Rachel, a student in Ireland, meets her best friend James while working at a bookstore. James, who insists he is heterosexual, encourages Rachel to flirt with her married professor Dr. Bryne and together they hatch a half-hearted plan to get them in the same room. The plan goes awry when instead James is the one making out with Dr. Bryne in the back of the bookstore. From there, relationships get murky and secrets abound. Set against a backdrop of economic depression and limited reproductive rights, Ireland itself plays a role in the struggles and challenges of the story’s characters. Written as a sort of flashback, the main character Rachel is currently a writer and is finally putting pen to paper to reveal all the secrets, lies and moral boundary-crossing that took place in her youth.

While there wasn’t anything life-changing about this book, it was a perfectly enjoyable read. I appreciated the friendship between Rachel and James as well as the context of life in Ireland during these years. It was a good, easy summer read that’ll keep you entertained until the end.

Thanks to NetGalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor for the advance copy of this book.

The Rachel Incident by Caroline O'Donoghue
⭐⭐⭐⭐✨

Thank you to #NetGalley and Penguin Random House for providing me this book.

This book was such a great encapsulation of the chaos energy of my personal recollection of early 20s college/life launching days. You think you are an adult, making adult decisions, doing adult things. You are absolutely not. The dual timelines really drove home the unhinged ways things unravel in early adulthood.

If you loved My Dark Vanessa, this is a good marriage between the power dynamics involved and anything by Sally Rooney. This would be a great limited series especially with the 90s vibes.

Messy people and thorny ethics are the absolute best for a sunny summer read. I'm having a bit of a hard time selling it but I definitely recommend this one for a wide audience. Pick up for the mess and stay for the heart! This one is out now!

Rachel and James are best friends in Cork, Ireland. Working at a bookstore and living together in a frigid apartment, they are inseparable, trying to figure out what path they want to take in life. Rachel’s professor soon becomes involved in both her and James’ life and things get…complicated.

The story is told both from the present day Rachel, pregnant and living in London, and from a younger Rachel, in 2010 during the recession, as we are walked through the time leading up to a major turning point in her life.

I fell in love with Rachel and James and missed them when the story ended. This is a quirky and honest coming of age story that will leave you reminiscing on your early 20s and all the messy decisions and relationships you had. I think what worked so well here was that older Rachel was reflecting back on that time in her past and brings some self-awareness to the story that otherwise would be lacking with just young Rachel’s perspective.

I really enjoyed this quirky, poignant and relatable story. The addition of heavy themes like body autonomy and being queer while living in a conservative Ireland gave some weight to the book.

This was an enjoyable and relatable coming-of-age read with real characters. If you are in your 20s, in college, or trying to find your identity, I highly recommend this read! Rachel and James’ messy relationship makes you feel OK knowing that everyone has ups-and-downs.

<b>Caroline O'Donoghue's coming-of-age story celebrates friendship, young love, and life-changing decisions and missteps that shape the lives of her characters in 2010s Ireland.</b>

In Caroline O'Donoghue's contemporary fiction <i>The Rachel Incident,</i> main character Rachel is an Irish university student working in a Cork bookstore in the 2010s. She's dating a boring but reliable young man from her high school and living at home when she meets James.

James is irresistible, vivacious, and mischievous--and Rachel is immediately swept into his powerful orbit. They move in together and she largely subsumes her life in order to be part of his.

<b><blockquote>I wanted to protect him against the world's many disappointments, guard him with my body like I would a baby or a small dog.</b></blockquote>

Meanwhile, she is bowled over by her handsome, opinionated literature professor, Dr. Byrne, and in an attempt to ingratiate herself to him, she insinuates herself into a complicated role of supporting the publication of his academic-press book through her bookstore job.

Rachel meets another James, James Carey (who she calls "Carey," as she already has a James), falling for him despite his sometimes-flaky behavior.

James comes out as gay, and a complicated web of relationships builds between Dr. Byrne, his wife, James, Carey, and Rachel.

Rachel is dedicated to both James and to Carey, and <i>The Rachel Incident</i> is centered around Rachel and her Jameses coming of age, making mistakes and missteps, struggling with money crises and career decisions, and figuring out where and how they want to be in the world.

Years later, Rachel runs into someone from her past, which spurs her to think back to the events and relationships that shaped her during her college years.

Despite some of the questionable, haunting choices that are made at times in the story, I was so taken with the characters that my cringing didn't hamper my enjoyment of the celebration of friendship, circuitous routes to self-confidence, and heartwarming second chances.

I loved <i>The Rachel Incident</i>--the story, the characters, and the vivid setting of 2010s Ireland.

<b><blockquote>I am good at a few things, but I am great at being married. As I learned that year in Shandon Street, there is nothing that my personality or my humour thrives on more than being able to see the same person at the same time every day. I thrive on overexposure, on elaborate jokes, on private mythology.</b></blockquote>

I received a prepublication copy of this title courtesy of NetGalley and Knopf.

Caroline O'Donoghue is also the author of <i>Scenes of a Graphic Nature, Promising Young Women,</i> and the teen series All Our Hidden Gifts.

