What can I say except that I absolutely inhaled this book and read it in one sitting.

I loved it. This is a story about navigating life in your early 20s and trying to find yourself. It’s about friendship and relationships and it’s just so beautifully written.

I loved that the book is written memoir style - and has the overlay of hindsight. I know for sure I’ve looked back on friendships and love interests of my early 20s with the benefit of hindsight whilst also appreciating the impact they’ve had on my life - and it’s more me that this book really pulled me along with the life of Rachel.

The Rachel incident follows Rachel Murray who is reminiscing about love, falling out of love, taboo crushes, friendship, and the secrets she had to keep in her early 20s.

Rachel, working in a bookshop, met her best friend James Devlin. The two of them build an irreplaceable bond, however, when Rachel fancies her lecturer who is married, the friendship between Rachel and James is tested. Rachel is often insecure in any of the relationships she is in, and Caroline was able to to portray to raw and heart-breaking scenes vividly.

I thought this book managed to be funny, heart-breaking, intense and really did a beautiful piece on platonic friendships. I loved how it shown that despite not figuring it all out in your 20s, things can work out. Despite Rachel being infuriating at times, you could not help but to root for her.

This book also discusses quite triggering topics, such as, abortion and balance of power in relationships. Caroline dealt with these in a raw and meaningful way.

The Rachel Incident is such an engaging, funny, heart-breaking book that delves into when you find your platonic soulmate. Caroline O’Donoghue’s writing is 10/10.

Thank you Penguin Random House for my Netgalley copy of THE RACHEL INCIDENT by Caroline O’Donoghue, out 27/06/23.

I really enjoyed this book as a sharp reminder of the chaos of youth and realising you have to grow up.
Funny at times, and crusading about abortion rights at others, the author manages to perfuse the ups and downs of her character's lives with love in all its varied forms.
Thank you to netgalley and Little Brown books for an advance copy of this book.

I saw a blurb for this book by one of my favourite authors, Barbara Trapido, and I've very rarely ( if ever) seen books blurbed by her. That made it an auto-pick for me! Barbara Trapido guided me wisely. This book is a completely delightful account of navigating your early 20s-you're supposed to be an adult, and figure things out by yourself, but it’s not always that easy. The writer captures that feeling of bored loneliness very well-you’re not out having a great time, all the time, and it’s not like the movies at all. College isn’t a magical place where you meet people with exactly your interests and who are impressed by what you know. You may not even make that many friends, and living by yourself is more work than you think it is! You feel out of place, and it’s very easy to get swept off your feet by older people who are more confident about their knowledge and place in the world. Since the book’s written by someone looking back at their 20s, however, it’s not as self-serious as books written by 20 year olds are-O’Donoghue treats the protagonists’ problems with the seriousness, or the levity they deserve. THe economic context of the time the book’s set in isn’t glossed over either-2009, and the subprime crisis, and the constant worry that the protagonist, Rachel, feels about choosing to study English Literature at a time when the only news about employment is that there’s none to be found. I don’t want to mention any specifics of the story, because like the best of Trapido’s books, the plot moves in unexpected ways and is a joy to discover. Unlike Trapido’s rather strange, later books though, that are weirdly pro-life and usually end up with a millionaire rescuing the (not-millionaire) protagonist, this book engages with the issues around limiting access to abortion, in a non-didactic but very real way. The book’s also very funny-one of my favourite lines being the protagonist commenting on visiting hot springs in Iceland as a water park equivalent for people who read NYT on their phone. Hilarious and incisive.
I did have a couple of quibbles about the book though-apart from Rachel, her lecturer Fred Byrne and his wife Aideen, the other main characters weren’t very well-written-I’m still not sure why Rachel is so fond of her best friend and roommate James, for instance-his only character trait seems to be sarcasm. So when he later goes out of his way to help her, it’s not very convincing-I found myself wondering why these two were doing so much for each other-it’s not a well-written friendship ( unlike friendships in Trapido’s, or Elizabeth Jenkins’ or Elizabeth Jane Howard’s books, that feel real). Also, I cannot for the life of me understand why writers feel the need for their female protagonists to want sex lives that are borderline abusive-Sally Jenkins first, and this book as well; it’s just mentioned as a sort of throwaway line, and is that merely to differentiate the book from romance novels where female characters have consensual, non-abusive sex that they actually enjoy? It doesn’t make the book more literary! The middle section of the book could have done with more editing, there are several scenes that seem repetitive.
These complaints don’t take away from an excellent read, though, and Caroline O’Donoghue’s books are now going to be an auto-buy!

