Like Planes, Trains, and Automobiles but with less humor and more environmental destruction and murderous intent.

Totally riveting, mildly nauseating, and wholly entertaining, I really enjoyed Bad Nature by Ariel Courage. I'm a sucker for a morally gray character, and a terminally ill woman seeking to kill her father kind of take the cake on that, no?? We follow Hester post terminal breast cancer diagnosis, where she seeks to complete her ultimate bucket list goal and finally murder her father. She meets a host of strangers, friends, and lovers on the way.

I found Hester to be a compelling character. I do feel like she fell a little flat for me, or at times I found myself wondering Hester WYD??

Thanks so much to @netgalley , Henry Holt and Co, and Ariel Courage for this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This story was a pleasant surprise. I went in somewhat blind and this literary fiction story had a great mix of road trip vibes, self discovery, and redemption, with a side of humor (sometimes dark, if I’m honest, but perfect for the story nonetheless).

Hester, our FMC, is incredibly relatable and you find out quickly she is laced with bad luck and a witty, dry sense of humor. The speed bumps and road blocks she encounters on her journey of revenge just make you want to shake your head. Like how could her luck get any worse?

This really read like a memoir. I enjoyed that type of writing style for a work of fiction, especially because the story isn’t so far fetched that it couldn’t happen. Feeling like I’m reading Hester’s journey or sitting in the car beside her kept me into wide start to finish.

The drawback for me was the slow pace of some of the chapters. In some cases, I honestly didn’t know if some of the points being made were necessary or fluff. The nonlinear timeline helped quicken the pace in some parts and overall I enjoyed the book. It had an abrupt ending, but that fit with the tone of the story. Overall, a good story and a moving message of self-redemption with a taste of revenge.

⭐️⭐️⭐️.75

The Premise: Hester is a 40-year-old lawyer who works at a big New York City law firm. She is transactional in her relationships and has a biting, dry sense of humor. When she gets a terminal diagnosis, she quits her job and leaves her carefully curated life for a cross-country road trip. She’s headed to California to kill her father and take revenge for her childhood. Of course, there are a lot of detours on the way there.

My Thoughts: Do you like books that are a bit unusual? They are my sweet spot so when I read this premise, I knew I had to read it. Hester is a phenomenal character and Ariel Courage writes smart banter like no one else. I loved going on this journey with Hester even when it veered off into unexpected territory.

I requested this for consideration for Book Riot's All the Books podcast for its release date. After sampling several books out this week, I decided to go with a different book for my review.

2 ⭐️ | This was a pretty hard book to get though and now to review. For having such a strong premise, I was really excited to start this one, and very happy to receive it as an arc. Bu after only a few chapters, I knew it wasn't a book for me.

Bad Nature follows a woman who is diagnosed with terminal cancer on her fortieth birthday. Having nothing and no one tying her to her life in New York, she quits her job and decides to drive to California with one goal in mind: to kill her estranged father. But on her way to California, she picks up a hitchhiker ecoactivist and tags along on his missions.

There is nothing I love more than a scorned woman on a mission. Our main character, Hester, seems to be on a path of self-destruction as well as revenge. I found this book to be boring and hard to get through. It was monologue after monologue of Hester's extreme cynicism, and her constant pissing and moaning about the world and her past. I kept waiting for things to spin around and for Hester o have some self-reflection or possible redemption, but unfortunately that never happened. She only continued on this path with her hitchhiker, making pitstops to see people that played a role in her depressing life and joining this environmental warrior on his path. Everything they do turns out to be pointless in the end. No part of her journey led Hester do to anything but just double down on her original feelings and thoughts when the book began. When so many things happened in this book and there was so much leading up to the ending, it was incredibly unsatisfying to see no change whatsoever.

I felt like I was getting myself through this story and feeling zero emotions about what was happening. I can usually get behind an unlikable characters, but Hester purely horrible with no redeeming qualities or any character growth. I had to force myself to gt through this one and I really wish it had lived up to the exciting promise of the premise.

