The Rachel Incident

My first thoughts were “oh? a faux Will & Grace?”

But this book is so much more than that.
It explores what it means to be a friend, to be a lover, and mostly importantly, what does it mean to be yourself?

I love this. It's funny, calming, and heartbreaking at the same time. Rachel's life was so close to home that I am so proud of her choices and decisions throughout this book.

Endearing, messy, thoughtful, clever and sincere. And best of all, Irish!!!! Bonus points for the audio book, the accent is pivotal. A perfectly tangled coming of age, with a satisfying and flawless ending.

What I liked: coming-of-age story about two people in their 20's, the relationship between these two best friends set in 1990's Cork, touches on male/female infidelity double standards, effects of abortion access

What I didn't like: too much on page infidelity (this is a me thing - I don't like reading stories about infidelity). I am glad I read this one though - sometimes it's good to push through things that make you feel uncomfortable.

The story felt messy and realistic and was told in a very sensitive way.

. I felt so much rage when the wife finds out about her husbands infidelity and the way everyone in the town treats Rachel yet he walks about his life as if nothing happened. I sobbed while listening to the part about her trying to access an abortion in a country that doesn't allow abortion - it was very triggering for me in the current US Political climate. I loved that Rachel and James stay friends through the distance and that Rachel ends up marrying the other James. And I loved that Rachel had a conversation with Fred's wife.

Told my friends the plot of this book over drinks as if it were my own gossip... Juicy!

Funny? What's funny about this?
Yes, it was readable, even somewhat enjoyable, though I didn't much enjoy it. I think it's rather depressing.

Had a love hate relationship with the characters but overall loved the book. It read like a memoir which I liked.

DELICIOUS. downright delicious! and while it still makes me wanna knock down the doors of Goodreads HQ and tell them to allow half-stars so I can give this a proper 4.5 star-rating, I actually do not mind bumping it up to a 5! like it was that good to me! so fun, so smart, so so charming. and tbh the -0.5 was solely due to the fact that it took a little bit of a moment to fit my American foot into this book's Irish shoe. and that is not to the book's detriment at all! this book was just so complex and well-rounded without ever being exhaustive. and I don't think I've ever read a book that utilized the element of pop culture so well and right, especially being a reader who grew up in the 2010s. caroline o'donoghue you did that shit. also we need to talk about that ending because....................wtf.

Oh boy I really liked this. I think the protagonist is almost exactly my age which made me a little nostalgic for college/graduating right into a recession but with an Irish twist and way more drama. Such a delightful distraction

It's a gorgeously written book that feels incredibly real despite being a work of fiction. I never understood the point of a coming-of-age novel, but the shifting perspectives over time and the empathy an older Rachel had towards her younger self felt transformative. My only gripe is the author doesn't make James remotely likeable. As the book is from Rachel's POV, the same Rachel who is obsessed with the dude, the fact that James does not come off in a flattering light is an interesting writing decision that makes absolutely no sense to me.

this is so me coded
(4.25 stars)

This was...... fine. Inoffensive, readable, but also quite boring. Definitely a book

Strong Sally Rooney vibes with a sprinkling of Lena Dunham's Girls. So, devastating and beautiful and pulling on the strings on the parts of ourselves we hate.

Ahhhhhh!!!!!! All I can say is I was incredibly enthralled by the characters, Rachel and Deenie in particular. Rachel is extremely flawed, but I found myself seriously relating to her. There are entire sections that I felt were plucked directly from my head. Codependency, for example, was shown so well through her internal thoughts and dialogue between her and james. It was all so incredibly honest.

Again, Rachel did some bad things and none of them are excusable and still, I wanted Rachel to win so badly. I wanted her to get what she wanted. I hated who she hated, loved who she loved, was obsessed with all the same things. I wanted her to seek out petty revenge from everyone who'd ever made her feel small even though it wouldn't be fair. I wanted the (mostly) good people in this story to be bad because that would've made loving Rachel so much easier. She was self aware in the most dangerous way, in that she can pinpoint her role in hurting others and feels hopeless about it. At the same time, you can't deny that she'd been used. And punished. It was pretty heart wrenching to read how she was treated at the graduation, all based on a lie to spare someone else. It just felt so horrible. I don't know how else to explain it.

Nearing the end, I realized that resolution is what I wanted for everyone. Despite the turmoil Deemie suffered, it was incredibly fulfilling to see how things changed with her. I don't know if I would've coped as healthily as her, so I respect her character so much. Ultimately, I think this book teaches you to cope with people's shitty behavior (even your own!) with empathy and context. Every bad decision we make is to protect ourselves or others. That doesn't make it any better. But it helps us understand why we keep messing up and hurting people. I think that's all we can do.

Apart from plot/characters, the pacing of this was what helped me get through this so quick. I would prepare for a long chapter, only for it to fly by without me noticing. Each chapter, no matter how long, transitioned so smoothly and was easy to breeze through. The last few chapters feel a bit rushed because it skips time so quickly. However, I think the quickness was necessary to get to the last chapter without giving unnecessary detail over a longer span of time.

The writing itself is the most impressive part to me. It was so witty and the ‘drama' was so fleshed out. I was invested in every single relationship, in every single slip-up or obstacle. It was also just so versatile. It was devastating and funny and complicated. I've read too many books that are so invested in plot, they forget to say something important in a hard-hitting way. Some people are great at making interesting/unique concepts for stories, some people truly understand the craft of writing. O'Donoghue is great at both and it feels effortless in my opinion.

The endings of chapters were also so so interesting to me. I think landing on ‘mundane' images or statements to move forward works really well in stories like this. A really intimate moment cannot end on something explosive or dramatic. It works so well when these moments end on the fineness of tea leaves, on the printed-off email tucked somewhere, on a kiss planted on a neck. Writing poetry is one of my favorite things ever and this is usually my go-to way to end poems. Devastate them with a lasting image that pulls in their senses, something that grounds them.

I love love loved this novel. It was just genuinely refreshing. I also just have this weird urge to cry silently whenever a main character seems to resolve their issues and get closure (maybe because I'm living vicariously through them?). So I did a little bit of crying with this one and that was so satisfying.

Happy publication day!

The Rachel Incident is a coming of age story of a Millennial girl in Cork, at the peak of the financial crises. It is also a love story, a journey of self discovery and acceptance and a tale of the lack of reproductive healthcare in Ireland.

I absolutely adored this book! It was so easy to relate with the characters that parts of the story just felt like a trip down memory lane. Being a Millennial myself, who was also trying to find her place in the world at the described timeline, probably enhanced my understanding of some of the struggles. However, Caroline O'Donoghue perfectly describes the insecurities, struggles, feelings, passions and the absolute mess of entering the adult age, which I believe are pretty much the same for all generations.

The writing is beautiful and I particularly liked the fact the story is told from the present time. This allow us not only to experience what the characters were feeling at the time, but also see it through adult eyes and understand the different perspectives.

This book is perfect for Sally Rooney fans, with the advantage of including likable and a lot less pretentious characters.

Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf for providing me an eARC of this book in exchange for my honest review!