
Member Reviews

I had a tough time getting into this one but after the first two chapters, it became a can't-put-it-down kind of book. The Rachel Incident tells the story of Rachel and her best friend James - how they met and their friendship through the years. Likeable characters and an interesting story kept me reading far too late into the night to find out what would happen to these young people as they plodded through their lives in Cork, Ireland. No spoilers - but I will say that this book has the happy, satisfying ending that I love so much. Caroline O'Donoghue's easy-to-read writing style is one I enjoyed and I look forward to reading more by this author.
Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

I simply don't have enough good things to say about this. Contemporary fiction at its absolute best with phrasing that I remember long after reading it. Will be recommending this to anyone I can and screaming about it from the rooftops, if I'm honest!

WOW. I wasn't sure what to expect from this book, as I have a few of this author's YA fiction already sitting on my shelf. Her transition to adult fiction was absolutely seamless—Rachel was such a messy and vibrant protagonist, and the small cast that rotated around her were each a perfect fit to give life to her story. I lived in turns for Rachel's pettiness and heart, and I liked that we got to see snippets of her 'present day' throughout the story; it gave a sense of resolution without feeling trite.
I took my sweet time reading, but I've already recommended The Rachel Incident to a handful of close friends. I think this title would be an excellent fit for fans of Kyle Lucia Wu (Win Me Something) or Katie Kitamura (Intimacies). I absolutely cannot wait for pub day!

I got an email about this book and the description sounded like something I might like so on a whim I requested it. I was pleasantly surprised. Very good read. I enjoyed it and will continue to read what this author puts out.

I really wanted to love The Rachel Incident but I only ended up liking it. I felt like some of the ideas never came around full circle and that I wasn’t 100% sold on the relationship between the main character and James from the beginning. I did like some of the humour that was woven through. Thank you for the arc!

At this point, Caroline O'Donoghue has me in a chokehold and can write whatever she wants, and I'll likely love it. I adored her YA series "The Gifts" with her plucky protagonist, Maeve, and was eager to enjoy one of her adult offerings. "The Rachel Incident" follows the titular young woman, who is broke and creative and aimless and self-involved, as many people in their early 20s are, and her friendship with James, a closeted bookseller. Specifically, it's about loyalty - about cheating, about love affairs, about keeping quiet for a friend, about friendships with older people, and about staying or going when the world is trying to tear you apart, It is also about abortion, and a woman's right to choose. These heady topics are balanced easily in the air; the first few chapters I wondered how on earth this book would be more substantial than a well-made souffle, so frothy and silly were Rachel and James. And they weren't terribly likeable, either - their actions were obviously setting them up to hurt people. But I needn't have worried - O'Donoghue pulled off a brilliant coming-of-age novel that balances silly with splendid, This novel is particularly meaningful to me now that the United States has taken a hammer to reproductive rights. Irish women's fight for abortion is more timely than ever. Despite the darker subject matter, "The Rachel Incident" is warm, loving, wry, and forgiving - a complex, thoughtful story.

The description of this book begins like this:
A brilliantly funny novel about friends, lovers, Ireland in chaos, and a young woman desperately trying to manage all three
Was this the same book that I read? What was brilliantly funny about this? I didn't think there was humor in it at all, save for the jokes made between Rachel and James. And I don't think Rachel was desperately trying to manage anything. Instead she just put her head under the covers whenever things were difficult. She was not a very likable character. I found her to be whiny and selfish for the most part. Carey was a jerk at the beginning but then you find the problem is really Rachel. James was the most likable character and he made some very questionable decisions as well.
I thought this was very slow and drawn out until we actually get to THE INCIDENT that is about 3/4 through the book. That is when I started enjoying it a little but it was too late.
Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

I wasn't sure what to expect when I got this book and started to read it but it pleasantly surprised me in a good way! I overall really enjoyed this book. I'm so glad that I got the chance to read it early and will definitely be recommending it to multiple people who enjoy these types of novels. I enjoyed the characters and especially enjoyed the writing by this author. I'm excited to see what the author comes out with next as I'll definitely be reading it! Thank you to the publisher for my early copy of this book!

