3.5 stars. set in cork, ireland, a comedy of errors about a young woman trying to manage her friendships and her relationships, most notably her infatuation with her married professor, who has eyes for her roommate. the characters in this book were really easy to root for, and felt really well developed. also the ending! focussed mostly on rachel's relationships, less plot based.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the e-ARC! I enjoyed reading The Rachel Incident, and enjoyed Rachel and James and their friendship. The strength of the book is in the ways the connections between the characters are written, but so many of these descriptions are passed over or rushed through as the story goes on. Because we witness James’ and Dr. Byrne’s relationship from Rachel’s perspective, we don’t get much insight into that relationship, only how it affected their lives at the moment. I also found myself disappointed by the 2021-2022 plot line as a conceit for justifying the structure of the novel. I liked hanging out with the characters when they were present in a moment, but the distance of Rachel’s memories took away from some of that connection for me. A good read, but I was left wanting more.

Thank you to Net Galley for the opportunity to read this ARC. Thoroughly enjoyed! Recommend for anyone that wants a fast(ish) read on a weekend day.

Absolutely loved every page of this colorful - very human story of flawed characters. Delighted with the plot "twists" and the tropes - hidden secrets, the "laws" of attraction, unrequited love, the lies people tell - all in literary quality prose.

This was such a thinker, and that's why I loved it. What a hilarious, they emotional way to question my ethics and what I would do in a unique situation. It grabbed my attention much more than I had anticipated it would, and I quickly was hooked. The relationship between the queer characters in this book was so nuanced and believable for me. I really felt connected to Rachel too, and I felt her love for James through these pages. It was a gorgeous story about friendship, love, queerness, and the choices we make for those important to us.

Thanks so much to Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor for an eGalley of this one in exchange for my honest thoughts!

This one was very hyped and I was so excited to read it. Unfortunately, I found all the characters to be just too unlikable to truly enjoy. It was very well written, which is why I kept reading, but it just wasn’t the book for me.

I loved this book. Effortless writing, engaging story and not at all the lost Millennial story I was expecting. Really a delightful, thought-provoking read.

This is a great book for lovers of Sally Rooney's writing style, especially in Normal People. I loved the setting and getting an inside look into the flawed relationships in the book. It was slower paced but still held my attention.

An exciting and funny read. Unique characters and a story that weaves together love, friendship, lust and makes an entertaining read!

I had an odd experience with this book, because when I picked it up I was enthralled, obsessed. But then I'd forget to pick it up again. I'm not sure how it can be both so compelling and so easy to get out of your mind. The ARC published before I could finish, and I bought the hardback to read instead, which says something.

But it's the story of a pair of best friends in Cork, as they work through their twenties and finding themselves, along with their intimate but harmful connection to a professor and his wife. Rachel and James have one of those friendships everyone dreams about, where you just truly find your person and no one else matters at the end of the day. The balance and health of that relationship does increasingly come into question, but it is still a spectacular connection, and the warmest, most romantic bad living situation you can imagine.

But I couldn't stand Rachel. She was always just there, and so self absorbed. Even after she reckons with that, she's just boring. I hated the story being told from the many-years-after framing - it didn't add anything. It aimed to set the stage for how they grew up, but it ended up just being overly dramatic reflections into the actual story. I do think I liked the end.

And mostly, I loved James. I think you're supposed to love James. He is kind and charming and broken, and he is good. I want to protect him from anything and everything.

I mostly listened to this, but enjoyed it very much. I stayed an hour late at work just to finish it! Fans of Sally Rooney will enjoy this writer I think - though this story is a bit lighter than Rooney's typically are. I loved the Irish setting and slang, and loved the relatable nature of the characters.

for fans of lily king’s writers & lovers, sally rooney’s beautiful world where are you, or dolly alderton’s ghosts.
glittering novel by caroline o’donoghue about nostalgia and messy early adulthood and the magic of falling in love with people, especially your friends. i loved it.

📖ARC REVIEW📖

The Rachel Incident by Caroline O'Donoghue

Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf for the advanced reader copy.

This week’s headline? I miss the pre-2020s

Why this book? Sounded like something I’d like

Which book format? ARC

Primary reading environment? Train and bus

Any preconceived notions? Kind of a different spin on a teacher/student relationship

Identify most with? James

Three little words? “monkey’s paw wish”

Goes well with? Useless college degrees, small bookstores

Recommend this to? Book clubs

Other cultural accompaniments: https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2023/06/20/rachel-incident-caroline-odonoghue-review/

I leave you with this: “I am again in another impossible situation…”

Not sure how to review this… it’s sort of a coming of age novel, which is a genre I love. I didn’t love or hate this book, but I felt almost removed from it all. The writing itself was perfectly fine, but I wasn’t drawn in like I would be with other novels in this genre. That being said, I’m sure there are people who will love this book, I’m just not one of them. *shrugs*

The Rachel Incident is available now.

