Paperback, 304 pages
English language
Published July 10, 2023 by Scribner.
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 …
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, Ripe portrays one millennial woman’s journey through our late-capitalist hellscape and offers a brilliantly incisive look at the absurdities of modern life.
Fuck yes. A heartstoppingly relentless, bold, knife attack of a book that cuts to the heart of the emptiness of living in Silicon Valley and everywhere. Every few pages I wanted to yell, "this, this, this." I couldn't put it down.
3.5 stars rounded up. Definitely content warnings for this one, the depression is real and bleak.
This is the story of a very depressed young woman whose depth of depression is manifested in a black hole that she sees following her around. She works for a tech company that is bleeding her dry, and her personal life is a mess. There are lots of themes here - hustle culture, income and housing inequality, sexism, loneliness, fake vs true self, and depression (as already noted).
I loved the workplace commentary. I have been enjoying books that satirize or critique office work, so this fits into that trend. It’s brutal and demanding, but she’s told she should be grateful to have the job, she just has to work harder to achieve some mythical top tier status. The way she puts her “fake self” on for work is unfortunately relatable, though my office …
3.5 stars rounded up. Definitely content warnings for this one, the depression is real and bleak.
This is the story of a very depressed young woman whose depth of depression is manifested in a black hole that she sees following her around. She works for a tech company that is bleeding her dry, and her personal life is a mess. There are lots of themes here - hustle culture, income and housing inequality, sexism, loneliness, fake vs true self, and depression (as already noted).
I loved the workplace commentary. I have been enjoying books that satirize or critique office work, so this fits into that trend. It’s brutal and demanding, but she’s told she should be grateful to have the job, she just has to work harder to achieve some mythical top tier status. The way she puts her “fake self” on for work is unfortunately relatable, though my office work is nowhere near what her situation is.
I also thought the personal relationships (parents, friends, significant other) were well done and heartbreaking. Her dad’s reiteration that there’s nothing there for her back home, she’s better off where she is, hurts every time.
There’s a slow build, a slow descent. I appreciate a character spiraling, so that works well for me. I wouldn’t say she really behaves very differently until the very end, but you can feel the pressure of everything getting worse.
The reason this gets 3.5 stars from me is for a few reasons:
1. It tried to cover a LOT of themes in a short book. Adding the housing crisis and the pandemic felt like too much. Protest participation is like a blip in the book and it felt too shoehorned in, too on the nose. The workplace stuff was the most interesting for me.
2. The definitions included felt gimmicky and didn’t add anything to the story for me. The black hole as a visible thing also felt unnecessary tbh. I think it would have worked better in a movie version where you could easily take in the size and position of it scene to scene. Alternatively, if it played a more active role in the story, I’d have liked it more.
3. The language was too poetic and metaphor-filled for my taste at times. That kind of thing makes me zone out. I think it worked best at the end, but I don’t want to say anything that might spoil it!
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.
