The Rachel Incident is about the messiness of being in your early 20s. Rachel is living in Cork during the global financial crisis, studying for her English degree and living with her newfound best friend James. She is trying on different personas for size.

Having read all of O’Donoghue’s previous work, I note a stylistic change in this novel which seems more observant and measured. It is a joy to watch the author develop her craft. (Not to say previous books were crap, I very much enjoyed them!)

O’Donoghue nails this period of early adulthood, perfectly describing the embarrassing, cringey try-hardery, intensity of relationships. While O’Donoghue’s writing shows compassion for this version of Rachel, she does not shy away from the terrible.

Written with the warmth and humour of Marian Keyes, similarly skilful in handling difficult subjects with sensitivity and ease. Observant and a bit gross, along the lines of to Luster or Acts of Desperation.

Pick up this book up if: you’re looking for your new fave book for the summer!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

SCHEDULED 21ST JUNE 2023 ON THE BOOKLY SUBSTACK. Link will be added on publication date.

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“I was twenty and I needed two things: to be in love and to be taken seriously.”

Reading this book was an exorcism. It was like every bad and embarrassing thing I did in my twenties - in the pursuit of being loved and taken seriously - spontaneously left my body as I finished The Rachel Incident. Worth the cover price just for the surprise shame purge.

Because The Rachel Incident so deftly captures the experience of being young and messy in the 2010s: desperate to enter the ‘grown-up’ phase of your life, hindered not only by a raging economic recession but also by your own misunderstanding of what adulthood entails.

The Rachel Incident spans a year in the lives of best friends and housemates, Rachel and James. When Rachel falls in love with her university professor, Dr Byrne, James conspires to help her seduce him. But the plan doesn’t go as expected, instead pushing their friendship to its limits.

This is a difficult book to write about because its strength lies in its second act, which I can’t dive into without spoilering the book. What I will say is this: push through the slightly slow start and The Rachel Incident will reward you with immense depth. It’s a terribly sad book - so many people constrained by their circumstances and their own shame! - but strangely hopeful too. And the writing is pleasantly unfussy, something I always enjoy in O’Donoghue’s work.

It’s billed as ‘a love story […] but not the one you expect’. This is both incredibly apt and weirdly misleading. This book bursts at the seams with all kinds of love: romantic love, unrequited love, disappointed love. But it’s most of all about the love of friendship, particularly the deep and messy kind you experience when you’re young and just out of home, playing at adulthood for the first time. But the richness of the book comes not from the love stories, but from its portrayal of youth and its hardships.

All my life I’ve read books about young people in the 80s and 90s: the mess of their lives and loves in the midst of riots and recessions, sexual and identity politics. This was the first time I read a book about young people at the moment in time I was young, too. People with smartphones and a knowledge of who Paris Hilton is, for whom social media exists but does not dominate their lives (yet). I relished that. I think you will, too.

Thank you NetGalley and Little, Brown for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

Further reading:

Somehow I heard Caroline’s podcast, Sentimental Garbage, before I ever read one of her novels. It is outstanding, and I compel any fans of Bridget Jones’ Diary, Sex and the City, or Angus Thongs and Full Frontal Snogging to SPRINT to download it.

That said, her debut, Promising Young Women, is also excellent (nothing to do with the equally excellent but completely unrelated Carey Mulligan film). Embarrassed to say I’d not gotten around to Donoghue’s sophomore effort, Scenes of a Graphic Nature, or her YA series, and I’m now going to have to remedy that.

I really, really enjoyed this! It’s a wonderful coming of age novel but that doesn’t seem to do justice to how carefully executed and unique this title is.
This manages to be a really addictive, exciting read despite, or perhaps because of, the heavy themes that punctuate the narrative that never seem forced or pointless. A really beautiful love story.

I don’t think I’ve read a book that quite encapsulates the experience of growing up in your 20s so well! I loved Caroline’s AOHG series and podcast and hoped I would like this but didn’t know quite what to expect but it is now easily my favourite book of hers.

The humour, romance, relationships, ups and downs and friendships pulled me in to Rachel’s world and I immediately wanted to tell my friends about about this book - I know so many will relate to the wonderful friendships, complexities and situations raised here. Rachel was not always necessarily likeable throughout but that’s the point really; who in their 20s always was?! I was charmed, romanced and loved every page. The nostalgic pang for those not so distant days is very real and I am so very happy to have read this.

Thanks to the publisher, author and NetGalley for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. 5 huge stars!

