Ripe

After a year at a competitive Silicon Valley firm, Cassie discovers she is stuck in a corporate nightmare. Along with the long hours, unsavory supervisors, and immoral projects, she finds it difficult to reconcile the alluring promise of a city where extreme poverty coexists with outrageous wealth. Graduates of Ivy League schools gripe about the snack options while standing in a conference room overlooking homeless people taking baths in the bay. Men set themselves ablaze in the streets, and startup burnouts jump into the paths of commuter trains.

Cassie is never alone, even in her isolation. A tiny black hole has been her constant companion since she can remember. It grows larger or smaller depending on how distressed she is, feeding off of her worry and despair. The black hole waits as well as observes. As the world collapses around Cassie, its unwavering pull pulls her closer and closer.

When Cassie becomes unexpectedly pregnant due to her CEO's demands going beyond legal boundaries, she must consider if the alluring benefits of Silicon Valley are truly worth it. A millennial woman's trip through a late-capitalist hellscape is depicted in Ripe, which is sharp but vulnerable, humorous yet unnerving, and provides an incisive look at the absurdities of modern existence.