Ripe  BY sarah rose etter
Thursday, feb27, 6:30 PM

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 by. Start-up burnouts leap into the paths of commuter trains, and men literally set themselves on fire in the streets.

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. “Lurid, tense, and compelling” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review), Ripe portrays one millennial woman’s journey through our late-stage capitalist hellscape and offers a brilliantly incisive look at the absurdities of modern life.

---

PAIRED WITH: ​LITTLE BEAUTY Rose by Catch & Release Wines

Darkly witty and devastatingly honest, Ripe tells a story where sweetness and sharp edges collide—much like a perfectly chilled glass of rosé. We’ve paired this book with a zingy, fruit-forward rosé from Catch & Release. The wine’s crisp, minerally edge keeps each sip super refreshing and mirrors the glimmers of hope and moments of connection in the protagonist’s bleak world, while its complexity nods to the haunting undertones of Etter’s prose. Sip slowly as you sink into the raw, emotional depths of Ripe, letting the rosé’s vibrant energy provide a fitting contrast to the book’s darker themes.


​Come purchase your bottle at the bar anytime in February! Wine will also be available to purchase by the glass and by the bottle during our book club discussion on Thursday, 2/27!

---

NATIONAL BESTSELLER * Named a Best Book of the Year by Time, Huffington Post, Kirkus, and more * A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice * A Roxane Gay Audacious Book Club Selection * A Marie Claire Book Club Pick

“A novel like no other. . . . Etter’s work is undoubtedly surreal, but then so is American life today. She knows how to channel its contradictions because she lives them. . . . Ripe hits very close to home.” —Los Angeles Times

"It’s impossible to not feel pulled into Sarah Rose Etter’s Ripe, a beautifully paced novel featuring an intimate inner voice and a surreal, sinister plot. . . . At times darkly funny, this is a razor-sharp and honest portrayal of late-stage capitalism in the tech sphere." —Huffington Post, Best Books of 2023

"An explosive narrative of a woman coming undone as the world burns. . . . A deliciously bitter irony pervades. . . . A scathing look at corporate greed and its many dire consequences, this is deeply felt and cathartic.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Etter opens Ripe with an onslaught of visceral imagery that stays at a fever pitch all the way through. . . . In a weird way, reading Ripe feels like being hit over the head with a cast-iron frying pan, then willingly going back for more. . . . clear-eyed . . . harrowing . . . powerful." —San Francisco Chronicle

“A poignantly tragic, absurdist view of the 'late-capitalist hellscape' that is grind culture. . . . [A] glorious sucker punch of a second novel. . . . It’s a razor-sharp commentary on the relentlessness of tech culture and millennial striver conditioning.” —Shondaland