NATIONAL BESTSELLER * Named a Best Book of 2023 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 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, Ripe portrays one millennial woman’s journey through our late-capitalist hellscape and offers a brilliantly incisive look at the absurdities of modern life.

*Winner of the 2019 Shirley Jackson Awards for Novel *The Believer Book Awards, 2019: Editors' Longlists in Fiction *The Northern California ‘Golden Poppy’ Book Awards 2019, Fiction longlist *2020 VCU Cabell First Novelist Award Longlist *A Best Book of 2019 —Vulture, Entropy, Buzzfeed, Thrillist "Etter brilliantly, viciously lays bare what it means to be a woman in the world, what it means to hurt, to need, to want, so much it consumes everything.” —Roxane Gay, author of Bad Feminist "I loved every page of this gorgeous, grotesque, heartbreaking novel." —Carmen Maria Machado, author of Her Body and Other Parties A surreal exploration of one woman's life and death against a landscape of meat, office desks, and bad men. The Book of X tells the tale of Cassie, a girl born with her stomach twisted in the shape of a knot. From childhood with her parents on the family meat farm, to a desk job in the city, to finally experiencing love, she grapples with her body, men, and society, all the while imagining a softer world than the one she is in. Twining the drama of the everyday — school-age crushes, paying bills, the sickness of parents — with the surreal — rivers of thighs, men for sale, and fields of throats — Cassie’s realities alternate to create a blurred, fantastic world of haunting beauty.

** A TIME Magazine Must-Read Book of 2023 ** A year into her dream job at a cutthroat Silicon Valley startup, Cassie is trapped in a corporate nightmare. Between the long hours, toxic bosses and unethical projects, she struggles to reconcile the glittering promise of a city where obscene wealth lives alongside abject poverty. Ivy League grads complain about the snack selection from a conference room with a view of houseless people bathing in the bay. Startup 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, the black hole has been her constant companion. It feeds on her depression and anxiety, its size changing 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 her CEO's demands cross an illegal line and her personal life spirals towards a dismal precipice, Cassie must decide whether the tempting fruits of Silicon Valley are worth the pain, or succumb to the black hole. Sharp but vulnerable, funny yet unsettling, Ripe portrays one millennial woman’s journey through our late-capitalist hellscape and offers a brilliantly incisive look at the absurdities of modern life. 'An absolute must read... Unsettling, tense and funny' - Glamour 'Exquisite' - New York Times 'Sarah Rose Etter is a wonder and this novel is a knife to the heart - Carmen Maria Machado, author of Her Body and Other Parties 'Ripe has the most exquisitely described dread I've read in ages. I couldn't put this book down. Totally haunting and propulsive' - Halle Butler, author of The New Me 'Ripe is a triumph - blade-sharp and unflinching. It walks a darkly gorgeous tightrope between the bitter and beautiful with skill that takes your breath away' - Sophie Mackintosh, author of The Water Cure 'Reading this book felt like pressing repeatedly on a bruise; the most pleasurable kind of pain... Sarah Rose Etter is truly one hell of a writer' - Kristen Arnett, author of Mostly Dead Things 'A harrowing and mordantly hilarious send-up of the horrors of late-stage capitalism, and a potent meditation on the search for meaning in a broken world' - Laura van den Berg, author of The Third Hotel 'Holy shit, this book wrecked me!' - Samantha Irby, author of Wow, No Thank You 'Ripe is brilliant - a distinctive, sharp, engrossing window into late-stage capitalism. My face melted into this book' - Emily Austin, author of Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead 'Ripe is enveloping, a bleakly funny surrealist/realist tale of everyday corruption and panic, the "train of fucking life", and what to do when the void winks at you' - Elisa Gabbert, author of Normal Distance

The twelfth issue of Caketrain, featuring new work from Kirstin Allio, Riley Bingham, Laurie Blauner, Bridget Brewer, Ryan Call, J'Lyn Chapman, Jessica Comola, Yonca Karakas Demirel, Alexandra Dillard, Zachary Doss, Sarah Rose Etter, Brian Evenson, Kelsie Hahn, Joel Hans, Ya-Wen Ho, Dan Ivec, Jacqueline Kari, Davy Knittle, Alyce Knorr, Darby Larson, Gary Lutz, Elizabeth Mikesch, JoAnna Novak, Kim Parko, Vanessa Place, Jessica Poli, Nick Francis Potter, Daniel Wessler Riordan, Sally Rodgers, Freddy Ruppert, Kathryn Scanlan, May-Lan Tan, Adam Veal, Vanessa Angelica Villarreal, Rae Winkelstein, Timothy Wojcik. Edited by Amanda Raczkowski, Joseph Reed, Tanner Hadfield and Katy Mongeau.

"Etter brilliantly, viciously lays bare what it means to be a woman in the world, what it means to hurt, to need, to want, so much it consumes everything." --Roxane Gay, author of Bad Feminist "I loved every page of this gorgeous, grotesque, heartbreaking novel." --Carmen Maria Machado, author of Her Body and Other Parties A surreal exploration of one woman's life and death against a landscape of meat, office desks, and bad men. The Book of X tells the tale of Cassie, a girl born with her stomach twisted in the shape of a knot. From childhood with her parents on the family meat farm, to a desk job in the city, to finally experiencing love, she grapples with her body, men, and society, all the while imagining a softer world than the one she is in. Twining the drama of the everyday -- school-age crushes, paying bills, the sickness of parents -- with the surreal -- rivers of thighs, men for sale, and fields of throats -- Cassie's realities alternate to create a blurred, fantastic world of haunting beauty.

An anthology of 17 dark, funny and haunting tales interpreting the theme of "See Through."