I found The Rachel Incident to be interesting, engaging, and highly readable. I think it would make an awesome audiobook, as well. I finished college around the same time as Rachel with a degree that wasn't very marketable during the 2008 crash. I haven't read clever, heartwarming, and realistic books that focused on what it was like being a college student, on the cusp of graduation, knowing there were minimal job prospects. I love Rachel's relatability. She is smart, funny, kind of a mess, but working towards some sort of future. The topic of sexuality is also accurate. James coming out, but not really coming out, was pretty spot on for the time period. I enjoyed how each character was a little lost. No one was cookie cutter and that reflected the struggles of the '08 crash much more accurately than the cookie cutter ideals of a degree in finance, internship, and six figure job immediately out of college. I loved this book and will recommend to all. 4.5/5

The Rachel Incident, by Caroline O'Donoghue, was basically a one-sitting read for me. The plot's twisty and emotional, full of realistic early-twenties intensity, with a much-older professor, who's really chasing that early-twenties vibe.

For me, characters are the driving force of most fiction. When I enjoy a novel, I'm invested in their choices and in what happens next. I don't need to like all the characters, though, and The Rachel Incident is full of characters veering into unlikeable territory, all these people doing unpleasant or unlikable things for terribly realistic reasons. I loved the intensity, even as part of my brain screamed geez, no, what are you doing? How could this possibly end up well? at Rachel, at James and, actually, all of the characters.

Rachel and her bookstore coworker James fall into an intense college-age friendship, almost immediately becoming roommates and besties, spending every minute together.  Rachel has a crush on her married professor, and sets up a reading at the bookstore for his obscure new book. No, actually, I didn't buy that she wanted to have sex with him, more that she wanted to be him -- literary, successful, adored. Their romance doesn't take off, but the night of the reading takes an unexpected turn for Rachel, setting the rest of the story in motion and leading to a series of secrets, compromises, and revelations over years in her life.  It's wild, but the intensity is also realistic, in the way that attending or skipping one party in our twenties can change a life's course for years to come.

The Rachel Incident is mostly character-driven, with complicated, believable relationships, but it also contains clever, realistic observations on class and on literary culture.  There is an entire load of angst, secrets, and manipulation to get there, but at one point Rachel has a lit internship and she wants both to get the creative success she sees around her, and also, if she's so on track for that, to finally earn some freaking money.

Look, the angst and the drama is all real, and I loved it, but there's a scene at the end in which Rachel describes her writing career as an underpaid good time, where occasionally a company will send her a promo scarf. I have never heard low-level creative life summed up so well. Writing, in fiction, is almost always about a character telling their deepest darkest truths and turning that into money and acclaim. Or it goes the absolute other way, and the artist refuses all money to stay true to their artistic vision. It was amazing to read about a character who was using her lit background, thinking about books and pop culture, enjoying the fringe benefits, and getting small checks from it.

It was also a solid resolution to the story, bringing out characters through to a stage of low drama and low(er) intensity, long after the Rachel incident.

I just reviewed The Rachel Incident by Caroline O'Donoghue. #TheRachelIncident #NetGalley

Thanks to NetGalley and Knopf for my ARC in exchange for my honest review. This book will be published June 27, 2023.

21 year old Rachel has a crush on her professor and her platonic male roommate. She’s set to graduate this year and is looking for a job in publishing.

There are many relationships in this novel and lines get VERY blurred. No spoilers here but something unexpected happens in the middle and Rachel has to choose the money she desperately needs or to protect a secret.

There are some really REALLY funny parts, like the iPod getting stuck on a Paul Simon song and a funny game the roommates play.

Very clever story-telling. I really enjoyed the way the story unfolded.

This book seemed to go nowhere and I just couldn't connect with the characters.

Rachel and Jim, the two main protagonists are best friends, both in their 20's. They struggle to make a living in Cork, Ireland but a recession is taking place and they are earning next to minimum wage.

Jim is gay and is only partly out. He tries to fix Rachel up with her English professor but he ends up seducing him instead.

The writing is okay but not spectacular. The first half of the book meanders on as Jim and Rachel go to clubs, have sex, and dream of moving to London.

I wish I had liked this book more as I was drawn to the description. I felt, however, that I was just along for the ride without the novel grabbing me.

Wow I loved this book. This is the story of Rachel and the people close to her, all stemming from a formative period in her life. Every character is flawed yet wonderful and fascinating. The situations are often infuriating and intriguing at the same time. I longed to keep reading at all times. It was full of profound sentiments and funny anecdotes. It was witty and emotional. It is a story about a coming of age, a vital friendship, a life-altering romance, a pursuit for a career and the situations that threaten all of it. Want to start reading it all over again from the start.

