Bad Nature
- Judith D Collins
- Jul 31, 2025
- 6 min read
By: Ariel Courage
Narrator: Cia Court
ISBN: 9781250386809
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
Publication Date: 04/01/2025
Format: Audio
My Rating: 5 Stars (ALC)
Armed with a terminal diagnosis, a grudge, and a rental car, Hester sets out to fulfill her lifelong dream of killing her father in this brilliantly subversive and bleakly funny debut novel.
When Hester is diagnosed with terminal cancer on her fortieth birthday, she knows immediately what she must do: abandon her possessions and drive to California to kill her estranged father. With no friends or family tying her to the life she’s built in New York City, she quits her wildly lucrative job in corporate law and starts driving west. She hasn’t made it far when she runs into John, an environmental activist in need of a ride to different superfund sites across the United States. From five-star Midwestern hotels to cultish Southwestern compounds, the two slowly make their way across the country. But will the revelations they experience along the way dissuade Hester from her goal?
Ragingly singular and surprisingly moving, Bad Nature is a story of stunning detours and twists until its final destination. Part road-trip novel, part revenge tale, part lament for our ongoing ecological crisis, it’s ultimately a deft examination of the indulgence of holding grudges, moral ambivalence, and the eternal possibility of redemption.
Praise
“Ariel Courage’s debut is a fork jabbed into the electric socket of America. You can’t look away and, thanks to its bitter wit, can’t stop laughing....Deeply impressive, at times uncomfortable....Many novels portray what life feels like. A rarer strain captures what it looks like, at this moment, warts and all....[A] sun-blasted comic wonder.”
―Los Angeles Times
“Funny and moving, this is a road-trip novel for the here and now, intent on mapping a way forward even when the end might seem to be nigh.”
―The Guardian
“Humor, awe, and grief combine as Hester and an unplanned passenger drive across our confounding nation.”
―The Boston Globe
“Courage debuts with the devilishly alluring tale of a terminally ill New Yorker who embarks on a road trip to kill her abusive and long-estranged father. . . . The layered narrative grows intriguingly complex as Hester approaches her destination. Readers will find this a surprisingly moving portrait of a deeply wounded woman.”
―Publishers Weekly
“An impressive debut!”
―The Center for Fiction
“Courage delights and challenges with this mashup of emotions....Bleakly funny, gloomy, and magnetic, this novel's revenge-fueled, terminal road trip will tender surprising truths.”
―Shelf Awareness
“Courage’s atmospheric debut novel crackles with refreshing honesty, disarming cynicism, and evocative staying power.”
―Booklist
“What starts as a bitter internal dialogue becomes a rich overlap of the personal and the political.”
―Kirkus Reviews
“Add Hester to the canon of unlikeable female characters I can’t look away from, and Bad Nature to novels I couldn’t put down. Dark, aloof, disciplined – this novel is reminiscent of the best of Ottessa Moshfegh or Emma Cline. I thought it was brilliant.”
―Mary Beth Keane, New York Times bestselling author of Ask Again, Yes
“Wicked and wickedly funny, Ariel Courage’s debut Bad Nature is a dark romp of a book, a road-trip novel propelled by a revenge plot. Nihilism and optimism collide in this story featuring a woman who is simultaneously confronting her childhood and her death. Hester is a caustic yet irresistible narrator, and this evocation of her journey across America reads as both hate mail and love letter to a complex country. Bad Nature is raw, intense, and absolutely mesmerizing.”
―Helen Phillips, author of Hum
“Ariel Courage’s writing is so self-assured, so piercing. She's like Ottessa Moshfegh's environmentally conscious cousin. Unflinching and darkly funny, Bad Nature is a staggering debut.”
―Anna Dorn, author of Perfume & Pain
“Bad Nature is a rare gift; an audacious, insane, and relentlessly American first novel. Ariel Courage casts halogenic light upon the only question still worth considering in these, the earliest days of our extinction: What are we to do with our wretched time left? A propulsive, often terrifying remaking, through gray-eyed and perfect metaphor, of the nihilist manifesto, the road-trip tale, and the revenge plot―all, stunningly, at once.”
―Alexandra Tanner, author of Worry
“Bad Nature is a disarmingly dark and hilarious take on the road novel and small-n noir. Or is it an eco-thriller? Either way I found Hester an addictively readable narrator: shrewd, catty and vengeful. I loved how the novel manages to smuggle in both environmental ethics and a contagious tenderness in spite of itself; a paean to daughters of disappointing fathers everywhere. I was utterly gripped.”
―Daisy Lafarge, author of Paul
My Review
A terminal cancer diagnosis. A cross-country road trip. A plan to shoot her estranged father.
Bad Nature by Ariel Courage is a pitch-black, brilliant debut romp through an unhinged American landscape. What do you do when you're given months to live? If you’re Hester, you quit corporate law, name your tumor "Beryl," and drive west for revenge. Meet your new favorite "unlikeable" protagonist.
