A review by rainyreadss
Ripe by Sarah Rose Etter

dark emotional reflective tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

A novel I preordered the moment it was announced and have been eagerly anticipating ever since. I read this book within 24 hours of it arriving in the mail. Nearly every page has some sort of ecstatic marking. There’s something magical, mythical even, about a book whose reading comes off as an experience. It sticks with you. Ripe is one such novel. 

Many things swarm throughout Sarah Rose Etter’s second novel, Ripe- black holes, pomegranate seeds, wasps, and time, to only name a few. There is an ache within this book which resounds with the ache in its readers. It’s heavy, but a weight worth carrying. 

Ripe is bright red, burning through love, disgust, relationships, disillusionment, light, and fear. Here, the blade is always sharpened. There are moments where I couldn’t tell where I was aiming the knife- outwards, toward the tech obsessed, corrupted society, or inwards toward the own dark looming within? We are what the world makes us, or are we? 

Ripe is an electric grid thrumming, ready to shock. Its prose is witty, disarming, tender yet brutal, unwavering. Throughout the novel, the main character, Cassie wonders about life- if this life is what she wanted, if this is all life has in store, if this life is worth it, if this is really being alive. As I read Ripe, and thinking about it after, my pulse quickens, and I realized that I, too, am really alive. If you can be convinced of one thing, it should be to read this book right away. Don’t keep the black hole waiting. 
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