This book felt like a lot of build up with disappointing, half-baked payoff. I often found myself asking, “so what?” As I read the book. What does it matter that this happened? What is the implication of this? I didn’t feel as though I got an answer by the end of the book.
The book begins from the perspective of present-day, adult Rachel hearing that a professor whose life was deeply and inappropriately intertwined with her own as a young woman is in a coma. The novel then explores Rachel’s years in her early 20’s living in the suffocatingly small-town Cork, Ireland. Importantly, the examination of these years occurs through the perspective of an older, adult Rachel, who reflects on this time as the woman she is now.
First, we learn how Rachel and James, her formerly closeted male best friend (who later comes out as gay), first met while working at the same bookstore. A lot of emphasis is placed on their class differences when they first meet – James is working class and Rachel is middle class, something he seems to tease her about a lot. When i mentioned a disappointing, half-baked payoff, this is one of those things I’m talking about. Throughout the novel we see Rachel struggle with money in different ways, but never in such a way to make this class difference between James and Rachel salient or important. Sure, they both struggle financially, but they always seem to find themselves back on their feet. It seems the author wanted to make some sort of class analysis in this book through the differentiation of Rachel and James, but it fell flat. It was lazily sprinkled throughout the book, e.g., James reminding Rachel that he was disadvantaged because he was working class. There was never any moment when this class difference was entirely pertinent or salient to the story, it just existed.
Next, a lot of Rachel’s reflections on her early 20’s is told through the perspective of herself as an adult woman. This perspective is supposed to give readers insight into how Rachel’s ideas on feminism, sexual orientation, and other things, weren’t fully formed as a young adult. However, the contrast between older, adult Rachel and young Rachel wasn’t sharp enough for this point to stick. It didn’t seem that adult Rachel’s opinions or perspectives on these ideas were necessarily any more sophisticated than they were when she was in her early 20’s. For example, there’s a lot of talk of how younger Rachel had elementary ideas on feminism despite being a self-proclaimed feminist, and yet, reflecting on an encounter she’d had with a man after the club, she states that she did really want to have sex with this man and essentially led him on all night, but when it came time to actually have sex, she had to pretend she didn’t want to even though she really did. This strikes me as odd and potentially problematic, as very few women pretend to not want to have sex although they do. In fact, I think the opposite is true; most women realize they do not want to have sex but end up doing so because they feel they must. This is just one example of a half-baked idea that isn’t developed or fleshed out enough.
Additionally, I had some gripes with the confusing time jumps; we’ll find ourselves in young Rachel’s perspective, then suddenly in older, adult Rachel’s perspective without a smooth transition. More significantly, the contrast between older Rachel and younger Rachel didn’t really offer much by way of advancing the plot or offering insight into how Rachel has grown from those years.
There were some really great things about the book. I genuinely gasped when I learned Rachel was pregnant. Rachel and James’ dynamic – often teetering on extremes – was a fantastic representation of what most friendships in your early 20’s feel like. The examination of the inaccessibility of reproductive healthcare in early 2000’s Ireland was great. But, they just weren’t fully fleshed out enough.
In sum, there were just too many insignificant details that just didn’t come to fruition. An example is Rachel’s height. We are reminded again and again of just how tall she is, but this detail doesn’t really tell us anything about Rachel as a character and doesn’t really advance the plot in any meaningful way. The ending felt rushed and too perfect. I wish the author had let some of the more interesting plot points simmer a little more, and really let the readers sit with them.

This book is really special, the voice of the main character is unique because she maintains an adult’s objectivity while talking about her life from 19-21. The characters really jump off the page, I hadn’t done much research before reading this book but it seems obvious to me that the author either went through this or knows someone who did. The plot can seem a bit meandering at times but provides context as the story progresses. Overall I just really enjoyed this read, once I sat down and committed to reading it, I finished it the same day.

The Rachel Incident is an excellent book. I reads to me as more accessible Sally Rooney and not just because they’re both Irish writers. (And that isn’t meant as an insult to Rooney’s work.)
This is a coming of age story told with the benefit of hindsight. Rachel, now 31, recounts her friendship with James who she meets while working in a bookshop the last year of university in Cork. The year is 2009 and that setting allows the opportunity to dive into big ideas. Rachel and James quickly become best friends, but James’s affair with her male professor makes life extremely complicated as the book goes on. And Rachel’s intense friendship and loyalty to James hinders her own romantic relationship.
As a young person navigating the world, Rachel doesn’t always make the best choices, but you still emphasize with her and root for both her and James.
The writing is exceptional with vivid phrases like, “if I didn’t have carbs three times a day I couldn’t finish a sentence” and “my attraction to him came on like food positioning.”
This is a very lovely book and I highly recommend.