Thank you NetGalley, Ariel Courage, and Henry Holt and Company for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

4.5 stars!


The protagonist in Bad Nature, Hester, is given the crappiest 40th birthday “gift” ever - a terminal cancer diagnosis. She’s made her (very good) living as a corporate lawyer but decides to leave that all behind and embark on a cross-country trip from NYC to California to fulfill her ultimate bucket list activity - killing her father.

On her trip she picks up a hitchhiker who is traveling the country photographing superfund sites. Hester feels that she can take the detour, since this is really her last hurrah. Hester and the hitchhiker find some trouble, bicker and have some philosophical chats along the way, all while Hester keeps her plans close to her chest.

I found the most interesting parts of the book inside of Hester’s head. There’s a lot of heavy stuff going on in there. She even names her tumor and forms a quasi-relationship with it. All on the journey it SEEMS pretty clear she won’t be deterred, but I often found myself thinking… could this change her mind? It was an interesting journey in her head.

Courage has written a good “sad weird girl novel” that will likely resonate with people who enjoyed My Year of Rest and Relaxation, and books of that sort.

Thank you Henry Holt & Co, Netgalley and Ariel Courage for the free early ecopy to read and offer my thoughts on.

3.5
“I always knew I was going to kill my father.”
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At 40 years old, Hester is diagnosed with terminal cancer. With an estimated 6 months to live she decides she is going to kill her father, she has always dreamed of it and now seems to be the best time to do it with literally nothing to lose.
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The concept of this book grabbed my attention IMMEDIATELY. An unhinged 40 year old woman on a quest for revenge against her father like YES SIGN ME UP. I loved reading her journey on the way to her father’s home across the country; however I could never feel fully immersed in the story and my attention kept getting taken away too easily. Hester picks up a young hitchhiker, John, who is an eco activist and he travels with her across country and they stop at a lot of superfund sites. This ends up causing a lot of talk about climate change and environmental issues in this book; which honestly it kind of overshadowed the point of Hester’s journey. I would have also like to explore more about why Hester wanted to kill her father. We didn’t get much on that and would’ve like to delve deeper into that history. I feel like we got more insight on John’s resentment toward his family than Hester and he’s not out for revenge.

Bad Nature by Ariel Courage attraction is centered around Hester, a strong female character, with an unconventional and questionable character. After a terminal cancer diagnosis, she decides to travel cross country to kill her father.

She meets John, an environmentalist who photographs locations across that have been closed due to contamination. During their road trip you gain some insight on Hester’s background, but I do wish they spent more time in explaining her past relationships with her parents and what is driving her need to kill her father.

I had the privilege of having both the eARC and ALC for this book. The narration by Cia Court is well executed, though her male characters did not fell as if they had the same distinction as her female ones. Regardless the narration kept me engaged, and I could seamlessly move between the printed book and audiobook with ease.

Although the ending did not live up to journey experienced in this book, I really enjoyed it and cannot wait to see what comes next from this author.

Rating: 4 Stars
Audio Release and Print Pub Date: April 1 2025

Tags:
Henry Hold & Company
@henryholtbooks
Macmillan Audio
@macmillan.audio
#BadNatureBook
#ArielCourage
#YarisBookNook
#netgalley

I found this book to be very interesting in its concept, but somewhat lacking in execution. I liked the main character a lot — in the way that I liked to somewhat dislike her. I found the beginning to be particularly interesting and really good at pulling me in, but the ending fell flat and I was struggling to keep my attention to it.

Hester, the heroine of Ariel Courage's debut novel "Bad Nature," is a 40-year-old New York lawyer with no family and no friends, and to top it off, she is diagnosed with terminal cancer. Refusing the treatment, she instead decides to fulfill her goal, which she has been carrying for years, always sure that it will be achieved: killing her estranged father. She rents a car and sets off to California.

