Thirst Trap takes an honest look at the messy, messy lives of three women, Harley, Maggie and Róise, as they turn thirty.

It took me a while to warm up to this book. Maybe it's because the lives of these women is so far from mine (like all the drinking, drugs and partying is so foreign to me). But as I continued reading, I grew a little attached to these three, how they navigated their not perfect lives as flawed individuals, especially after the death of their close friend Lydia still haunts them.

I recommend this especially to people who are nearing thirty and feel like they are going nowhere in life, this should be very relatable to you all. Also, this book would be even better to anyone who's Irish, since the book is very rooted in the place and culture.

Thank you to NetGalley and Picador for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

It was a book reflective of its time with unique characters, sharing a house and a sense of loss following the death of their friend and housemate Lydia.It was a fun, light read

Thirst Trap by Gráinne O’Hare is a pure delight! This is the story of four friends who live in Belfast, Northern Ireland. They are all turning 30 – on the cusp of a new decade – and Thirst Trap is all about their friendship and lives. As the cover art indicates – the tone is distinctly dry and very funny – while being touching and tender too.

Our lead characters are Maggie, Harley, Róise and Lydia. The things is, Lydia is actually dead. She died in an accident a year prior to when events in the books are set and the story explores how her three friends (and housemates) are coming to terms with it a year on.

They are also all grappling with the reality of ‘growing up’ now that they face the reality of leaving their 20s and being serious, 30 year old women.

There’s tangled love affairs, boundaries broken with landlords, step brothers and the intricacies of female friendship. It was such a relatable and satisfying story that draws you in from the very first page.

Also, Thirst Trap is the first book that’s made me laugh-out-loud in quite a while and I realised how much I’ve missed that. From the gang paying special attention to the type of potatoes on a menu to amazing lines like this (Maggie is actually talking about how hot she is in a club):

‘I’M MELTING!’ Maggie hollers in agreement, her reply helpfully coinciding with a drop in the music to sound like the frenzied screech of the Wicked Witch of the West.

This book was the perfect blend of tough emotional situations and shining a spotlight on the small moments in life and friendship that make it all worthwhile. Such a great read, add Thirst Trap to your TBR now!

Thirst Trap by Gráinne O’Hare

Prize for the best book cover of 2025? Clever and evocative, it captures the book perfectly.

I feel I’ve read a rake of books set in Belfast over the last few years - Trespasses by Louise Kennedy, Exile by Aimee Walsh, Close to Home by Michael Magee, Lazy City by Rachel Connolly and Common Decency by Susannah Dickey among them.

Thirst Trap by Gráinne O’Hare adds to the canon. It’s a snappy novel about three young women (Róise, Harley and Maggie) approaching 30, living and partying together, and struggling in their own ways in the aftermath of their friend Lydia’s death.

Touching on grief, loss, female friendship, the housing crisis and coming of age when you’re 30, Thirst Trap is warm, moving and laugh out loud funny in places. I read the book with a Belfast accent in my head at all times.

Readers are loving this book and it’s garnering many 5 star reviews. I didn’t completely love it, the endless drug-taking and hardcore, messy partying grew a bit tiresome (I had the same issue with Close to Home - do people really take this many drugs and hold down jobs? 😨) but I loved the writing, the humour, the ebb and flow of the friendship between the women and the way in which Lydia is woven into the story. 4/5 ⭐️

Huge thanks to @picadorbooks @cormackinsella for the #gifted proof. I was lucky enough to hear the author read an excerpt at a Picador event last October. Thirst Trap was published this month (June 2025) and is widely available in all good bookshops and your local library.

This was such a fun and raw book about girlhood and the meaning of friendships. For this into lit fic you will love this. The cover also is soo good!

Thirst Trap by Gráinne O’Hare is a bold, emotionally charged novel that dives into the complicated mess of grief, friendship, and figuring life out in your twenties. Set in a rundown Belfast shared house, the story follows three young women—Maggie, Harley, and Róise—as they stumble through the aftermath of their friend Lydia’s untimely death.

What makes this book shine is its sharp humour and punchy dialogue. O’Hare captures the chaotic energy of post-party conversations, impulsive decisions, and emotional hangovers with remarkable clarity.

Told from the alternating viewpoints of the three friends, the narrative offers layered insights into how each of them is coping, or rather failing to cope. This shifting perspective adds depth, showing how loss and guilt can distort reality in personal and sometimes contradictory ways.

There’s a real emotional honesty here. The characters are flawed, and their healing process is neither clean nor straightforward. The novel leans into that messiness, giving it a raw authenticity that’s both heartbreaking and relatable.

That said, the book does have a few bumps. The plot can feel a little slow, more like a series of emotional vignettes than a story building toward an obvious conclusion. Additionally, while the different narrators offer variety, their voices occasionally blend together, making it more difficult to distinguish one from the other.

Still, this is a confident and compelling first novel. O’Hare’s ability to mix heartbreak with humour makes Thirst Trap an engaging and affecting read that offers a lot to love. Though not perfect, it’s a strong four-star debut that promises great things from a fresh new voice.