The reader will not be able to put this book down! The Rachel Incident is a engaging story of a young woman in Ireland, finding her way with work, romance, and personal growth. Very relatable, smart, and rich characters!

This relatable novel follows Rachel through her feckless twenties as she tries on her adulthood and learns some important lessons along the way. It is also about friendship and finding the people that will keep loving you even when you are awful. The authenticity of this read will resonate with many and it was truly an enjoyable read. Thank you NetGalley and publishers for providing a digital ARC for review.

The Rachel Incident. I finished it this morning at 3am.
O'Donoghue portrays the struggles of life brilliantly. She writes of the harder things in life like abortion, coming out as LGABTQ, the struggles of not finding work after college, friendships over time and the cost of life. The story and characters were well written and composed.
In my opinion, it was slow to start, but the middle and ending picked up significantly for me. I can understand Rachels struggles and can related to her on a personal level.
I would recommend this to anyone and will be adding it to my shelves when it comes out on publication date.
Thank you to Netgalley, the author and the publishing company for allowing me this ARC in return for an honest review.

I remember the uncertainty, codependency, and insecurity of my early 20s and goodness gracious you’re transported right back to that season of life in this book.
These are the exact kind of characters that I like: flawed and kind of unlikeable, but redeemable. I spent the entire novel hoping for growth and their success.
If you’re a fan of sally Rooney books, you will be a fan of this book.
3.5 stars rounded up to 4.
Thanks to NetGalley and Knopf for this ARC.

I love this book. There is a pervasive sense of codependence throughout that can feel claustrophobic at times, and at other times it feels like remembering your early twenties. There is a sense of otherworldliness to this story because at its heart it is an Irish story, but O'Donoghue does a beautiful job at making that world accessible to all readers.
From the title, you think you know what the story is going to be about, or at least I made a grand assumption. But as the story unfolds, there are several bumps in that road and the story becomes something else entirely. It becomes heavier, in my opinion, than if it had been simply what I had first assumed.
O'Donoghue has crafted characters that are extremely relatable in their youth, in their dreams and desires. Most importantly, they're relatable in their stagnation. I can remember being at the end of my college years and not knowing where I was going next. I can remember living with friends (albeit still in college) and simply being the worst version of myself. I can remember the economy and the job market at the time that this book takes place as if it was happening still. O'Donoghue creates an atmosphere that is suffocating due to wanting desperately to take that next step but being unable to, whether because of finances, or jobs, or geographical location.
Each of the relationships in this book are important. They're all different, but they're impactful no matter how big or small they are. One of my favorite sections of the book is when Rachel is first in london and getting on her feet. Its such a deeply felt feeling, that feels pervasive to this day.

<i> Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf for providing me an eARC of this book in exchange for my honest review!</i>
<b>The Rachel Incident</b> 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. <b>The Rachel Incident</b> will be published in July and I couldn’t recommend it enough!

Sweet, really, but in a completely backward and wildly irreverent way. It's kind of a banger, actually.

The Rachel Incident, a novel about early twenty-somethings in Cork, Ireland gave me a look at the Irish Republic, its people, and its history regarding abortion rights and its fight for women's reproductive rights.
I also loved the story the novel tells of young Rachel and her love for two men, both named James, who play an important part in her life.
The feelings that Rachel has for both Jameses leads her into rocky relationships with her college lit teacher and his wife. All these people interact to make for a compelling story of love in many different manifestations.
Funny, heart warming, amazing characters lead us on a merry dance in this novel of manners, friendships, and some tragedy. The comedy and the drama and even damaging hypocrisy also makes this a thoughtfully unusual book.

Caroline O'Donoghue's The Rachel Incident is a hilarious and heartfelt novel that captures the essence of being young and in love in a world full of chaos. Rachel, the protagonist, is a relatable character who navigates her way through life and love with a sense of humor and a determination to make the most of every situation. Her relationship with James is a highlight of the novel, as they embark on a journey of self-discovery and adventure.
However, things take a complicated turn when Rachel falls in love with her married professor, Dr. Fred Byrne, and James helps her devise a plan to seduce him. The resulting secrets and compromises that follow intertwine the fates of all the characters in unexpected ways, leading to a climax that is both heart-wrenching and satisfying.
O'Donoghue's writing is witty, poignant, and engaging, and she skillfully captures the atmosphere of Cork city in all its bohemian glory. The Rachel Incident is a novel that will make readers laugh out loud, while also tugging at their heartstrings. It is a triumph of storytelling and a must-read for anyone who has ever been young and in love.