Infinite Books

Hester, the heroine of Ariel Courage’s debut novel “Bad Nature,” is a 40-year-old New York lawyer with no family and no friends, and to top it off, she is diagnosed with terminal cancer. Refusing the treatment, she instead decides to fulfill her goal, which she has been carrying for years, always sure that it will be achieved: killing her estranged father. She rents a car and sets off to California.

Very quickly, she comes across John, a young environmentalist who hitchhikes across the country and photographs hazardous waste places closed after being wholly contaminated.  She joins John in stopping at those places, climbing the barbed fences, and arguing with guards while John snaps a few pictures. Their road trip continues: each person has their own goal, and they travel in a somehow symbiotic relationship, not lovers, but semi-friends on a mission. John is another interesting character, a silent modern cowboy on a lonely assignment. The superfund sites they see often have that arresting beauty of places full of eerie sadness and, in a way, remind them of Hester’s own body, being gradually invaded by cancer.

The most interesting part of the novel is Hester’s character, an anti-hero, a woman who follows her own rules. Being rich and relatively young certainly helps – she can afford to spend a night in a posh hotel and rent another car if needed, and she knows she has the power that money brings. However, that power is often demonstrated childishly, for example, when she announces being pulled out at a restaurant: “I am going to spend two thousand dollars.” But this is Hester: sometimes a wounded child when she talks about her childhood, sometimes a strong woman with a gun. She is contradicting herself and yet stays true to her nature – bad nature! At times cocky and other times vulnerable, with her arrogant, ironic attitude, good observation skills, and dark humor, she irritated me and simultaneously made me protective of her.

It’s always more challenging for me to review a debut because a writer is just beginning their journey, and I don’t feel in a position to categorize or judge their writing yet. However, Ariel Courage’s novel was gripping, and her style was excellent. I’ll be curious to see her next book.

BAD NATURE by Ariel Courage, Henry Holt & Co, 2025