Thirst Trap by Gráinne O’Hare is pure chaotic fun. It’s hilarious and heartfelt, it’s a messy, real and modern romcom that had me laughing a lot and was rooting for the characters from the beginning. If you have had date fail and can laugh about it, this book is for you. Witty, relatable, and funny. Such an entertaining ride I thoroughly enjoyed.

I liked this book but I didn’t love it! I found the first half so good and I was hooked but I started to lose interest towards the end 🙈 I can totally see why people loved it but I think because I read so many books like this, it might have been a bit lost on me.

I liked the friendships between the girls and the way we were made to feel like we were one of the group! I also listened to the audiobook alongside this and found it brilliant - an Irish accent for an audiobook is always a good one! I think it’s the sort of book that would be so good to read while growing up so you realise that not everyone has their life together and everyone is different!

I’d recommend this book if you like messy friendship books!

I loved Thirst Trap; it felt like a contemporary novel about 30-somethings that was more realistic than most in this category. It made me laugh, cry, and nod my head in agreement and understanding.

4.5 stars rounded up

I absolutely flew through this - it’s one of those books that gets under your skin without even trying. It’s messy, raw and honest in a way that feels instantly familiar, especially if you've ever navigated your twenties with more questions than answers.

I loved how it explored the tangled, complicated nature of female friendship - the kind where love, resentment, loyalty and frustration all live side by side. These women felt real to me, like people I might’ve shared cheap wine and late night existential crises with.

The writing is really strong - sharp when it needs to be, but tender in the moments that matter most. What stood out most though, was how it handled grief. There’s no neat resolution, no 'moving on' narrative. Instead, it captures the strange, slippery way grief shows up - unexpected, unpredictable and often quietly overwhelming. It’s not always at the forefront, but it’s always there, reshaping everything in the background.

And the house they share? It’s more than just a backdrop. It reflects everything they’re trying (and sometimes failing) to hold onto - comfort, familiarity, connection. It’s falling apart, sure, but it’s theirs. That metaphor wasn’t overdone, but it hit hard.

This story didn’t try to clean its characters up or force growth for the sake of a tidy ending and I respected that so much. I’ll definitely be reading more from this author.

4.5 starsI love reading stories about messy women, so long as the story's point is not that they saw the error of their ways and cleaned up their act. This book definitely doesn't follow that path - what it does instead is show how the things they are dealing with have played a part in their messy behaviour...and let's face it, we were all messy to one degree or another in our twenties. It feels like such a genuine portrayal of friendships, relationships, house-shares, social lives, and just trying to figure out what it's all about whilst the world expects you to be a grown-up. The girls in this book would absolutely have been my friends.

The other place where authenticity shines in the writing is in the parts that deal with the grief of losing someone. There is no one-size-fits-all way to navigate your feelings, and your recovery will never be linear or even necessarily always be progressing. Grief is like jelly; it moves constantly, reacting to its surroundings, and it's not a solid thing that you can hold safely. Gráinne O'Hare captured this excellently.

The house that the girls share is like a metaphor for how they presently see their lives - they're clinging to the comforting shoddiness of it, but it's falling down around their ears, and they're going to have to take some kind of action. It feels like so much more than just a house; it's their ecosystem. A physical manifestation of their relationship with each other and with Lydia, and they fear letting it go.

As someone who struggled much more with turning 30 than I did with turning 40, I found this book incredibly relatable and even more enjoyable

Thirst Trap is like if Blue Sisters and Everything I Know About Love had an Irish book baby.

Thirst Trap follows three best friends Róise, Harley and Maggie who are all turning 30 and grieving the lost of their fourth best friend Lydia who died a year ago and whose room in their house share remains untouched.

Each character is going through their own issues, Róise was cheated on by her boyfriend and is now trying to navigate a life dating men again even though she hates men. Maggie is in a situationship with Cate who she has no idea where she really stands with, and Harley is becoming more dependent on drugs whilst having a weird relationship with their landlord.

Each character is part loveable and part insufferable in their own way but my favourite was definitely Róise, whose stance on online dating made me feel SEEN.

“Roise is, she decides, not suited to dating apps, because she finds most men extremely visually unpleasant.”

This book was equal parts sharp, funny, sad and nostalgic. It’s about female friendship and grief in their messiest forms - it was great and I can’t wait to read what O’Hare does next.

“‘WHERE WERE YOU BEFORE THIS?’ Maggie asks Cate nonchalantly - or would, if it were possible to be nonchalant screaming over the top of B*Witched while everyone on the dancefloor is violently céilí-ing around them.”

Maggie, Harley and Róise are best friends partying their way through their late 20s in Belfast. Their house is falling apart and their personal lives aren’t much more together. You see, they used to be a group of four best friends, and that’s really where the problems began.

I must admit that I’m a bit of a sceptic when it comes to popular books. I often wonder if they will live up to the considerable hype. I’ve seen so many glowing reviews of Thirst Trap (how can you forget that cover) that I began to worry that it couldn’t possibly live up to the hype. Well, I loved it.

