A very enjoyable novel about Rachel and James, two young booksellers from Cork, their platonic romance with each other and their anguished romantic relationships with others. O'Donoghue writes with a great sense of humour, always, and draws you in to the world so completely, I was obsessed with this book for the duration of reading. It's somehow both stylish and grubby at the same time? A fun read covering some serious topics.

Thank you to #NetGalley for my proof copy of #TheRachelIncident

This is my first time reading Caroline O'Donoghue's work and I mostly enjoyed it. The beginning few chapters were slow to hook me in, the writing feeling more like a series of Instagram-ready observations and captions than the opening of what turned out to be quite a lovely story in the end. In some ways it sort of felt like this novel was written with the intention of it being made into a TV series and to that end there was something almost self-conscious about the writing that stopped me from ever being completely swept up in the characters and story arcs. The best writing in the novel are where Rachel is vulnerable with both herself and all the men in her life, who are drawn well if a little thinly; those moments feel less performative and more genuine. Strangely, the person I found it hardest to conjure a true picture of was James Devlin, even though that's meant to be the greatest romance in the book. I did enjoy, however, reading about a platonic friendship between a man and a woman and I can't think immediately of another novel in recent times that's drawn on that quite specific strata of friendship. I also liked the contextual setting of the abortion movement in Ireland and appreciated the effort to try to bring to the fore how isolating an experience that can be for women, even those who are technically not alone.
I found the narrative structure a tiny bit confusing, the jarring jumping around of timelines at points, but I think overall the whole is better than the sum of its parts; I finished the book a few days ago and have thought of it a few times since. I can see material for a possible sequel!

I adored this book! It is full of heart and humour and beautifully depicts that funny time between adolescence and full blown adulthood. A wonderful story of friendship and figuring out who you want to be.

The Rachel Incident, Caroline O’Donaghue

Rachel Murray and James Devlin. A platonic love story for the ages. But the complicated lives of these two best friends have repercussions that reverberate outside the walls of the damp, small house they made a home. As they find themselves more entwined with Dr Byrne and his wife Deenie, hearts will break, secrets will spill and lives will be irrevocably changed.

Caroline O’Donaghue has a skill for creating characters with deeply complex personalities, motives and lives. You believe her characters, you live them. The Rachel Incident deals with a set of common circumstances and devastating consequences. Cracking open severe issues across both Ireland the UK as a whole. I really enjoyed this one, both more simple and also more complex than her previous two.

There is so much of this book that presses up against my own life. So many experiences that were mine too. Because of this The Rachel Incident felt intimate in a way that other Irish college novels have not.

In saying that I think a lot of people will compare this to Sally Rooney's work but I think it sits much closer to Belinda McKeon's Tender.

Rachel isn't always very sympathetic but she is honest and that alone makes her incredibly compelling. There were two times while reading the book when I thought I knew what it was and what the remainder of the story would be and both times I was very happily surprised by the turn the book actually took.

Definitely book to recommend. Especially to those of us who survived graduating with an English degree from an Irish university in 2010!

I have been searching so long for a book that captures the complexities of friendship, love and life in your early 20’s. The Rachel Incident does exactly this. I was captivated from the first page. O’Donoghue has a way of writing characters that makes them seem so realistic and raw. So much so that it almost reads as a memoir. The writing is amazing, there are so many twists and turns. I will be recommending this book to everybody!!

Thank you NetGalley for the Arc of this book.

Another compelling and impeccably observed novel from O' Donoghue, this story of the complexities of intimate friendship felt incredibly textured and real. The texture of the time and place felt so real and right, but it was the tenderness and nuance with which she depicts the intricacies of the messy decisions we make and keep on making that really gripped and moved me as a reader.

SUCH an easy 5*s. The observations! The line level writing! The celebration of soul friendship! I flew through this book in a weekend, and have had such a book hangover since. This is easily my favourite 2023 read so far, and I can't wait to recommend it to everyone I know. Wow.

I’m absolutely obsessed with this book! I’m a long time listener of Caroline’s podcast and love her YA books, so it was amazing to see she’s tackled fiction and what a story it was. I’ll start with being obsessed because the main character had the same full name as me, and that’s incredible to see your name associated to a character that you are super enjoying reading about.

This is a book of friendship, relationships, growing up, secrecy and all drilled down to that incredible observational detail that Caroline does so well.