The author notes in the acknowledgements that she was taught to see the "cinematic value" in small moments, and I think that rings true throughout this story. Paragraphs of the writing are almost breathtakingly relatable, gut-wrenchingly painful, or occasionally funny. I'm far from Irish myself but the small vignettes of their characters, specifically around "contacts" and "people you know" were illuminating and delightful. I guffawed several times at Rachel's behaviour or quick quips, especially early on.

However, the plotline, while it had its peaks and valleys, seemed slightly piecemeal to me and had a tendency to plateau. Once you've experienced the shock of the book launch evening, the story drags until the next Great Event. I wasn't sure I followed the narrator's perspective, starting in London and winding back to eight years before in Cork. The time shifts felt a bit unnecessary to me, rather than a continuation of the flowline of the story as a whole.

This book was such a charming mixed bag for me. It was a beautiful, relatable story of platonic friendship. But it was also, at its core, a celebration of youth - the "wrong" guys becoming the "right" guys, making mistakes, choosing self-preservation over friendship even if it hurts. I'd recommend this wholeheartedly for a fresh perspective I hadn't necessarily expected to find.

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A coming of age story set in Cork in 2010. I found the story very relatable and told in a great way. The detail of the writing really makes you feel like you are living with the characters in Shannon Street. I really enjoyed the look back from todays date and thought the ending wrapped up everything well. A great picture of the impact of the economic crash on Ireland in 2010 also.


Thanks to @littlebrownbookgroup_uk @littlebrownuk for advance review copy via @netgellay

I absolutely loved this book! I couldn’t put it down.

The characters are well-drawn, the dialogue is realistic and zings off the page.

I loved how O’Donoghue captured the nuances of life - how one minute you can be at your lowest ebb but still find a way to make a joke.

One of my books of 2023!

The best book I’ve read this year!

The Rachel Incident is a story about growing up, friendship and love. I found it almost impossible to put the book down.

This book was an extremely funny andenjoyable read that I will 100% recommend!

I want to thank Netgalley, the author and Little Brown Book Group for sending me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I’d seen so many positive things about this one and I was so excited when I got approved to read it. The content didn’t turn out to be what I expected at all but I still loved it. I was captivated by the story and the pages just turned themselves.

A lot of the story focuses on the mistakes and messiness of the first years of adulthood. It felt very realistic and relatable, and is generally a theme that I tend to enjoy in novels. The POV is written from an older Rachel looking back on her younger self, which gives an interesting take on many of the goings on in the novel. I think this was a good device to look at some of her choices with a wider perspective as it allowed more room for reflection on her more questionable choices.

The main characters Rachel and James were both flawed but loveable. Their dynamic and friendship may have been my favourite aspect of the book. Rachel is so infatuated with James as a person and it comes across so well on the page.

The book deals with several themes that felt very accurate to the 2010s Irish setting. The difficult economic situation is referenced throughout and impacts the characters directly. There are other specific themes - but I won’t go into any further detail here because I don’t want to give any spoilers. I will say that they are handled very well by the author.

The story did feel a little rushed towards the end. I did very much enjoy how the ending worked out and how everything fit together. But I still think it was too obvious a change in pace to the rest of the book.

I think you should go into this one knowing as little as possible - so be wary of reading reviews with spoilers as there are lots on Goodreads. But this is another gritty novel that I absolutely recommend.

Siobhan enjoying a piece Irish contemporary fiction? Groundbreaking.

Protagonist Rachel is finding her way in the world having graduated university during the noughties recession, living with her closeted male best friend, leaving family, trying to find a job, a calling connection with real people love and all the things a young women should have, right?
All the usual tribulations, but set in Catholic, conservative Ireland; the stakes for coming out, or being sexually promiscuous were much higher in a nation with almost medieval mindsets.
Despite all those heavy issues, it's a really fun, compelling read with the added benefit of weight conferred by addressing those moral questions. It was quite funny in places too!

I First of all would like to thank NetGalley and little brown book group for giving me the opportunity to receive an arc of this title, I am extremely grateful.

wow, I feel like so much happened in this book. I loved seeing the ways in which the characters were linked in Rachel’s life; seeing the changes that occur throughout the book.

I personally felt it dealt with raw topics such as the recession and lgbtq+ particularly well. The characters were believable; I felt as if they could’ve been people I met whilst at university. The story flowed gorgeously; it was neither too fast nor too slow.