Gráinne O’Hare’s debut is a fun, bittersweet, poignant, and completely compelling read. It showcases the full complexity of female friendship, grief, and the minefield that is getting older. It’s screaming out for a TV adaptation!

I would definitely recommend it! It's already a strong contender for one of my favourite books this year.

This was an enjoyable read about three friends who are grieving over their mutual friend and housemate, Lydia.

Firstly, I loved to see female friendships represented in this way. They were messy, imperfect and human. They struggled to cope with grief and coped in their own ways, sometimes problematic and sometimes hilarious. I also loved that two of them were sapphic (yay!).

Secondly, it gave me major Fleabag vibes throughout, and I love Fleabag (don’t we all). Something about the tone of the book, the grief balanced with humour, the terrible decisions made, and I kept thinking throughout how this would make a really good TV show.

I think all I struggled with is that it didn’t grab my attention like I wanted, I kept thinking of other things and getting distracted, it was difficult to stay in the story. It was also challenging to connect to the characters, mostly because they didn’t feel individual, they blended into each other and didn’t feel distinct.

I also didn’t love the pop culture references, it’s not my favourite thing in books.

Saying all that, I did love the narrative style and I would be likely to pick up another book by this author.

Maggie, Harley & Róise live in Belfast & go out on the piss… all the time? They’re turning 30, they live together and they’re still grieving the death of their best friend Lydia.

I liked this but not as much as I expected to! A Belfast novel? Focussed on female friendships? Come on! Before I get into my biggest issue with this let me say up front that I’m a boring bastard. I am! So maybe that’s why I am not getting it. But these women read like students? I just don’t know anyone who is still going out like that in their thirties. I had a second hand hangover reading about it all!

I did love the friendship between the girls & how loving and complex it was. Also very funny & extremely easy to read. Would still definitely recommend! Will absolutely read O’Hare’s next book!

Okay one last complaint, why so many Taylor Swift references? There were at least six! Thats six too many by my count

This book follows three friends Maggie, Harley and Roise. They are trying to recover from the loss of their friend Lydia the previous year and transitioning to a new phase of their life. The story is told through flashbacks and in the present day, these characters were highly flawed and survive on copious amounts of alcohol and drugs. Their relationships were messy but entertaining and, all through the book focuses on their friendship and how it's serving them. I would recommend to readers that enjoyed "Animals" by Emma Jane Unsworth and "The Rachel Incident" by Caroline O'Donoghue.

Disclaimer: I received this ARC from NetGalley and Pan Macmillan | Picador in exchange for a free and honest review.

I can recognize that this is well-written and a good exploration of life in your 30s, the way friendships change as you walk different paths, and even grief. I agree with the comparisons to the HBO show Girls; the vibes are very similar. I also suspect that Irish people will have an even higher appreciation of this due to the references (that I couldn't really get).

All that said, this wasn't for me, and I could accept that it's a "me thing." I just didn't connect with this at all, and my mind wandered as I was reading, so I often had to go back and read again. That's the biggest sign that a story isn't hitting with me, and it's not due to any issues with the book or the writing. I just couldn't relate to these characters' experiences (I suspect it's because my 30s feel very different, my mindset is very different, and my culture is also different), and I wasn't invested in the relationships.

I would still recommend this. Just because it didn't work for me doesn't mean it won't work for other people, especially if you find that you have similar life experiences to these characters.

Truly brilliant. Loved how each character dealt with their grief differently. A great story with expert writing and weaving of narratives.

In Thirst Trap, Gráinne O’Hare introduces the story of Maggie, Harley and Róise, three near-lifelong friends who rent a decaying house in Belfast. Their characters are so well drawn that following their exploits would be interesting enough without the added dimension that the fourth in their close-knit gang has died in a car accident a year before the book opens. We are told early on that the girls were not speaking before Lydia’s death but O’Hare saves the reason why for a good portion of the book and it hits really well.
This is one of the best depictions I’ve read of the succession of big nights out and poor decision making that accompanies a boozy twenties existence. Now I’m at a safe distance I can observe it with fondness; I imagine if you’re still in that part of adulthood it might hit too close to the bone. I really enjoyed Thirst Trap and recommend it if you want to read contemporary fiction that tackles serious issues with a great sense of humour.

Not quite the read I was expecting.

Maggie, Harley and Roise have shared a house in Belfast for most of their twenties; the fourth bedroom remains empty after the death of their friend Lydia. Following a huge fight, will the each go their own way? And as they approach the big 30, are they finally leaving behind all the late nights / early mornings and raging hangovers?

I was drawn to this book by the blurb but, in all fairness, I suspect I'm entirely the wrong age group. Most of the content didn't bother me but the high level of drug taking, for me, wasn't entertaining. I continually found myself wondering how they could afford it? I struggled through to the end but in all honesty, I can't think of any fellow readers who would enjoy this. For me, three stars.

My thanks to the publisher for my copy.