Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this digital ARC.

Rachel is a university student who meets James at the bookstore where they both work. Chance and situations bring them together and they decide to live together. Rachel is straight and James is gay, but that's not initially known to Rachel or the reader.

Their friendship is electric. They quickly become best of friends and devoted to each other.

The book is told from Rachel's perspective and travels back and forth in time, which may be a bit confusing, although I was able to follow it. The narrative follows James and Rachel through their work, their friendship, their various relationships, and the way they both navigate a situation that involves them both--one that is fraught from its beginning and reverberates through their lives.

Rachel's POV is engaging. She's an interesting character, though not endearing. James is a major player but also an enigma in his way, fascinating and yet untouchable. The story weaves back and forth, from past to present, with the cohesive details coming out bit by bit.

There are painful parts and parts when you want to shake the main character and parts that break your heart. I really appreciated the background of Ireland during this time period--the financial and economic insecurity and fear, the dynamics of a city that sometimes functions as a small town where everyone knows everyone's business, and the complications of relationships and choices made. It is relatable to read about young people who are trying to figure themselves out, figure their world out, find where they belong, and deal with the choices--good and bad--that they have made along the way.

overall kept me engaged and reading..

3.75 stars

Very good. Rachel was incredibly unlikable at times—her choices and her lack of communication, no matter how young she was, was a little much. There were also points where I felt like the importance of Dr. Byrne was more said than felt... it was definitely more of a story between Rachel and James. I was prepared to give this 3 stars, but then the full circle evolution of Rachel and Carey won my heart. Definitely one I'm thinking of picking up for my home library upon release date. I know this will be a fan favorite of many literary obsessives, and I could see it as a high-budget film.

Unsurprisingly, this book is about Rachel, a young twenty-something in Cork in 2010 who moves in with her gay best friend, James. The two of them become intimately involved with an older couple over the course of a year, before things fall spectacularly apart. I enjoyed this read, though it did get bogged down a bit in the middle.

Not for me but might be good for others! So glad I could review it and read if but not sure it was for me unfortunately I didn’t love it

I went into this blind: I never read the synopsis. So, the first few pages had me wondering if I was going to like it. But, once I caught on to Rachel's cadence, so to speak, I started to enjoy it. By the end, I loved it. Personally, I feel the need to compare this to Maame. Both are "coming of age" stories of women in their early twenties. Both title characters have a different backgrounds than I do. Maame has been getting rave reviews by everyone but me. I couldn't relate. I found her a bit charming but it lacked something for me. It lacked a certain depth to the writing. What Maame lacked for me, Rachel totally made up for. I found Rachel to be relatable even though our lives are totally different. While I did some dumb things in my twenties, Rachel does far worse--and yet, I could still relate to her. Kudos to the author for developing real characters. Even the ancillary characters were well-rounded enough to fully picture them. It is also culturally topical without trying too hard. Sex and sexuality are well presented for the timeline and location of the story (Cork, Ireland in 2010). I can't wait for this book to be published so I can recommend it. I hope this gets as much attention as Maame because it deserves to be in the mainstream.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the digital ARC. I would gladly read this author's next book.

Loved this so much. Wonderfully entertaining, moving and funny. I'd recommend this to fans of all fiction, not just the literary type. There's so much to appreciate here.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an advance reader's copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I stopped reading at 42%. My lack of satisfaction with this narrative could be a result of my difficulty lately with reading stories about people in their twenties. I just have a hard time getting interested in these stories. This author definitely has a skillful turn of phrase here and there, but as the pages turned I found myself less and less interested in the characters' lives. Maybe there's some big incident coming that will make everything worth waiting for, but I just can't bring myself to care about it.

I loved this book, and I finished it in one sitting because I couldn't put it down.

Rachel is a college student who meets James at the bookstore where they both work. They become roommates and develop an intense friendship (it's platonic; Rachel is straight and James is gay, although initially closeted). Rachel's professor, Dr. Byrne, and his wife come into their orbit, with a cascade of consequences.

This book is both hilarious and quite sad. The funny bits made me laugh out loud, and I think O'Donoghue is very skilled in her ability to navigate between both extremes.

