Book Review: Ripe
Welcome to Ward Farm. Come hungry. Leave satisfied. Ward Farm has rules. Eat. Drink. Wear the mask. Join the revel. And when the Hunt begins… run. It’s supposed to be a Halloween festival. Bonfires. Booze. Costumes. A midnight chase through the corn maze where consenting adults volunteer to hunt or be hunted. Then I pull the red ribbon. Apparently, I wasn’t supposed to. Now the corn whispers my name. Roots move beneath my feet. Something buried beneath Ward Farm is waking after centuries of silence. And three masked men are looking at me like they’ve been waiting their entire lives for me to arrive. The Tiller prepares. The Sower plants. The Reaper takes. And the Bride grows. I came here for one reckless night with my friends. Instead, I’ve been chosen for a ritual no one remembers how to stop. The deeper I run, the more the farm comes alive. The worse part? I’m not sure I want these men to stop chasing me. Because Ward Farm is hungry. So am I. And by the end of the night, one of...