✨ Review ✨ The Rachel Incident by Caroline O'Donoghue; Narrated by Tara Flynn

This was a really brilliantly written coming-of-age story set in 2010 Cork, Ireland. Rachel's a student working at a bookstore. Early in the story, she meets James, closeted and tons of fun, and they move in together as platonic besties. When Rachel has a crush on her professor, she and James drum up hype for his obscure academic book so that they can host a book reading for him at the shop. It doesn't result in Rachel hooking up with her prof, but he does hook up with someone else....

The book is funny and sad and just stews in the financial woes of the post-2008 economy. It speaks to social and sexual norms of 2010 and really felt true to this time. The difficulty of accessing abortion care in Ireland features a theme and I thought the book tackled this well -- showing how hard it would have been to orchestrate gaining access in this time and place.

The writing was beautiful - so many quotes spoke to me. It read with the inner vulnerability of stream of consciousness writing even though it wasn't that. The way it dealt with academia, sexual norms, and such reminded me a bit of Vladimir by Julia May Jones and the beautiful writing and coming-of-age themes reminded me of Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano.

It's also a story of found family -- Rachel ends up surrounded by men named James. I really loved the on-again/off-again plot around James Carey, the boy that she's obsessed with and the man that she falls in love with. The book comes together in a way in the epilogue that I'd have never quite have guessed, and I loved that as well.

My only critique is that the 2010 story is surrounded by present day narration and especially in the audio, it wasn't clear when it was jumping back to the present. I wish this had been more obvious.

This made for a great read with a friend; and the audio was incredible.Tara Flynn brings the Irish accents, the voices of the characters, and everything together in such an emotional, engaging way. I definitely recommend the audio!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: literary fiction, {recent} historical fiction
Setting: 2010 Cork, Ireland + some London
Reminds me of: Vladimir meets Hello Beautiful + a meta version of Will & Grace
Pub Date: out now!

Read this if you like:
⭕️ literary fiction + coming-of-age
⭕️ recent historical fiction (set in 2010, Cork, Ireland)
⭕️ gay man + cishet woman best-friendship
⭕️ beautiful, emotional writing

Thanks to Knopf, PRHAudio, and #netgalley for an advanced e-copy of this book!

finished this 20 minutes ago and already know I’ll be up for hours just thinking about it. silly and tender and intimate and also raw and biting and heartbreaking

This is Sally Rooney for people who are bothered by Sally Rooney. A beautiful story of friendship and the mess of your early twenties…relationships, family, career, sex, and navigating everything as a young adult. It was funny, heartwarming, heartbreaking and transportive. So glad I read this.

I really enjoyed this book! I haven't highlighted passages in a book in quite a while and I found myself wanting to remember so much of this! I loved Rachel and all of her James'. I found myself rooting for Rachel at so many points, and I just loved learning about her life. I wish the book had been longer even.

Thank you Netgalley and publishers for this chance to read this banger of a book. I really enjoyed this coming of age story that took place in 2010s Ireland. I think every bookworm has dreamed of having a job in a bookstore once or one thousand times in our lifetimes, and Rachel is the lucky one who gets to work at one. She is also trying to find love and figure out what she wants from life, and I love books like that. I would read this again, will tell all of my friends and family about this #bangerbook as well.

This is a character driven book about friendship and love set in Ireland.

Rachel currently lives in England; she has a family and a job. The story is her reflecting on the past when she was just graduating from university, the economy was in a recession and she was hanging out in Cork with her favorite people – James her best friend and roommate and her boyfriend, James who see calls Carey.

It was a story about Rachel living life in her early 20’s, figuring out who she wants to be and navigating her relationships with her best friend and boyfriend. It was full of nostalgia. Rachel’s character didn’t make the best decisions, but what 21-year-old does? I loved following along Rachel’s life and wanted to know what was going to happen. It was an easy read and one that I couldn’t put down. I’m surprised how much I enjoyed it!

This book was clever, fun and funny. The characters are flawed in the best way and we see them all grow and come into themselves. I really rooted for James and Rachel throughout, I adore them.

I was lucky enough to be given an ARC of this book and I am sad that I waited as long as I did to read it!

This book literally had humor and heartbreak and did an exquisite job of blending them together. I desperately want to be in the friends group of Rachel and James even though they are both quite messy. I loved the dialogue and the witty banter between these two and feel like I could hang out with them in their apartment.

While there were so many funny moments, there were also issues that we as a society face today which made you stop and think about what you would do in Rachel or James's situations.

Overall, I felt that this was a solid read and one that I thoroughly enjoyed. Thank you to NetGalley for the free copy in exchange for an honest review. I loved this one.

This book left me feeling let down and unimpressed.

One of the major shortcomings was the writing style. It lacked the engaging quality needed to captivate and immerse readers in the story. The prose felt bland and uninspiring, failing to evoke any real emotions or create a compelling atmosphere.

Additionally, the characters were poorly developed and uninteresting. They lacked depth and complexity, making it difficult to connect or care about their experiences. I loved James and I loved Rachel but we only saw them superficially and I wanted more.