Loved IT, from another Rachel Murray!

I read this is one sitting and loved it. I've read a couple of Caroline O'Donoghue's books (Promising Young Women and Scenes of a Graphic Nature) but this was by far her best work.
Its a great coming-of-age book and I loved the characters. Despite covering some heavy topics she does it in a lighthearted but hard hitting way. The vividness of Rachel and James’s friendship was brilliantly done,

I have read all of Caroline O'Donoghue's novels and I have to say... they just keep getting better and better. The Rachel Incident is such a fun book about being a bit aimless in your early 20s in Ireland (which a lot of us can relate to, I'm sure!) One of the best things about this novel is that it is set in Cork, and you can tell that O'Donoghue knew it inside out at one point - the references to place and time are so specific, it felt so real, and so refreshing!

I think anyone who graduated into the recession will really enjoy this book, it captures so much of that specific moment and yet feels so current. The leaping between present day and the past in the narrative is deftly done, the tension as we moved through the book was so compelling, I really didn't want to put this one down!

I will be sharing this review on social media closer to the launch date. Five stars from me and I'll be buying it too!

I really enjoyed this book. The relationships were complex and complicated and real and it was really well written. It covered some difficult subjects such as abortion and miscarriage very delicately.

This book was excellent. I read this mostly in one sitting. Rachel and James were just so real to me. I didn't know where this story was going. And I actually gasped out loud on the train when something went in a completely different direction than I thought it would. A book I won't forget in a hurry. Highly recommend.

I'm a big fan of Caroline O' Donoghue. I've liked her previous adult releases but they haven't been GROUNDBREAKING for me and I really enjoyed the YA series. However *this* book is my defining Caroline O' Donoghue moment. I feel like she has taken massive strides in becoming the author she wants to be in this book.
Set mostly in 2010 in Cork, Rachel and James are best friends living together. He is struggling to come out and is having an affair with Rachel's professor, a man she once lusted after herself. When Rachel begins to work with the professors wife, it all becomes more complicated.
I adored the backdrop of this book. It was so vivid, there was truly no question about the authors hometown. I may be biased as someone living in Cork myself, but the novelty of reading a brilliant contemporary novel with the added bonus of feeding my desire to be like "I lived there! I love the Brog too! I have been that person eating chips at the end of a night out on the pavement!" However let me be very clear that this fun sidenote did not bias my review on this book. This book is a powerhouse in the contemporary genre - a wonderful coming of age tale with a heavy emphasis on the Repeal campaign and abortion in Ireland. Added in with the conflicting feelings of loving and yet outgrowing your hometown, I couldn't put this book down and it is definitely her best work so far in my opinion.
Can't wait to pick up a physical copy!!

Set largely in 2010, Caroline O’Donoghue’s novel is a witty coming-of-age story about the eponymous Rachel and her gay friend, James, who share a dilapidated house together in Cork.

Rachel is her final year at university, working in a bookshop to pay her fees. After a rocky start, she and newbie bookseller James become inseparable. She’s the child of middle-class parents hit hard by the financial crash; he’s been brought up in poverty. When he spots her crush on her professor, James sets about helping her to act on it but things take a rather different and surprising turn from the one Rachel had hoped, putting their friendship under strain.

O’Donoghue tells her story from Rachel’s perspective, looking back on a very different Ireland from the one she visits in 2022, where women must travel to England for abortions, and same sex relationships are still largely under wraps. She’s an engaging narrator, funny and self-deprecating. O’Donoghue vividly evokes the hothouse atmosphere of intense friendship when two young people click and fall into a kind of platonic love. Sometimes those friendships burn brightly then fade but Rachel and James find a way through the extreme messiness of their year in Shandon Street. A thoroughly enjoyable piece of fiction that would make an excellent movie.

A moving read with great moments of humour and wit. The vividness and richness of Rachel and James’s friendship was brilliantly done, from the weird in-jokes and bizarre behaviour that is exclusively theirs, to the more emotionally challenging moments where they’ve argued but ultimately come back together.

I'm a big fan of Caroline O'Donoghue's writing so was excited to get an early copy of The Rachel Incident. Rachel is a young woman at university working part time in a book shop and meets her best friend, James there. Her connection with James is so intense that when she meets a romantic interest also called James she insists she has to call him by his surname. The timeline flips back and forth around a decade and its just so well written, completely gripping and I adored it.