Ripe

A year into her dream job at a cutthroat Silicon Valley startup, Cassie is trapped in a corporate nightmare. Between 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 houseless people bathing in the bay. Startup 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, the 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 line and her personal life spirals towards a bleak precipice, Cassie must decide whether the tempting fruits of Silicon Valley are worth the pain, or succumb to the black hole.

'Holy shit, this book wrecked me!' - Samantha Irby, New York Times bestselling author of Wow, No Thank You

'Ripe is brilliant - a distinctive, sharp, engrossing window into late-stage capitalism. My face melted into this book' - Emily Austin, author of Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead

'Ripe is a triumph - blade-sharp and unflinching. It walks a darkly gorgeous tightrope between the bitter and beautiful with skill that takes your breath away' - Sophie Mackintosh, author of The Water Cure

'Reading this book felt like pressing repeatedly on a bruise; the most pleasurable kind of pain...Sarah Rose Etter is truly one hell of a writer' - Kristen Arnett, author of Mostly Dead Things

'Etter continues to push the boundaries of her imagination...and ours' - Melissa Broder, author of The Pisces and Milk Fed

Etter expertly diverts the novel from neat or didactic tropes...Etter's exquisite prose powers the book. There are also moments when one wishes that Cassie might seek more connection with others, might reflect a bit more deeply about those around her. However, Etter doesn't grant us such easy ways out. Sometimes embracing the darkness is the only way to get through it. -- Alexandra Chang The New York Times
An absolute must read... Unsettling, tense and funny A Glamour 'Best New Books for August 2023
In Sarah Rose Etter's surreal follow-up to her 2019 debut, The Book of X, Cassie's black hole becomes an apt metaphor for depression, growing to the size of a melon or becoming big enough to block out the sun depending on the state of her angst. Etter's prose is so visceral it's hard not to get caught up in Cassie's infinite sadness TIME (The 100 Must Read Books of 2023)
Etter's work is undoubtedly surreal, but then so is American life today... Ripe hits very close to home -- Jessica Ferri Los Angeles Times
bold and beautiful bookshop.org

Sarah Rose Etter is the author of the chapbook Tongue Party and The Book of X, winner of a Shirley Jackson Award for Best Novel. Her work has appeared in Time, Guernica, BOMB, The Bennington Review, The Cut, VICE, and elsewhere. She earned her MFA in fiction from Rosemont College. She lives in Los Angeles.

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