The plot was underwhelming and lacked direction. It meandered aimlessly, failing to offer any significant tension or intrigue. The entire story was hinged on the one major event but all the lead up and lead off were... Boring? I was both interested and uninterested in everything.

Overall, I found this to be a disappointing read. The lackluster writing, underdeveloped characters, and aimless plot made it difficult to fully engage with the story. Maybe if I had read this when I was also in my early 20's as the characters were, I would have enjoyed this book more.

I loved this. I found it funny and earnest, showcasing the borderline-narcissism that comes with coming-of-age. A lot of cringing in a way that I am grateful for. It's good to be on the other side. In addition, I really liked the setting.

I really enjoyed reading The Rachel Incident and it threw me back to being twenty-something and unsure of what I wanted to do in life. The story follows Rachel and her relationship with her new coworker James. The pair quickly become best friends and their lives become more and more entangled. It's a bad time to be in Cork - there are no jobs and everyone is fleeing for the promise of new opportunities in London. There is pain and heartbreak as the pair make a series of questionable decisions, but there is also so much love. I loved their friendship and was glad we got to see a bit of a time skip to see where Rachel and James ended up.

The ending was a very happy surprise.

I've seen this book compared to Sally Rooney's novels and would agree that if you like Conversations with Friends you may enjoy this one was well.

Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf for a review copy.

(𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬𝘴 𝘵𝘰 @𝘢𝘢𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘱𝘧 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘧𝘳𝘦𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘱𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬 - out tomorrow.) Let’s start with the good news: it’s all good news! I loved 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗥𝗔𝗖𝗛𝗘𝗟 𝗜𝗡𝗖𝗜𝗗𝗘𝗡𝗧 by Caroline O’Donoghue. It was exactly the right book for my reading taste. Told by Rachel from a vantage point in the future where she’s able to look back on her younger self with grace and forgiveness. At the heart of these memories is James who’s been her best friend from the time they met way back when. As Rachel neared the end of college the two were roommates, confidants, cheerleaders, and more. Theirs was a complex friendship, with lots of knots to untangle, but their devotion to each other remained constant. ⁣
⁣
It’s impossible for me to talk about this book without comparing it to the works of Sally Rooney, especially 𝘊𝘰𝘯𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘞𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘍𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘴, which I adored. Both Irish authors focused on that tender age when mistakes come easily, heartache is never far away, money is always tight, and friends can be lifelines. Both created really beautiful stories that began with youthful connections that grew into much more.⁣
⁣
Oftentimes humorous, always thoughtful, and more than once educational, 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘙𝘢𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘭 𝘐𝘯𝘤𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘵 was a coming-of-age story full of deep friendship, pain, romance and growth. What more could you want? ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⁣
∙

Rachel met the two most important men in her life, her BFF James and her English professor Dr. Byrne, when she was a 20 year old university student working in a bookstore. Hoping to start a fling with Dr. Byrne, Rachel concocts a scheme to get Dr. Byrne to the bookstore, hopefully for some one-on-one time in the storeroom. But things backfire when she introduces him to her housemate James, and the two men are instantly attracted to each other.
Contemporary fiction set in 21st century Ireland. I forgot how awful being in your 20s could be: looking for a job, convinced you're never going to find love, trying to save money so you can move to a decent apartment, avoiding your family while still needing them, believing that everyone else has it all sorted out. Funny and touching, and I genuinely cared about the characters. Highly recommended.

5 dazzling stars for my new favourite summer read.
I had no idea what to expect from this, I just read the excerpt and wanted to see what it was about. From the first, I fell so hard for it, I feel like I finished this in one breath. I absolutely loved everything about this bittersweet coming-of-age novel about a girl trying to find her bearings growing up. All the characters are so lovable, so intense and real that I could not help falling for every single one of them. I have never read anything from Caroline O'Donoghue before and I have to say she is a bright star in the literary world, her style is so unique, witty and entertaining, all the while so deep, she has apparently found her balance and place in literature. She has become a favourite and this book is my new favourite. What a pleasant surprise!

▪️REVIEW▪️

The Rachel Incident ~ Caroline O’Donoghue

All the humor, confusion, and chaos of your 20s wrapped in the most unsuspecting amazingness of a book…

When James suggests a sneaky book event to lure Rachel’s professor and crush into the bookstore where they work, she could never anticipate that her life would get turned upside down. What transpires is coined “The Rachel Incident” as James and Rachel’s relationship grows and the professor and his wife become entangled in both of their lives.

So this was the sneakiest book because I didn’t really realize that I was loving it until I found that I couldn’t stop picking up my kindle to keep reading. I can’t pinpoint a favorite moment or a turning point - I just know that I was enamored with these witty, complex characters and their relationships with each other.

Rachel and James are that 20s friendship that molded your adult life - the person that accepted you, questioned you, covered for you, and helped to push you to be a better version of yourself. I was taken back to late nights, booze and takeout, failed relationships, financial angst, job insecurity - and I loved every minute of it. A quiet but impactful read with its heart on its sleeve - I loved this book!