The Rachel Incident is by far one of the best novels I've read this year. As a fan of memoirs, I loved how the narrative took us from the beginnings of Rachel's life as a student all the way to adulthood. The prose is such that it leaves you wanting to read on until it's over. I found myself crying with joy at some points and fuming at characters at others. The political aspects of the story are so delicately interlaced with the story but still make an impact. I will definitely be reading Caroline's other novels.

Rachel is in her last year of college in County Cork, Ireland, when she meets James Devlin and from there a wonderful, life-long friendship is born as the two become a team. Moving in together, partying together and getting involved in each other's romantic entanglements, you can't see Rachel without James. But things change when Dr Byrne, Rachel's professor, becomes involved in their lives.

We see this story from an older, pregnant Rachel who appears to be living a settled, happy life in London with a career in journalism - and she reflects back on a poignant moment in her life, that really changed the whole trajectory.

I just loved this story - and I didn't mind the few times we were brought to future Rachel as I actually loved seeing how well she was doing and I remained curious about what happened before London. Rachel's early twenties are messy and fun, and full of too much drink but a lot of laughter as well as big loves and even bigger heartbreak. I thought the story was told perfectly, and I also liked the way Caroline O'Donoghue handled some bigger topics in this book including abortion, miscarriage and the Repeal movement in Ireland.

I've been waiting to read 'the book' in 2023 that I know will stand head and shoulders above the others, and I think I've finally found it.

The Rachel Incident is a perfectly enjoyable coming of age story, one where you might think it’s going down the route of a young student conducting an affair with her older college professor, but it swerves just before it reaches that and becomes something different. Instead of being a participant in the affair, she is merely witness to all sides of it, as it turns out.

It seems like a disservice to call this book like Sally Rooney’s, although it’s probably the kind of book big fans of Sally Rooney will get along with, albeit with fewer political interludes. It’s a book with that kind of literary college new-adult-ish age cast. Plotwise, at times, it reminds me a lot of Conversations With Friends, although perhaps a little subverted, since the main character is about the only person not having an affair.

It’s a very character-driven book so it’s a good thing the characters are likeable or, if not entirely likeable, then sympathetic enough. Compelling, primarily. You want to keep reading about them, you want things to turn out okay. But also part of the compellingness comes from the fact that they’re kind of a mess, Rachel, James and later Carey. It’s never quite like rubbernecking but it’s near enough. You know the affair isn’t going to end well, but you can’t help watching.

Most of the book covers the years that Rachel is at university, working at a bookshop and sharing a house with James. This is when the bulk of the events take place, seen through present Rachel’s eyes as she reminisces, having heard that Dr. Byrne, the subject of this affair, is now in a coma. Towards the end, however, it speedruns us up to the present day and I think this is where the pacing kind of let the book down. Just a little. After spending 280 pages or so on late 00s/early 10s Rachel, suddenly we find ourselves with 8 years having passed in the blink of an eye, and then another eight to get us to the end (although this as a timeskip seemed to make more sense). There was a reason for that first stop at 8 years, but I do feel it might have been better integrated, pacing-wise.

Overall, though, this was a book I enjoyed reading. And that’s all I ask for when it comes down to it.

I enjoyed reading The Rachel Incident by Caroline O Donoghue, I thought it was an interesting premise to be set in an Irish setting.
It was an absolute treat to be able to read this book as someone who lived in Cork City (and was a student there) at the same time as the characters - being able to have the fuller understanding of where the characters are in the world was fantastic (and really rare for Cork).

I did find myself mentally shouting at the protagonist for her actions in part - which as someone older and wiser I’m able to see as the mistakes they are but these things are also relatable somewhat to the early 20s experience. She’s not always a likeable character, and I left the book a bit unsure of her really.

a solid, often enjoyable novel that sometimes struggles to sustain itself and slips away from it's most interesting parts. great at subverting the young girl/older married professor thing, but ultimately fails to give anyone that isn't rachel a sense of real depth. still! solid! good!

I could not have loved this book more. Caustically funny, yet poignant and tender, this novel explores huge themes through compulsively readable prose and the portrayal of characters who feel so real and fragile it almost hurts to remember that they are fictional. The author has achieved a huge feat of storytelling with this novel and deserves all the praise and success that is sure to come her way upon publications. I haven't experienced this for a long time - and I would never say this lightly - but, hand on heart, I feel genuinely bereft that I have finished reading this book and I wish it could have carried on forever!