Very quickly, she comes across John, a young environmentalist who hitchhikes across the country and photographs hazardous waste places closed after being wholly contaminated.  She joins John in stopping at those places, climbing the barbed fences, and arguing with guards while John snaps a few pictures. Their road trip continues: each person has their own goal, and they travel in a somehow symbiotic relationship, not lovers, but semi-friends on a mission. John is another interesting character, a silent modern cowboy on a lonely assignment. The superfund sites they see often have that arresting beauty of places full of eerie sadness and, in a way, remind them of Hester's own body, being gradually invaded by cancer.

The most interesting part of the novel is Hester's character, an anti-hero, a woman who follows her own rules. Being rich and relatively young certainly helps – she can afford to spend a night in a posh hotel and rent another car if needed, and she knows she has the power that money brings. However, that power is often demonstrated childishly, for example, when she announces being pulled out at a restaurant: "I am going to spend two thousand dollars." But this is Hester: sometimes a wounded child when she talks about her childhood, sometimes a strong woman with a gun. She is contradicting herself and yet stays true to her nature - bad nature! At times cocky and other times vulnerable, with her arrogant, ironic attitude, good observation skills, and dark humor, she irritated me and simultaneously made me protective of her.

It's always more challenging for me to review a debut because a writer is just beginning their journey, and I don't feel in a position to categorize or judge their writing yet. However, Ariel Courage's novel was gripping, and her style was excellent. I'll be curious to see her next book.

Full of dark humor and unhinged, unlikeable woman antics so of course I was in. Offbeat and darkly comedic, this is an unexpected joyride across the country.

In this story, we follow Hester, a rich lawyer freshly diagnosed with terminal cancer. Upon learning her bleak prognosis, our anti-hero sets off on a cross country trek to kill her father. A revenge story at its core, Hester is driven by her anger and rage and no actual plans, other than her main one. She is a rather unlikeable character without a whole lot of redeeming qualities, but I am going to say that is probably the point. Thank you to Henry Holt & Co. and NetGalley for the ARC. This book publishes April 01, 2025.

“I was always going to kill my father. Or at least the idea came to me very young. I never had a specific plan. I knew I was going to kill him the same way you know sooner or later it’s going to rain. It was a natural fact.”

This is a story of a woman, her terminal diagnosis, and her quest to fulfill her dream before she dies. And while she is far from a hero, you’ll probably cheer her on anyway.

Hester is unhinged, rich, and is ready to burn her whole life to the ground. I mean, why not? She has nothing left to lose. She accepts her plight, leaves her life in NY behind, and starts her cross-country journey to see her father one last time.

I love a good unhinged protagonist on a mission. You never know what you’re going to get by the end of the novel. And while Hester hold tight to her plans and wishes to see them through, she didn’t anticipate John, a 20-something guys who is on an environmental quest, interrupting them. April allow the reader a peek into Hester’s inner workings, and we see that despite her “Devil may care” attitude, there’s a part of her that has longed for companionship-something that is neutral and platonic. And no matter how often she says psychotic things, starts fights with him regarding his convictions, and puts up walls, he sticks by her, and she slowly starts to appreciate him.

You also see her start wrestling with the realization that she is truly dying, and how she teeters between wanting to end it all, and wanting to cling to life. She has kept herself locked away from everything and everyone for so long, but can’t seem to stop herself from caring about John. She’s still unhinged, but there is apart of her that longs for the stability, and comfort, John has brought to her.

This novel is darkly humorous, bleak, and crazy, with a splash of antihero. If you are a fan of an unhinged heroine, this one’s for you. 4.25 stars