My favorite quote:
“And so now, everyone I love is called James.”

"... and I believed this to be appropriate punishment for the way I acted as a twenty-one year old girl..."

Oh the number of times I have thought this about various decisions I made at various times in my life. The Rachel Incident is truly relatable and filled with laughs, sadness, grief, frustration... and fewer mugs than it began with. I would have been friends with someone like Rachel, heck I could have been Rachel myself. Do yourself a favor and take some time to read about Rachel and her James' both as a 21 year old college student and as a 30-something mother. They are both her, she is so many of us.

#netgalley #arc #therachelincident

The Rachel Incident follows best friends Rachel and James, who careen into each other's lives and stay there throughout all kinds of trials and tribulations. This book captures the feeling of being in your early twenties well, but doesn't shy away from the selfishness, messiness, miscommunications and general angst that comes with it. I cringed as I read, and I don't necessarily mean that as a bad thing.

However, I overall didn't care for this book. I found the relationship between James and Rachel to be toxic and had a hard time rooting for either of them. It was also more character-driven than I anticipated, and I found it to be a little slow. It's hard to get through a character study when you don't particularly care for the characters. From reading the reviews I'm clearly in the minority, and I think many people will find a lot to love in this book. Readers still fumbling their way through their twenties, as well as older readers who like to fondly look back to that time and think "thank god that's over" will probably enjoy the ride.

Such a great and fun book - perfect for a weekend read. I loved how Rachel and James build their relationship -- from coworkers to roommates. It was funny, easy to read, and I'll definitely be recommending to friends and family!

A true coming of age story that transported me back in time to living in the early 2010's and all of the uncertainty that came with it. Being relatively similar in age to Rachel, I also was able to identify with a lot of her struggles of that time in your life - work, friendship, and love (although I was a little more straight laced than she was!) - regardless of your experience, you can easily put yourself in her shoes and experience her version of that time like you were living it firsthand. While it was a quick and easy read, it did not come without some uncomfortable scenes and you wishing the characters made different choices, but those feelings made me realize how involved I was in the story. Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf for the ARC for my honest review of the book!

Thank you NetGalley…a million times for giving me the pleasure of reading and reviewing The Rachel Incident.
This character, Rachel Murray, to me, is this generations Bridget Jones, in that she is smart, funny, self deprecating and ripe for love. From page one, I knew I was in it for the long haul. Rachel’s story was so engrossing. I was rooting for her through all her wins and losses.
Rachel meets her best friend James while working together in a book store, putting herself through university. The chemistry between her and James is immediate and captivating to the reader. Throughout the ten years in which this book takes place, they support each other through true loves and family life.
All the characters have heart and are all amiable in their own way.
Once I finished this lovely book late into last night, I immediately went online and checked for other books by Caroline O’Donoghue, which I will be buying pronto!

The Rachel Incident was an interesting story of young group of Irish people and their families growing up, discovering themselves and the world around them, working long hour, for small wages. The young adults realizing that their choices have real life consequences and repercussions.
This was not a book that I would buy for someone else, or even wish to read again.
There was too much moaning and groaning about their lives.

What a book. It was such a beautifully written book about the trials and tribulations of millennials in the mid 00s.

When Rachel falls in lust with her college professor everything goes awry and not in the ways you'd expect.

I genuinely felt like I was walking the streets of Cork with Rachel and James & they will be a hard duo to forget. A story line that runs parallel to the Celtic Tiger boom & bust and two very important referendum in Ireland, it's a tale of love, lust & growing up that will grab every millennial and pull them into it.

I finished this book two weeks ago and I'm still thinking of it & very much have a book hangover.

Rachel is a relatively uninteresting 21-year-old Irish college student who basks in the glow of her best friend, James, and continuously makes poor decisions about the direction of her life and relationships. This is exactly why I adore her.

The Rachel Incident begins in the present day and rewinds to her fateful meeting of James, following through that storyline until it catches back up to, and moves past, where we started. Frankly, this story is much more about James than it is about Rachel. Two idiotic, desperate, and directionless, young adults entangle themselves in throes of lust and passion all while unsuccessfully avoiding personal development and their creeping futures. It’s funny, honest, and a frustratingly accurate representation of addictive qualities found in obsessive friendships and encounters in your early twenties. I had some gripes about the story of a gay man’s experiences being told through the eyes of a cishet woman, but it grew on me. I read O’Donoghue’s work in a record time of six hours and have only docked it a star for my struggle to invest in the story at first, as well as the occasional rambling monologues the protagonist would go on. I don’t think this is something I would re-read but I’m glad to have read it. Despite these things, it was captivating when it got there and read like a drama I would’ve frantically tweeted about if showing on Fox in 2015.

