trying to survive. I also loved the metaphorical "black hole," the way it represents depression and anxiety, was artfully done.

I wouldn't recommend this book to everyone since it felt a little heavy(?), but if you do happen to pick it up, you won't be disappointed.

I am currently screaming omg, omg, omg to my fiancé who doesn’t care about books. This was one of the best books I think I’ve ever read? I loved everything about it from the writing style, main character, my feelings growing every chapter.

I am going to need time to process for a real review. But I LOVED this and really believe I will think about it for a very long time.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC, this book truly exceeded my expectations.

Wow, what a book. Ripe leaves you cracked open like a freshly cracked pomegranate, innards out on display for everyone to see.

Ripe is the story of Cassie, a 30-something year old woman who finds herself in a high-level marketing job for a Silicon Valley start-up company that deals in data. She also has a nice apartment, successful friends and a seemingly perfect lover.

Cassie's life sounds like a dream but the environment of extreme wealth and fortune is only a thin gold film covering the rot that lays beneath, a rot that eats away at Cassie's sanity throughout the novel.

At the end of Ripe, I was left with the feeling that I had finished reading a long-lost journal of mine or someone who I possibly could have been. In this late capitalist world, the push from family, friends, our job and society to constantly perform has pushed us to the edge of the cliff-- a cliff that I've seen myself on the edge of many a time.

I found myself relating very heavily to the main character's anxiety, depression and existential dread. With each page I turned, I became even more of my own black hole sitting in my periphery waiting to suck me in. Would I be fortunate enough not to get sucked into it?

Author Sarah Rose Etter holds up a mirror to our reality and asks us if this is who we want to be, and if we can escape this nightmare that society has bought itself into.

Ripe is a wonderful, engaging read and I would recommend it to readers who enjoy narrative takes on the consequences of late-stage capitalism and stories about complex characters struggling against a society that is hard-pressed to change.

I was very excited about beginning this book because of the black hole representing anxiety/depression/darkness. I can understand how many jobs, especially in this particular Silicon Valley tech culture, contribute to someone's mental state. As a person who moved away from their hometown, and family when younger, I could relate to Cassie's loneliness and struggles with career/ friendship/ situation ship vs a relationship in this book.

I did enjoy the book, but felt a little let down at the ending. Just happens sometimes I guess. I imagine our character was quite let down too. May be the helpless / hopelessness is a huge part of the book. No spoiler here. The subject was quite heavy and even a little anxiety inducing. I also loved the cover.

Not one of my favorite reads of the year, but I am glad I read it.

I was given this ARC for review purposes. All opinions are my own.

A whirlwind tale of corporate burnout, motherhood, and loneliness in the working world. Haunting and hardhitting, Etter's latest embodies everything we love about sad girl fiction. "Ripe" will resonate with fans of "Everything, Everywhere, All At Once," and "Nightbitch."

This book made me feel uneasy in the best way. I was hooked from the very beginning and was captivated by the prose. One of the best literary fiction books I’ve read in the past few years.

A ode to high functioning anxiety ridden sad girls everywhere. It brought memories of mine that were crystallized into existence from the dark cave that is my black hole. It spoke the inner workings of my mind and wrote them down in ink where I couldn’t hide.

This book is fantastic. I loved it so.

4.5 ⭐️ I could not put this one down from the moment I started it. Fellow fans of the unhinged girlies / female malaise genre are going to eat this up when it gets released. I haven’t read any of Sarah Rose Setter’s previous books but after reading this one, I cannot wait to read more by her. Highly recommended for fans of Severance by Ling Ma, The New Me and/or Jillian by Halle Butler and My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh.

Big thanks to Netgalley and Scribner for the e-ARC!

3.5 stars but rounded up because I highlighted a lot of quotes and enjoyed the writing a lot.