Bad Nature, by Ariel Courage, I was gifted the Kindle version and the audio version narrated by Cia Court from NetGalley. The book is about Hester who on her 40th birthday finds out that she has breast cancer. This is when she decides to take stock of her life or what is left and drive to California to kill her long neglectful father. I really thought this book was going to be witty with Hester‘s self reflection and possible redemption from an on feeling life, but unfortunately it almost seems that even with the intervention of a social environmental warrior, who she meets along the way along with making pitstops to see those that played apart in her sadly depressing life. It’s almost as if she in the end doubles down on her initial thoughts and feelings and I honestly just didn’t like this book. Not to mention the narrator seemed as if she was just reading the story with no emotion whatsoever and I have read other reviews where they absolutely love her, but I sadly did not. I have read books before that when it got to the ending it was such a great ending. It made me rate the book much higher than I initially was going to, but this book seemed to IDK… Just end? also, it seems in most books. Nothing is written that isn’t going to play some part in the overall story, but I found things in this book Were just pointless, like the cop calling about her car, her whole stop in West Virginia and I’m not even saying what an unlikable person Hester was. I just didn’t like this book not the kindle version nor the audio I finished hoping the ending would save the book but sadly it did not. it was just more of the same, and that same to me was quite boring.#NetGalley, #HenryHoltAndCompany, #McMillanAudio, #AerialCourage, #BadNature, #TheBlindReviewer,

In “Bad Nature,” Ariel Courage introduces readers to Hester, a forty-year-old corporate lawyer who, upon receiving a terminal cancer diagnosis, embarks on a cross-country journey to confront her estranged father. The novel delves into themes of revenge, self-discovery, and environmental decay, offering a darkly humorous yet poignant narrative. While Courage’s sharp prose and the intriguing premise hold promise, the story’s pacing can feel sluggish at times. Nevertheless, Hester’s complex character and the novel’s exploration of moral ambiguity make it a thought-provoking read!

This is one of those books where you read the premise and imagine a book better than the actual book. This writing was solid and kept me interested but I don't think I understood the point. The environmental story, the childhood abuse, the religion...it was all there but I didn't get anything from it.

Thank you NetGalley for sending an advanced copy of this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

This book was a brutal read due to subject matter, though the writing was beautiful. It's the story of an adult struggling with illness and coming to terms with her childhood.

I do not know which type of reader I would recommend this book to.

Overall, I thought this was a perfectly adequate book. The dynamic between the two characters was interesting, but I can't say that I found the main character to be compelling enough to be invested in her. It wasn't a matter of liking or disliking a morally grey character, but more that I just thought she was mildly boring. More broadly, the pacing felt a bit off--too slow.

Bad Nature by Ariel Courage follows Hester, the protagonist who, after receiving a terminal cancer diagnosis with only six months to live, makes an unorthodox decision: she quits her lucrative career and embarks on a road trip with one singular goal in mind—kill her father.

I was immediately intrigued by the premise, and though Hester is undeniably deranged, withdrawn, and odd, there’s something deeply captivating about her. She's raw, blunt, and unapologetic, and her deep-seated resentment toward her father drives much of the story. As the novel unfolds, we learn the complex, painful reasons behind Hester's behavior and mindset, which adds depth to her character.

The ending felt somewhat abrupt, especially given the build-up throughout the novel. I had been anticipating a bigger twist, but even so, I remained fully immersed in Hester’s dark journey. While the story tackles heavy subjects—such as childhood abuse and trauma—it also offers a surprising amount of dark humor that offsets the more somber moments.

Overall, Bad Nature is a deeply engaging, if unsettling, read. Ariel Courage masterfully balances the tragic and the absurd, making for a thought-provoking and, at times, laugh-out-loud dark comedy.

This book is set to be published on April 1st, 2025. Thank you to the publisher, Henry Holt & Company, author Ariel Courage, and NetGalley for a free copy of this eARC in exchange for an honest opinion.

(2.5/5, rounded up)
This started out so strong that it backfired. When I'd expect some sort of build up, we'd already plateaued. The tension that <i>is</i> built, <spoiler>then comes crumbling down anyway with that ending. I have never written and will never write a book so you'd think I'd have no room to talk- but unfortunately the task at hand is reviewing this book soo... That ending made me really aggravated, I spent all this time reading...for what? </spoiler> The premise is so strong, ugh..

{Thank you bunches to NetGalley, Ariel Courage and Henry Holt & Company for the DRC in exchange for my honest review! PUB DATE: 4/1/25}