But mostly, I adored the ways Caroline was able to make some of the most beautiful lines I’ve read in a book. This particular quote has stayed stuck in my brain in the past few days since reading.

“.. but the flow, the sound, the echo was different. I felt like we were playing cover songs of our own conversations.”

Words cannot describe how much I adore this quote; it is just simply gorgeous. Caroline o’donoghue’s writing reminds me greatly of Sally Rooney’s ‘normal people’ yet is still incredibly unique.

I don’t want to give away anything about the plot line, I feel it’s best to go into this book completely blind and hopefully you’ll love the book just as much as I did.

I don’t often give five star ratings but to rate this any lower would be a crime in my opinion.

If you’ve been around here for any length of time, you’ll know I’m a HUGE fan of Caroline O’Donoghue. I’m very proud of my hardback copy of Promising Young Woman, and the Gifts series is one of my all-time favourites.

The Rachel Incident had me gripped from the beginning; we are immediately thrown into the details of our eponymous narrator and her somewhat chaotic life and there was something that felt distinctly voyeuristic about reading memories of her university years.

I think this is a novel that deserves to be read with limited knowledge of what’s to come, so I won’t give much away. I will say that I did not see a single one of the twists coming, and with every single one of them I wanted to give Rachel a hug and a big glass of water.

There were also moments that made me need to stop and pause for a moment; present-day Rachel’s reflections on her relationship with her mother, on being a young Irish woman in London; when a character reappears several years later as a reflection of the journey she has been on.

Particularly on the second front, there were little nuggets of prose here that stopped me in my tracks and just made me feel SEEN. Like, in my SOUL. I’ll be thinking about that feeling for a while.

This is one proof from 2023 that I’ll be picking up a copy of when it’s released on the 22nd June, and don’t be surprised if you see me picking up the international versions too - LOOK at those covers!

This was an interesting read and took some turns which I didn't totally expect. I enjoyed the protrayal of life in Cork and felt it was a very true representation of life in Ireland and the oftentimes parochial nature of it, ( I am N Irish!) Also interesting was the whole concept of career advancement in a recession witrh and without a degree. The friendship between James and Rachel was interesting, if somewhat complex and I loved how the title of the book was tied up only really at the very end. All in all a satisfying read and an absolute definite for fans of Sally Rooney. Thnaks to Netgalley for an advance copy in return for a honest review.

This is the first Caroline O'Donoghue novel that I have read so am not familiar with the author. I live in Ireland though and am familiar with the background and the impact of the recession in 2010 and the small town syndrome that exists in Ireland. Or more specifically with the Irish. Everyone knows someone from your town you are.

As Rachel encounters someone from her past life whilst watching The Toy Show in London. Years after the events someone in the pub recognises.

This prompts Rachel to recound the events of her final years in Cork. Eventually getting to the Rachel Incident of the title. For me I got the idea that this book was meant to be funny but I didn't find it so. Her best fried James is the comedic character and he is like a breath of freshair.

The plot does not go where I thought it would. I read the synopsis as a student has an affair with her college professor but this was misleading (or misread). A lot of the chapters are the same interactions back and forth and for me Rachel made one decision that I really disliked her for and I think this is why I am giving it three stars and not five.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an advance copy and I did enjoy most of it.

I received a copy of this from Netgalley in exchange for a fair and honest review. I am a big fan Caroline O’Donohue and The Rachel Incident is probably my favourite of her novels so far.

The Rachel Incident captures falling in love (platonically and romantically) and the time period in which it is set so perfectly - as someone the same age at the time the book is set, it filled me with nostalgia, but I suspect it would feel that way for any reader who can recall falling head over heels for a friend, their first love, and dreaming of a life and career that feels impossibly out of reach when you’re still in your (relatively) small hometown (particularly against the back drop of a recession - if it’s anything millennials know by now, it’s a global disaster).

The twists were well planned and unexpected, and while not the focus of the story, they added an additional layer of nuance to the narrative that I really enjoyed. I couldn’t put this down and would 10/10 recommend!

Thank you to Netgalley for allowing me to read this book in return for an honest review. What a story! I loved Rachel right from the start and then loved her relationships with James and Carey. I was so routing for a happy ending. The book deals with many serious topics, including abortion and sexuality but also has humour and a love story. A brilliant story that I didn’t want to end. Highly recommended. 5 stars from me.

