Ripe: sharp but vulnerable, funny yet unsettling - one millennial woman’s journey through our late-capitalist hellscape: by Sarah Rose Etter

If you're not sure whether to get it or not - get it.

Ripe was a bleak look into the life of Cassie, a young woman who’s working in a corporate world that doesn’t suit her, but is unable to go back to her old life.Beautifully written and thought provoking. Anxiety-filled but somehow also hopeful. I found this difficult to review and do justice to.There was a mundane misery to the book that, although I don’t work in Silicon Valley, I can relate to. Although perhaps not to the same extent, I think a lot of people have a ‘fake self’, and I wonder how many people also have a black hole following them around…

This was an intense read. A real mix of hopelessness, corporate toxicity and struggle to be in today's world - but with a bit of a horror / magical realism type edge. The definitions to give structure and context was a really interesting touch. I definitely found it dragged a little at times, but that almost helped contribute to the overall feel. Will need to sit with this one for a while.

A stunning piece of writing! Observant, sharp, witty and tragic. Highly recommended if you like whip smart prose coupled with emotional resonance.

Description:Cassie's living in San Francisco, working in Silicon Valley, nursing an expanding black hole and a potential baby.Liked:Oppressive and engaging. The people around Cassie are painted with just enough nuance and inherent contradiction to make them interesting (at least, mostly). As a portrait of a woman caught in a bad situation, it felt convincing. There are some lovely, understated but quietly devastating turns of phrase.Disliked:Silicion Valley was caricaturised to the extent that it made the protagonist's struggles feel less brutally banal. The insistence on marking certain folks out as 'believers' feels puerile, and even though this easy dichotomy is slightly challenged, it's not called out enough to forgive its initial usage. A couple of irritating conceits distracted from the quality of the prose in general: I wasn't into the dictionary definitions, and it seems like even the author grew bored of Cassie's penchant for listing things.Would recommend: despite the irritations, it's well written and compelling.

Satire done badly. Such cliches, such boring forgettable characters. I don’t like to write negative feedback about books and I really wanted this to be good. I really struggled to get through it. I also really do not recommend the audio book. The narrator sounds robotic and very dull. I had to return it.

Truest version of mental health trouble I have read in such a long time. Love this book.

Unpleasant, self obsessed character. Where is her backbone ? Women now have hard won rights of independence; if this is typical of young female mindset we are doomed. I can’t believe I stuck with her until the end of the book.

This is not a feel-good book. Let's start off with that. I didn't like the ending but saw it coming. We all have to deal with a black hole in our lives at some point. Some black holes are worse than others. Although this is fiction, I can't help but feel the author has dealt with her own black holes in her life. I LOVE the fact that she will MAKE you feel the character's pain, confusion, depth of despair and feeling unloved and unwanted, no real life ahead of her. Worth the read but at the end, remind yourself that life holds wonders ahead of you if you just hold on.

To me this Is a modern "under the bell jar". It was so reflexive and could see myself in the main character's questions. I think it's also a good depiction of dissociation as defend mechanism in a psychological perspective

Don’t be fooled - this is certainly another book about the howling emptiness of Silicon Valley culture. I’ve heard all this before. But there is more going on beneath the surface and the building tension pulled me through the been there - done that feeling. So much more, I learned. This novel does what great novels should do - surprise and deeply move you. I had heard a couple of interviews of the author, so I had some expectation that pregnancy and considerations of abortion (spoiler and trigger warning) were an element here. But I didn’t expect how the crappy job/life trope smoothly gave way and super deep upstream knife to the heart issues of mother-daughter and father-daughter issues blossomed towards the end. Just when I started squirming with impatience over the SV drama, the propulsive tension erupted in an unanticipated direction, much to my enjoyment (if that is a proper adjective for watching the moral struggles of the protagonist). This is great writing, reminiscent of Sheila Heti, and strikingly crystallizes the mood of a certain place in a certain time. Highly, highly recommended.

Well that was depressing. Miserable people, miserable jobs, miserable location. I need to go read a comic book, or watch some simple tv, like Sesame Street or something.

This book s a constant whine! I mean , I get hat it wants to transmit but it just lingers on with the constant dissatisfaction of the main character. Maybe this novel will resonate with young readers but for a woman of over 40 like myself, I just couldn’t make a connection with it.