This was just gorgeous, a quirky honest story about friendship, love, the decisions we make, the life choices in front of us. I adore Caroline O'Donoghue's writing, I feel seen by her writing, and I love how she explores the beauty in the messiness of life. This was a wonderful read!

This book was all over the place for me. Most of the characters were very unlikeable, especially the narrator, Rachel. I did feel bad for her at times, but mostly didn’t care much for her or the men in her life. The story felt mostly put together well but I also felt like something was missing, I’m not sure what. Overall I enjoyed it though.

Did I desperately want to read this book based on the title alone? The answer is yes!! Therefore, my rating may or may not be a little bias. 😏

The Rachel Incident, is a wonderful story about friendship, love, and everything that falls in between of growing up. It’s books like this that remind me what it was like to be in my twenties again, and learning the way of the world.

This story starts off with Rachel Murray working in a bookstore while attending university. At this bookstore, Rachel meets her new coworker, James Devlin. Rachel and James become best friends and even move into an apartment together. Most people assume that James is gay, but he has never said one way or the other. It makes no difference to Rachel either way.

While attending her classes at university, Rachel develops a crush on her English professor, Dr. Byrne. During this time, Rachel finds out that Dr. Byrne has written a book. Rachel then sets up a book signing and lecture by Dr. Byrne at the bookstore that she works at. James helps Rachel set up the book signing, and we even meet Dr. Byrne’s very nice wife, Deenie Harrington. It is after this book signing that things start to become very complicated for Rachel.

In the midst of the complications, Rachel falls head over heels for a different James. James Carey. We have the ups and downs of that relationship, plus the friendship with James Devlin.

While reading this, I had to keep checking if this was fiction or nonfiction because everything read so personal. I felt that I was actually living in Rachel’s world, experiencing every growth and trauma that was thrown at her. This book definitely took me back to my early 20’s, and I just wish I had a bestie like James.

I highly recommend reading this book (and no, it’s not just because of the awesome title 😉). I guarantee these characters will stick with you and have you thinking of each and every one of them long after you turn the last page.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, & Anchor, and the author for an ARC of this wonderful book. All opinions are my own. Publication date: June 27, 2023.

The Rachel Incident is a brilliant, funny, beautifully told story of what it means to be young and in love. And not just romantic love, but a platonic love between two friends that transcends all else. I laughed, I cried, I internally screamed, but most importantly, I didn't want it to end.

This novel will delight Sally Rooney fans. Beautifully written shot through with humor and pathos. It follows Rachel and her friend James and her married professor.during a year dealing with both a global pandemic and a recession. I loved the changing relationships and friendship dynamics. If you like books centering on young people just entering real adulthood and trying to figure out what that means, you will find much to love here. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for making this available to read early.

Thank you to Netgalley for the arc in exchange of an honest review.

What a funny and thoughtful novel! With an interesting cast of characters all with their own dynamics and backstories. What I really enjoyed about this story was the real portrayal of an emerging adult and their journey navigating friendships and relationships. It was real, and messy, while still managing to be funny and light enough not to feel emotionally draining. The author did a great job in balancing this dynamic and the book never felt too rushed or too slow. I really love a coming of age story and this was exactly what I love about them.

I received an advance copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley.

This book brought a sense of catharsis I did not know I needed. This story centers around the protagonist, Rachel, an aspiring author who is transitioning out of her university years and into the “real world” in the middle of the Great Recession. Rachel and her friends navigate many challenges beyond finding jobs during the recession, including exploring their sexualities, accessing women's healthcare, and adjusting to shifting friendship dynamics.

As a young woman whose entrance into the “real world” (un)conveniently coincided with the onset of a global pandemic, The Rachel Incident resonated with me in a way that few books ever have. Caroline O’Donoghue perfectly captured what it feels like to try to figure yourself out and build a life as a woman in your 20s while navigating insurmountable barriers that nobody could have prepared you for. Sadly, many of these barriers still exist and will continue beyond the 2008 recession or the COVID-19 pandemic.

Put simply, I adored this book. Rachel’s story made me feel seen and gave me hope for the rest of my 20s.