This is both a small story of one woman's decade--from seedy university digs and hangovers with her gay roommate through professional development to the birth of her first child--and the story of Ireland's financial and social turmoil of the early 21st century. It tackles abuse of power and academic privilege, the difficulties and exultations of coming out queer in a college town filled with football hooligans and conservative religious parents, couple dynamics viewed through the lenses of several different Rachels in the course of her evolution toward maturity. And especially it speaks of lies, their endurance and their evolution.

The book launch scene in chapter 7 is--apart from one notable backroom moment--both entertaining and cringingly familiar to authors and bookstore owners.

At one point Rachel talks about bands whose names she wouldn’t remember a decade later but that occupied "a magical sweet space between celebrity and accessibility.”

For me this book is a magical sweet space between Ireland as it is, Ireland of the bleak financial-crash years before the Celtic Tiger roared anew, and the Ireland that was and remains shaped indelibly by the starvation times under Queen Victoria.

Ireland has a long and complex memory, and that is infused in every page of this engaging tale of a young woman growing up, navigating her world not always wisely. Her happy ending isn't one I'd have envisioned, and yet it was perfect for her. I dare you not to tear up.

Interesting and funny! I loved the setting of Ireland and the drama that unfolded. It felt like it had a “Normal People”, “Derry Girl” sort of feel to it. It might be just because the characters were Irish😅

This book is perfect for fans of Sally Rooney. It’s very slice-of-life with realistic characters. There is a lot to digest but I loved it.

Rachel is a young Irish woman living during the recession in 2010. She lives with her gay friend, James but is crushing on her married professor. What happens after that becomes what is later referred to as the Rachel incident.

I liked these characters. Rachel has the typical dry Irish sense of humor that i found was akin to my own. She made me chuckle quite a bit. The book focuses on friendship and personal growth. There is good LGTBQ representation in this one and I enjoyed the overall story.

Pick this up for an Irish literary read that at times will make you laugh

I LOVE BOOKS ABOUT CHAOTIC FRIENDS IN THEIR TWENTIES. This was one of those novels that's not so plot-focused that we lose the nuances of the people we're reading about. I can see how some readers might have the "but nothing happened" frustration, but this was just a really great depiction of a specific time in our lives that we all experience. It has some heavier themes for sure, it's not a lightweight, but I thought it was really well-written and a great read. One gripe is that James was a bit of the stereotypical gay friend, but...sigh. It is what it is.

Looking back on life in her early 20s in Cork, Ireland, Rachel recounts her relationship with her bookstore coworker and best friend James, who insists, at first, that he isn’t gay. When Rachel develops a crush on her professor, Dr. Fred Byrne, James tries to facilitate their relationship. But things don’t go as planned, and when Fred’s wife Deenie gets involved, the lives of all four become messily intertwined. Rachel and James try to navigate their emerging adulthoods amidst an economic recession and political uncertainty in the early 2010s in Ireland in this insightful examination of friendship soulmates. Fans of Sally Rooney and Steven Rowley will enjoy this coming-of-age story, narrated by Rachel years after the fact, with generosity and compassion for her younger self.

An Irish "Will and Grace", O'Donoghue introduces us to our titular character, Rachel, as she looks back onto her early twenties where, like many twentysomethings, she had no clue what she was doing or what life had in store. Rachel, and her best, still-closeted/figuring it out, friend James, work in a local bookstore as the former is finishing up her English degree. When her English professor, Dr. Fred Byrne, happens upon their shop, Rachel finds herself compelled enough to devise a way to make Fred fall in love with her by hosting a book event; she didn't, however, intend for the seducing to be done by someone BUT herself. The situation quickly finds itself spiraling out of control with the introduction of Fred's wife and Rachel's short-lived employer, Deenie.

One of the novel's strengths lies in its exploration of the aftermath of the incident, especially in the way it affects the dynamics between these four characters. The unraveling of relationships and the revelation of hidden truths offer moments of tension and reflection that underscore the fragility of human connections. These glimpses into the characters' emotional turmoil provide some of the book's most engaging passages, and I can see how this novel is so frequently compared to both Normal People and Sally Rooney in general. However, while I was hoping to be engrossed in Rachel and James' friendship, which is ultimately the most important relationship in the novel, I found James to be too stereotypical and over-the-top. This clashed with my initial feelings towards James, which were that he would act as a grounding force for Rachel, who was clearly in need of one.

I desperately wanted to like this book, but ultimately I was not charmed by Rachel and her (many) incident(s).