The book starts out in the present and then moves back to 2009-2010, when Rachel and James first meet. They live in Cork, Ireland, and they're feeling the affects of the global recession (which hit Ireland very hard). The book feels very Irish--Cork isn't a small town, but it feels like one, so James navigating the waters of coming out is a much bigger deal than it would have been in another place at that time.

If you've ever been a young person trying to figure out your place in the world and perhaps making some poor decisions along the way, you'll relate to this book.

The Rachel Incident is a heart-touching tale of best friends and heartache. Quirky and lovable characters pulled me in immediately on the narrator’s retelling of her young adulthood. I HAD to read it in one day- I couldn’t put it down! Lighthearted humor keeps the darkness balanced well as does the immensely satisfying story arch. While set against the struggle for abortion rights in Ireland, it’s newly relevant today as abortion access is further restricted in the U.S.

The Rachel Incident is a spirited coming-of-age. novel about a young millennial woman trying to form a viable existence and identity in the negative space created by the people around her.

I wasn't initially enamored of Rachel as a character, but she gradually became more endearing. The book was well plotted in respect to the complication of Rachel's relationship with the Byrnes, and the ups and downs of Rachel and James's fortunes and how they led to contrast and conflict.

That being said, the pacing felt a bit uneven. The first half of the book felt a bit aimless, and the third act felt rushed. The book sang at the end of the second act when everything capitulates. I also wasn't a fan of the book's use of time & tense. The 2022 framing device could have been removed; it felt like it was only useful to give occasional hindsight analytics that felt oddly sterile compared to the lively and messy Rachel we follow for most of the book.

This book ultimately grew on me and was worth the read.

4.5 stars rounded up.

This book gave me so many of the same vibes as Normal People and when I looked up when Normal People took place and realized it was the same time as The Rachel Incident something clicked in me. This book gave me an insight into the struggle of being a woman, an Irish woman, a millennial, a millennial in Ireland who was graduating college and entering the workforce in 2008-2010. Some of these points of view I will never be able to experience myself so I appreciate this book so much for that.

Even though this book gave me similar vibes of Normal People, I did not enjoy Normal People but I enjoyed this book immensely. I think one of the main reasons for this is the relationship between Rachel and James (Devlin). It was so compelling to me. This story is heavy but the love between these two characters made it significantly easier to get through.

Just an all around good book- writing, content, relationship dynamics, etc.

The Rachel Incident is an absolutely sensational piece of fiction and easily one of my favorite books I’ve read this year.

From the vantage point of her mid-30s, Rachel Murray tells the story of the pivotal year she spent living with her best friend, James Devlin, in a squalid apartment in Cork. Rachel and James fall platonically head over heels for each other, while they each pursue their own complicated romances. The recession is at the backdrop, with their constant need for money, as well as the intoxicating influence of young romance, driving them towards destructive and constructive moves. It’s a coming of age story, a story of an affair, and a reflection on a particular moment (the recession) in a particular place (Cork, Ireland).

If you like Sally Rooney’s brand of millennial literary fiction, this book is for you. If you love a messy protagonist, this book is for you. If you love witty, clever humor, this book is for you. If you wish that your messy protagonists came with a side of hindsight and wisdom gained from age, this book is certainly for you.

O’Donoghue’s writing is compelling, delightful, and satisfying. The quotes are just terrific.

“I have read a lot of books about the lasting trauma of young women and their dastardly, corrupt English professors, and what happens when they fuck you. I have read nothing whatsoever on the trauma of when your English professor decides not to fuck you.”

“The year in Shandon Street did a lot for me, but it did this most of all. It detached me from any kind of inherited moral system. I stopped sizing others up in accordance with the values I had been taught: who was a loser, who was closeted, who was cheating on their wife. I learned the value of context, and of people. It came in handy later on, when I became a journalist.”

I can’t recommend this book more highly. Thank you NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

Reasons I love this book:
Irish Setting
Bookshop vibes
The Protagonist, Rachel

If you love coming-of-age stories, this book is for you. Rachel navigates friendships, love, adulting, and life and I was here for the entire ride.