I really enjoyed this novel - it's an easy read but the characters are well-rounded and instantly compelling. I liked the framing device of Rachel looking back on the 'incident' (it's more on an ongoing situation that a one-off event) from the perspective of her much more settled adult life and I really enjoyed the tone - there's some moral ambiguity here than is dealt with deftly and a lot of sympathy for characters at opposing sides of the situation.

I hadn't read any of O'Donghue's writing before but am familiar with her podcast (the inclusion of a recurring line from it in the early pages of the novel caused me to bodily cringe but it didn't recur and others will probably enjoy the in-joke) and the tone of voice is as breezy and engaging as I had expected. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC, recommended.

ive read a couple of caroline o'donoghue's previous books and really enjoyed them all. this is about a uni student rachel who moves in with her coworker and best friend james and the various evolving and fluctuating relationships with two men in their lives, namely a professor. it was funny and relatable and heartwarming and i really felt like i was in their little house in cork with them i really liked the ending. 4.5 stars

Very much enjoyed this! I’ve listened to the authors podcast but haven’t read any of her books so wasn’t sure what to expect.

As an Irish woman living in London, I loved the undercurrent of Irish-isms which are apt and relatable.

I enjoyed the plot and the story of Rachel and her best friend James and how their life intertwines with Rachel’s professor and his world. Without giving away too much of the plot, it’s a tale about young adulthood, friendship and finding yourself. It was an easy but well written read.

Excited to read more from this author!

This is an absolute emotional rollercoaster of a novel that will lift you up, spin you up down and around and ultimately restore your faith in love.

It follows the story of best friends Rachel and James in 2009 and her crush on her university professor, Dr Byrne. The novel covers some tricky topics- (coming out and abortion) but they are honest and real in the characters' lives and your heart will break just a little bit as they go through some tough times.
Eventually we catch up with the characters in the present day and it's wonderfully poignant how things work out, but never sickly or over-sentimental.
Finishing the novel feels like your best friend moving away- it's going to leave a big hole, you feel a little bit lost and you're really going to miss them, warts and all. This is a book that will.get to you right in your heart- it's a must read.

Set in the late 00s, with a little bit of looking back from the present day, O’Donoghue’s latest novel is a brilliant look at friendship. A lot of the problems Rachel and James go through resonated since I was roughly the same age and at university at the same time, although Rachel and the other James’s love story was what I was really there for.

I’ve seen both rave and not so rave reviews for this one and it’s safe to say I would be in the latter category in terms of how I felt about The Rachel Incident. I found that I didn’t like Rachel at all, which in turn made it super difficult to enjoy the book on the whole. I found the timeline jumping to be a bit confusing, and I couldn’t get into the story at all as a result. Sadly, this just wasn’t for me.

I thoroughly enjoyed this story of best friends, Rachel and James, and the exploration of their messy and chaotic, yet relatable, lives in Cork in their early twenties (and beyond). I’m not usually the biggest fan of “coming of age” books, but this one is really well-written and explores some really difficult themes with sensitivity and skill.

A wonderful book that I just cannot explain how much I enjoyed. A must read for everyone and anyone. That you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of the book in exchange for a review.

the title and cover page really encouraged me to read this book - they both look FANTASTIC! this book is so comparable to the works of sally rooney, coco mellors and dolly alderton and is so brutally honest. i don’t tend to read many coming of age stories so i launched myself out of my comfort zone with this one and it did not disappoint. there are a lot of heavy issues within this book which pulls you to want to find out more about what happens.

this book was written from rachel in the future remembering her life in the irish recession. through this narration, i found it a lot easier to connect to this story and the events and allowed me to feel as though i was really there with rachel. i’m currently in my 20s now so i can definitely see a lot of truth in what rachel was saying because i too am struggling with my english major and my career following completing my degree.

this book was really fleshed out and was so well thought out! you can tell that donoghue put her heart and soul into this novel! i will be getting a physical copy when a paperback copy releases!

The Rachel Incident by Caroline O'Donoghue

We meet Rachel in the present day and after hearing that her old professor, Dr Byrne, is in a coma she looks back at her university years in Cork, Ireland, around 2009/2010, recounting her exploits with friend James and on-off boyfriend Carey.

Wow, what a book and what an ending! Loved this so much - Rachel is a very flawed character but I found myself rooting for her nonetheless. I especially loved the author's sense of humour and smirked a lot at the snark! And what an excellent portrayal of some very difficult subjects - no spoilers. Very VERY highly recommended.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book.