I'm going to start with the things I really enjoyed. Our protagonist Cassie is one year into her new job and life in tech in California, where she lives in downtown San Francisco but works in Silicon Valley. This book takes place in the months leading up to covid, and you see it slowly creep up in news articles as Cassie struggles with the black hole of anxiety and depression that has followed her around since childhood, which often flares up as she is faced with ethical struggles at work as well as the cost of living in San Francisco, which she struggles with as a middle class person who only recently started making good money.

I loved the metaphor of a black hole as anxiety and depression, especially how it can sometimes become almost a comfort at times. This feels so real to how mental illness feels. I also really loved the depictions of being a millennial in the corporate world, especially tech, and I could absolutely relate to having a "fake self-" how often are you having the worst day ever but when you have a meeting you say "oh i'm great, it's sunny here today!" just so you don't disrupt the social norms of a corporate workplace? Very relatable.

I also want to shout out how abortion is normalized in this book as a tough thing to experience but something Cassie never really wavers on, and handles even as it is expensive, isolating, and painful.

Now for the things that didn't quite work for me. I have some issues with the way privilege is handled in this book. Yes, Cassie is middle class and barely making it, but the way homelessness is portrayed just didn't quite work for me. I wish she and her friend Maria had done more than go to one protest. There are a lot of ways to get involved in your community in this hellscape of modern urban life beyond just saying "wow it's so awful I saw someone shooting heroin and defecating in public today," but the commentary on this never went beyond those comments. There was also only one scene where Cassie realizes there are working class folks in the city, which is when she takes the train outside of rush hour. Maybe this shows that the narrative is limited by her perspective and we are supposed to feel she is privileged, but that juxtaposed with her retired father working at a grocery store out of need just didn't quite jive for me. Cassie did recognize her privilege when hiring an employee in Pakistan, which I appreciated and worked as a commentary on the global dominance of Silicon Valley.

I do also agree with those who say this got a little repetitive. It could've maybe been edited down a bit and still have the same impact.

I will be ruminating on the ending of this book for a long time. Dark but provocative.

Overall, I highly recommend this look at modern capitalism. Thank you to Scribner for the eARC!

RIPE is astonishing: mean, sad, beautiful, funny. I finished it two weeks ago and haven’t been able to stop thinking about it. It’s wonderful to see labor written in this way; the authenticity of how much space and time work takes up in a person’s life is juxtaposed with the surreality of Cassie’s vision and surroundings, bringing the reader into a sort of liminal state where you can’t be sure if you’re dreaming. I will be telling everyone to read this book.

Gorgeous, devastating prose. A descent into the mundane realities of a consumerist world intent only on eating. Loved every moment. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

Ripe follows Cassie, a woman who has a “dream job” in tech in San Francisco. Her job is cutthroat and high pressure and no matter how hard she works there is always more expected of her. The pay isn’t as high as she hoped it’d be, and she’s always struggling financially. She’s in love with a man who will never love her back. She hates most of her friends and most of them hate her. She doesn’t get the support she needs from her family. She can’t get through her days without drugs and alcohol. Her depression (which manifests as a literal black hole, a detail that I loved) follows her wherever she goes. Basically she’s very very unhappy. There’s not really a plot outside of that. The reader just follows Cassie’s life as she tries to push through the pain that follows her throughout her daily life.

This book is great! Each chapter of Ripe begins with the definition of a word, and in the chapter that follows it becomes clear how that definition is relevant to Cassie’s story. The way Ripe is formatted isn’t wildly unique, but it is interesting, smart, and engaging. I personally thought that the satire was hilarious, but I know that it won’t be funny to everyone.