Not much happens

This didn't really do it for me. It is the story of Rachel, a student and bookseller, and her best friend/roommate James. The book opens with Rachel hoping hosting her married professor's book launch in the bookstore where she is employed will somehow convince him to sleep with her. Not that she is really that interested in him, she just likes the idea of it. But he is more interested in James.

There is a who lot of nothing happening. I wound up skipping/skimming parts, but I nothing made me want to go back and read every sentence.

A heartbreaking and humourous novel that has an impressive and captivating storyline.

Thank you to the author and the publisher for this ARC through NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

The Rachel Incident highlights all the ups and downs in young lives as they try to find their places in their society from university to housing and roommates and lovers and employment. While Rachel loves James and Carey but circumstances and constant financial troubles interfere leading to an exciting novel.

The Rachel Incident is a brutally honest story about Rachel Murray, navigating her final year at university while realizing that her degree in English may not lead to the future she dreams about. While working in a bookstore, she meets James and that’s the beginning of their deeply heartfelt, moving and messy friendship. It was impossible to read this without remembering those chaotic, exhilarating years right on the brink of adulthood, unsure of what the future might hold but desperate to move forward. I didn’t always love Rachel’s decisions, but I understood her. At times funny and poignant, I read this in one sitting.

I heard someone on Tiktok the other day, say that they recommend books because they are good or because they are fun. Well this one was unequivocally a large helping of both.

The editor’s note calls out that Caroline O’Donoghue draws us readers in like Sally Rooney or Curtis Sittenfield - and I could not agree more. She made even the most mundane of comments interesting. I thoroughly enjoyed this book the whole way through. At no point was I bored or disengaged in the slightest. I can’t even pick out a favorite quote because there were just so many highlights. Having a “camp mindset” or “policing the vibe” were perhaps the moments where my smile grew the biggest.

And the ending! I laughed, I cried. What a way to finish it all up with a nice little bow. As much as I didn’t see it coming, it really was perfect and the only way to do it. I’m rarely so satisfied by an ending - particularly when I’ve been so invested in the characters.

This is the book that I will be on the top of my list for recommending all summer.

The Rachel Incident by Caroline O’Donoghue is a captivating story about love, friendship and growing up. Rachel and James meet whilst working at a bookshop, an all consuming friendship is formed and they quickly move in together. Rachel harbours an intense crush on her English Lecturer and with James’ help she plans to seduce him. But the events that occur after the contrived book launch, take an unexpected turn and have life changing consequences for Rachel, James, Dr. Byrne and his wife Deenie.

The story that unfolds, is one of the most captivating coming-of-age tales I have ever read; the very definition of a page turner. O’Donoghue’s use of a retrospective narrative is brilliant, its confessional tone draws you right into the drama. A mature Rachel shrewdly analyses the events of the year that she and James lived together, she is honest in her reflections, which makes this book both humorous and heartbreaking.

I was honestly blown away by this book. The characters were well written, the story was extremely engaging and the ending was spot on. Thank-you NetGalley and the Publishers for this ARC, it has been my absolute pleasure.

I had such a weird experience with this book. I went into it expecting to love it, but I quickly found myself detached from the characters, the framing the device, and not caring about it at all. I thought the writing itself was good, but I was very turned off by the fact that this felt like a story about a gay man and his coming out and affair with an older married man - but told through the eyes of his straight female roommate. It didn't feel like her story to tell, and I was really distracted trying to figure out WHY the story was being told through her POV.

I honestly wanted to DNF this, but I decided to power through given that this was an advanced reader copy in exchange for a review, and I've been slowly picking it up here and there over the last couple of weeks.

This was going to be a 1 or 2 star read for me due to that gripe and the fact that I just could not bring myself to care...but then I hit maybe the 70 or 80% mark and it became clearer as to why this story was about Rachel and how everything tied together. By the end, I actually ended up thinking this is genuinely good as a whole. That said, I still can't help but feel like my initial concern still stands and I wouldn't call this an enjoyable reading experience. There's an alternate universe version of me that absolutely loves this and is in the right mood for it while reading it, but that just didn't end up being my actual experience with it.