This was unsurprisingly a great read.

Caroline O'Donoghue's themes in this one are very close to Sally Rooney's Conversations with Friends, and as much as it pains me to make a beeline for such a useless comparison I feel the need to point this out for anyone who is maybe searching for similar themes but hasn't found them executed well.

However, this is where most similarities end.
Where Rooney reads like poetry, O'Donoghue reads like rap.
I love poetry, I love hip-hop.
Whereas poetry makes me understand myself and the world better in an internal way that touches me right at the heart, rap makes me go wow and makes me gasp at its turns and makes my brain all bubbly, in a good way. That is what reading O'Donoghue feels always, especially with this one. I have been telling everyone about Scenes of a Graphic Nature and about Promising Young Women since first reading them, and I will do the same about The Rachel Incident.

I loved this trip down nostalgia lane. If you also graduated somewhere between 2000 and 2010, read this book! It will take you right back to those heady, turbulent and naive days.

I'm trying to piece together all the fragmented thoughts in my brain regarding this book, which was so much more than i expected. It absolutely captivated me from the moment I first started reading. I struggled to exercise discipline in going to bed at a decent hour as I could barely find it in me to put this down. There were a lot of late nights and sleepy mornings.

The story itself had so many layers, so much to unravel, and it felt like it was slowly coming undone a fraction at a time.
I initially thought this was gonna be something completely different, but was pleasantly surprised at what it revealed itself to be.

I feel like part of its charm(?) (Idk if that's the right word...) - selling point, is going into this somewhat blind. I personally made my own theories up initially about what was going to happen, so you can imagine my reaction as the story itself took hold.

So what to say about this book without giving too much away? Rachel is a student - young, careless, a little selfish, and crushing hard on her teacher. Her life changes drastically when she moves in with her book store colleague James, which then kicks off a very unbalanced friendship, one where she worships the very ground he walks on, and he enables her in her terrible decisions. James is quite the interesting character, soft but playful one minute and sulky the next. He's a character oozing with charm, the kind who knows how to sweet talk their way out of most situations.
I wouldnt say he's manipulative, despite being a bad influence in Rachel's semi chaotic life. I would say he stole her life a little from her, for reasons i won't go into due to spoilers. Personally he fascinated me, which may be a reason I can totally see why Rachel was so taken in by him. I also found Carey an interesting character. I think Rachel liked to surround herself with the kind of people who had stories to tell; people who were flawed but intriguing with the kind of layers you never really get to the bottom of.

It really did feel like you're living the story through the eyes of Rachel herself.
For me personally, it Invoked a mix of a lot of interesting feelings. It's the kind of book someone could read and think "this could be written about me"... Well, maybe not all of it, but.

I couldn't put the book down the majority of the time as it was so utterly compelling. I'm not irish and I've never been to Cork but I think it's definitely a situation most people will have lived through; the shabby student living, the struggle of being so utterly self absorbed, being in love one second and then wondering where it all went wrong the next.

I love how (the author) managed to paint such a vivid image of life in Cork in the noughties. I'm even more impressed with the fact that not once did I have the slightest idea of where this story would end up. Now i've reached the end I'm kind of sad to say goodbye to these characters, and to Shandon Street. I won't say too much but I'm also aware that seeing life from Rachel's pov means we never truly fully know what happens with some of the other characters.

For me this book is a solid 4.5/5. The end felt sliiightly rushed, not in a huge way, but I do feel like there was a lot packed into the end. Don't get me wrong, I was satisfied with the ending, but I think I just wanted more of the journey.
I would highly recommend this for those who love a good coming-of-age story with a good hard dash of friendship and romance.

I'll be thinking about this one for a while!

The Rachel Incident follows … drumroll … Rachel, a 21-year-old Irish student who falls for her English professor and sets out to seduce him with the help of her best friend and housemate, James. At first I thought it was going to be a classic case of “student falls for married professor” but I was oh-so-wrong. What ensues is an absolute clusterfuck, for lack of a better word, and the lives of all parties involved are irrevocably changed over the course of the next year.

What I love about Irish writers especially is how they (seemingly) effortlessly weave social commentary into their work - warning, possible spoilers here - the discussion of abortion rights in Ireland, class disparities, the complexity of friendships, sexuality and shame, the lasting consequences of recession and critique of the Brits, which is always a winner for me (a Brit).

I don’t think I’ve read anything quite like this, a coming-of-age novel in its own league. Highly recommend!