"Ripe is a messy portrayal of the reality of Silicon Valley life, but, more than that, the reality of city life and simply living as an adult. Everything strange and unclear and chaotic, Sarah Rose Etter hits shockingly close to some of the struggles we prefer not to think about, and in examining them, asks why we remain in these situations, but also, with the social and financial pressures of contemporary society, how do we escape them? What price do you pay when you play a piece in someone else's reality instead of choosing your own?"
Publisher Scribner
Publication Date 2024-03-05
Section New Titles - Paperback / Fiction / All Staff Suggestions / Fiction Suggestions / Summer P.
Format Paperback
ISBN 9781668011645
NATIONAL BESTSELLER * Named a Best Book of the Year by Time, Huffington Post, Kirkus, and more * A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice * A Roxane Gay Audacious Book Club Selection * A Marie Claire Book Club Pick
A surreal novel with “a dark, delicious edge” (Time) about a woman in Silicon Valley who must decide how much she’s willing to give up for success—from an award-winning writer whose work Roxane Gay calls “utterly unique and remarkable.”
A year into her dream job at a cutthroat Silicon Valley start-up, Cassie finds herself trapped in a corporate nightmare. Between the long hours, toxic bosses, and unethical projects, she also struggles to reconcile the glittering promise of a city where obscene wealth lives alongside abject poverty and suffering. Ivy League grads complain about the snack selection from a conference room with a view of unhoused people bathing in the bay. Start-up burnouts leap into the paths of commuter trains, and men literally 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, growing or shrinking 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 she ends up unexpectedly pregnant at the same time her CEO’s demands cross into illegal territory, Cassie must decide whether the tempting fruits of Silicon Valley are really worth it. “Lurid, tense, and compelling” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review), Ripe portrays one millennial woman’s journey through our late-stage capitalist hellscape and offers a brilliantly incisive look at the absurdities of modern life.
