Ripe

A Novel

By: Sarah Rose Etter

Narrated by: Laurel Lefkow

Length: 7 hrs and 22 mins

Publisher's summary

NATIONAL BESTSELLER * 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. Sharp but vulnerable, unsettling yet darkly comic, Ripeportrays one millennial woman’s journey through our late-capitalist hellscape and offers a brilliantly incisive look at the absurdities of modern life.

©2023 Sarah Rose Etter (P)2023 Simon & Schuster Audio

Awful story

So annoyed 3/4 of the way through that I ended up fast forwarding to the end just to confirm that the tediousness finished.

EG, Sorry to say it doesn't get any better

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.

EG Pomogrates and black holes

I did like this book, but I am confused. All the metaphors and then the ending that didn’t conclude any of them? Pls someone, EG is what? I must have missed something…

Gloomy book about choices and values

I liked this book because it was realistic with the feelings young women encounter working in high pressure work environments. I liked the definitions at the beginning of every chapter because I feel like the set the stage in an artful sU that makes you think. I also liked the odd relationship the main character was in because it was clearly not the best choice for her, but she stayed in it anyway because it was the easy choice. This book held up a mirror to our American way of life and some values we hold as important that don't always serve us. Plus it shines a light on corporate ethics and how what they say on corporate mission statements is not usually how they run their business.

Intense and insightful

Dispels all the glamour of the tech world and San Francisco. Unique writing style. Definitely worth the read, but difficult.

So what was the black hole anyway?

I live in SF but moved here after I retired! She was lucky she lived in a pro choice state! Her first mistake was choosing a dick for her FWB! Talking to her after it was aborted and about a store she took him to that he in turn took his gf to was the last straw! She tried to please everyone but in the end pleased no I hated the ending! one including herself!

Got it — the black hole was her life!

Ghastly

If you're miserable and you want company, this book's for you. The only reason I finished it was that I kept thinking that it would have at least one redeeming feature. But no.

Boring, repetitive writing. Zero character development. No transformation, no change, not even a zombie to spice things up. Move on.

Difficult to rate this.

The chapters start. Definition. Every time. And then E.G. some idea that may or may not be profound but E.G. by the time my focus is back on the narrative E.G. the story has moved on, and then goes like a normal story for a while, so I start to get into it again and then out of nowhere E.G. there's this stop and I am wondering why E.G. is popping up all the time E.G. as if the author is trying to drive me as crazy as her character. It's a lot easier to ignore E.G. when your eyes are going over text, but the poor narrator has probably had to read the letters E.G. so many times while recording this book that I would not blame her for stabbing anyone she knows with those initials if she ever has a mental health crisis.

I would give the narrator the benefit of the doubt here, except that she was so quiet at maximum volume that I still needed to be in a silent room to hear much of the story.

The premise is interesting. The character is interesting. The societal commentary is interesting. Even the definitions at the start of the chapters were interesting. The plot had almost no forward motion whatsoever, and the enraging overuse of E.G. killed what little there was.

This might be a decent book in print, but was the WORST audiobook experience I have had in years.