I used to want a demanding job that would consume my life. I thought that as long as it was in a field I loved living like that would make me happy. This isn’t unusual. A lot of us in our 20s and 30s have found ourselves falling into hustle culture. As it did for many people, 2020 made me think deeply about what’s important to me, and I realized that I no longer want that. I started to spend more time speaking to people in the same field I want to go into and I realized that the idea of missing out on my hobbies, my family, my friends, my restful nights of sleep, my weekends, and much more was, quite frankly, my worst nightmare. When I came very close to reaching that life I felt very similar to how Cassie does: like there was a black hole following me around that I felt I might step into at any moment. She knows that she’s in a position in life that she’s put herself in and she feels foolish for having done so. I’ve never been in a position that was as extreme as Cassie’s, but I get her. I understand her pain, and again, I think a lot of us in our 20s and 30s do.

In general I think this is the kind of book that readers will either love or hate, and as you can see I loved it. I highly recommend it if you’re a fan of the “sad girl books,” but if you’ll have any serious issues with reading about mental illness you should stay away from this.

4.5 stars, really.

This was a good'un. Etter does something here that really resonated me. From the black hole as anxiety/depression/darkness personified to the tangible anxiety in Silicon Valley tech culture (it was hard to read at times!) to Cassie's loneliness and uncertainty, all of it just worked for me.

"Ripe" is a book in which nothing much happens, and that sort of feels like the point. In trying to explain the book to my partner, who's not much of a reader, I kept finding myself sharing specific scenes rather than overarching storylines because there aren't many, as such. That's not a bad thing here. In fact, it lends to the overall feeling of being stuck, rudderless, up shit's creek without a paddle, as they say. Was much of Cassie's situation her own doing? Sure, but that doesn't make her any less of a victim of circumstance and her own perceived powerlessness. Things happen in life and it's not always easy to just rise above.

Anyway, I'm going off on a bit of a tangent. This was good. Really good, even. Admittedly, it's a bit heavy and anxiety-inducing, so I'll likely opt for something slightly lighter for my next read just as a palate cleanser. Nevertheless, one of my favorite reads this year so far.

Thanks to NetGalley as usual for the ARC!

This is a brilliant book about the near-future where a virus threatens mankind but workers like Cassie in the Silicon Valley are more concerned with abiding by the corporate guidelines even though a "black hole" seems to follow her around. Clearly her anxiety, the hole manifests itself when she is on edge or worried about her future at Voyager where she is a corporate "cog" in the wheel and must do what her superiors want her to do. Friends are fleeting and boyfriend, the Chef has a girlfriend as well so that makes things complicated. It's a depressing read but oh so prescient that it's worth it going in!
Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC!

I have a feeling this one is going to be big this year.

Ripe blew me away because Cassie felt like a real person who is just trying her best to feel something, be something, do something. That grounded, normal quality is often absent in the books that this is likely to be compared to (ahem, My Year of Rest and Relaxation), which are so often built around protagonists you'd run away from in real life.

Bonus points to any book that makes me scream internally: "Move back to Philadelphia! You'd be so much happier here!"

How many books have you picked up with a blurb referencing "My Year of Rest and Relaxation"? For me, it's been many, and while I'm strongly against comparing every "sad girl" sub-genre book to Moshfegh and Rooney, you should know the comparison is not only fitting, but Sarah Rose Etter's "Ripe" transcends. Surreal and unsettling, "Ripe" unsubtly critiques the pipeline of capitalistic dream turned corporate hellscape.

In a sea of hustle culture yes-men nicknamed Believers, the new virus on the horizon is the least of Cassie's worries. A black hole representing her anxiety and depression has followed her to the promised land, she's barely getting by with her soul-sucking tech startup job, and a baby -- the size of a pomegranate seed -- is growing inside her.

I'm sure many of us millennials and zoomers see aspects of ourselves in Cassie, but every time she's greeted by the homeless man outside her window, we're reminded she's hardly the sole victim. With thought-provoking pomegranate metaphors throughout, "Ripe" paints an uncanny portrait of how capitalism's unethical, exploitative practices trickle down the ladder of society until we're all eventually enveloped by our own personal black holes.

This is sad girl lit at its finest. You won't be able to put this one down. It's a great one to get lost in!