Think Fatal Attraction meets an eco-crisis road trip. 🎧 Cia Court’s deadpan, cynical narration brings this hilarious and bleak masterpiece to life. Absolutely unputdownable!
Highlights...
The Hook
On her fortieth birthday, a friendless corporate lawyer receives a terminal cancer diagnosis and decides her final act on Earth will be driving across America to shoot her estranged father.
Elevator Pitch
After abandoning her lucrative NYC job defending corporations from the EPA, Hester hits the highway to execute her father in California. Along the way, she picks up John, an ultra-strict, raw-food-eating eco-activist documenting environmental crimes at superfund sites. Their bizarre, picaresque journey winds through five-star hotels and desert compounds, testing Hester’s cold nihilism against a country in ecological decay.
Setting
A cross-country American road trip—stretching from the concrete of New York City through Midwestern highways, Southwestern desert compounds, and ultimately into the outskirts of California.
Vibe
Aloof, razor-sharp, cynically funny, and deeply unhinged. It expertly channels a bleak, modern nihilism spiked with unexpected pockets of raw tenderness.
Genre
Literary Fiction / Dark Humor / Eco-Noir.
Themes
The Freedom of the End: Exploring what a person chooses to do with their remaining time when all societal constraints and future consequences evaporate.
~Ecological Decay: A stark, unblinking look at American consumerism, pollution, and the moral ambiguity of modern survival.
~The Indulgence of Grudges: Unpacking the heavy, lifelong trauma of disappointing parents and the actual utility of revenge.
Standout Characters
~Hester: A prickly, self-described humorless workaholic corporate lawyer who treats her terminal diagnosis as an invitation to total, liberating refusal.
~John: A backpack-dwelling, bandana-wearing eco-activist who calculates the exact environmental cost of everything they consume.
Author Writing Standout
Ariel Courage delivers a masterclass in controlled understatement. She creates a starkly detached, cynical protagonist reminiscent of Ottessa Moshfegh's best work, balancing the shocking premise with an incredibly polished, piercing wit.
Takeaway
Clinging to rage is a heavy way to spend your final days, but sometimes it takes an audacious detour into the wild world to find true human connection.
Title Significance
Bad Nature serves a double meaning, playing on Hester’s cold, transactional human disposition ("bad nature") while simultaneously reflecting the ruined, polluted state of the American landscape they travel through.
Metaphor
The novel operates like a car driving on empty with a check-engine light flashing—it is a reckless, fast, and desperate race toward a definitive destination before the fuel completely runs out.
Why You Should Read
Read/Listen to this if you love deeply original, cynical literary road novels with fiercely independent, "unlikeable" female leads who refuse to apologize for their anger.
My Thoughts
A brilliant, pitch-black midlife crisis on wheels. Hester is the beautifully unhinged, corporate-refusal heroine you didn't know you needed. Pure, chaotic perfection.
I absolutely loved this crazy journey. Highly entertaining! I laughed so hard; the writing was superb, and the audio was epic! Hester is an unforgettable narrator whose absolute honesty about her own shortcomings makes her weirdly endearing, despite her dark goals. The bizarre, reluctant friendship that blooms between her and the fiercely environmentalist John grounds the narrative, turning what could have been a cheap revenge plot into a profoundly moving coming-of-age story at forty.
Audio 🎧 Standout
Cia Court earns her AudioFile Earphones Award with this stellar performance. Her voice perfectly channels Hester’s trademark aloofness and deadpan cynicism without making her sound entirely robotic. Court’s brilliant delivery elevates the dark humor, keeping you entirely locked into Hester's internal landscape for the full nine-hour listen. A perfect road trip pick! Come for the shocking cross-country revenge plot, stay for Cia Court’s flawless, deadpan narration that hits every single dark-comedy note.
Verdict (5/5 Stars)
A brilliant, ingenious, darkly comedic dazzling debut!. Bad Nature is a creative, sharply written debut that injects a fork into the electric socket of contemporary American fiction. Courage navigates the thin line between laugh-out-loud nihilism and genuine tragedy with immense skill, offering a satisfying, detour-filled road trip that completely defies standard genre conventions. A hilarious, bleak, and totally original listen/read. I can't wait to see what the author comes up with next!
Recs or Read-Alikes
~My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh
~Perfume & Pain by Anna Dorn
~Harrow by Joy Williams
~All Fours by Miranda July
~The Guest by Emma Cline
~Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
Special thanks to Macmillan Audio, #MacAudio2025, and NetGalley for sharing an advanced listening copy in exchange for my honest thoughts.
@JudithDCollins | #JDCMustReadBooks
My Rating: 5 Stars
Pub Date: April 1, 2025
April 2025 Must-Read Books
About the Author
Photo Credit: Credit: Daniel Giansante
Ariel Courage is a graduate of the Brooklyn College MFA program, where she was editor-in-chief of the Brooklyn Review. She’s currently an assistant fiction editor at Agni. Her short work has appeared in Guernica, New Limestone Review, and The End. She was also a 2019 Kimmel Harding Nelson resident. WEBSITE
