The Rachel Incident is a great pick if you like smart, character-focused stories about messy friendships and love lives, all happening during a time of personal and social chaos.

The Rachel Incident is a captivating, thoughtful exploration of love, friendship, and the messy journey of self-discovery. The story follows Rachel, a bookstore student who forms a deep, life-altering friendship with James, a bohemian spirit with his own set of ambitions. Together, they navigate the tumultuous streets of Cork city, all while trying to maintain their ideals in the face of a looming financial crash.

Rachel’s growing love for her married professor, Dr. Fred Byrne, sets the stage for a series of secrets, compromises, and tangled emotions. The book balances moments of aching unrequited love with sharp, dry humor, making for an engaging and sometimes painfully relatable read. The dynamic between Rachel and James is genuine and complex, capturing the highs and lows of friendship as they come of age, come out, and ultimately, come apart.

This novel is charming and self-assured, with a warmth that will resonate with anyone who’s ever grappled with the complications of being in their twenties. The Rachel Incident is a brilliant, relatable, and entertaining exploration of what it means to grow up and figure out who you truly are.

Unpopular opinion but:

Caroline O’Donoghue’s The Rachel Incident follows Rachel, a university student in Cork in the late 2000s, as she navigates friendship, love, ambition, and the complications of adulthood. When she and her gay best friend James become entangled with one of Rachel’s married professors, a messy chain of events unfolds—touching on betrayal, secrets, and the fragility of chosen families. Set against the backdrop of Ireland's conservative views on sexuality and abortion during that era, the novel weaves personal dramas with broader cultural tensions.

While the book is readable and emotionally engaging at times, it ultimately feels like it doesn’t go as deep as it could—or should. The narrative leans heavily into the interpersonal soap opera: secret affairs, messy friendships, romantic confusion. All of that can make for a compelling read, but given how central abortion becomes to the plot, I expected more reflection on the political climate of the time. The novel touches on the shame and fear surrounding reproductive rights in Ireland, but these moments feel more like narrative devices than part of a larger political conversation.

Rachel’s voice is witty and often sharp, but the book struggles to balance tone and theme. It wants to be a coming-of-age story, a love letter to complicated friendships, and a commentary on Ireland’s restrictive abortion laws—but it doesn’t quite succeed at being all three. The social and political context is there, but often kept in the background, when it had the potential to be one of the book’s most powerful layers.

In the end, The Rachel Incident is emotionally engaging but ultimately slight. It scratches the surface of big issues without fully committing to the depth they require. I had hoped for a novel that tackled the politics of the time with more urgency. Instead, it plays it safe—entertaining, yes, but also frustratingly restrained.

I'm starting to realize that I really enjoy these types of literary fiction books on audio. This was a great listen and I really felt like I got to know the characters. Rachel is in her final year at university, who works at a bookstore where she meets her best friend James. When she develops a crush on her married professor, Fred, James and Rachel set up a book signing in the hopes that she can seduce him. I really liked the narration of this book and I feel like it added depth to the overall story. Rachel is such a complex character and her character development over the course of the book was fun to read about. I loved how both James and Rachel are super messy and I feel like that confusion of feelings in your early 20s was really well captured in this book. The focus on the friendship between Rachel and James was so great and I loved how they saw each other through the ups and downs and all the changes in their lives.

The writing was also great and I can see why people are comparing this book to Sally Rooney's works. I felt so many emotions while reading this and certainly laughed and teared up many times. I love how Ireland itself feels like a character, especially because Rachel is coming of age in a world where there is a recession and she is trying to figure out what she wants to do with her life. Overall, this was a really great character driven novel. I feel like there were some serious themes that were interspersed with laugh out loud moments. I would certainly recommend this book to fans of literary fiction and also would suggest grabbing the audiobook!

I loved everything about this book. I couldn’t put it down, devouring the lives of these characters as if it were my full time job. The writing was stunning, the characters were complex yet lovable, the story kept me intrigued and desperate for more.
An instant five star read that I would happily re-read and recommend to anyone looking for a lit-fic that will stay with you long after you put it down.

3 Stars Maybe. Well written, but slow.


Here is my scoring system in a nutshell. Five star books are not only engaging from beginning to end, but they are also beautifully written. Four star books are well worth your time - engaging and well-written. Three star books aren’t bad- engaging but perhaps slow or clunky in parts. Two stars, I finished but it was difficult - something about the pacing, the story or the writing was not compelling. One star - just don’t!

5 STARS= Definitely YES!
4 STARS = YES.
3 STARS = Maybe.
2 STARS= NO.
1 STAR = DNF; Definitely NO!

THE RACHEL INCIDENT is a really insightful, thoughtful, and surprisingly funny novel about friendships, relationships, and the entanglements that can occur from the best (if misguided) intentions. I absolutely loved the bookstore setting—which really felt like a character in itself. This was a compulsively-readable story that kept me guessing.

I didn’t expect to love this as much as I did. It’s messy, funny, and painfully honest about growing up, making mistakes, and figuring out who you are. Rachel is such a layered character, and the friendship at the center of the story really carried it for me. If you’ve ever looked back at your twenties and cringed a little (or a lot), this one will hit home in the best way.

I love this book! The way that O’Donoghue writes very rich and well thought out characters really helps immerse me in the world. I think this book is perfect for millennials who remember some of those events. I would read anything else she writes in this vein.

I inhaled this book in stayed up way too late, skipped a much needed afternoon tea, what's the fastest dinner I can cook stretches.

A smart, funny, emotionally layered novel about friendship, secrets, and complicated love. Sharp writing with plenty of heart and humor. Perfect for fans of character-driven fiction.

Hilarious and heartfelt, this was a great piece of contemporary fiction. I enjoyed every moment from start to finish.

A story of a twenty-something girl trying to figure out her place in the world. Very relatable as she struggles with romantic relationships, communicating with friends and parents, trying to make money, and everything all at once.

I ended up really liking this one - the writing style really reminded me of Sally Rooney and I'm obsessed with her, so I ended up enjoying this. I loved the dark academia vibes throughout, and I thought this was a beautifully written coming of age story. Caroline O'Donoghue's writing really pulled me in, and I also found I learned a lot about Ireland while reading which was a fun bonus!

Thank you for this ARC!

tough to summarize the plot without spoilers. both good plot and great character development.
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characters include Rachel, her gay best friend James, their professor and his wife, & Rachel’s romantic interest. I find the protagonist/narrator Rachel to be likable & sympathetic. the story is really about friendship, but also about young adulthood: how relationships change and hopefully life improves.
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most of the story takes place in 2010. But I especially loved the whole ending, the last hour and a half or so of the audiobook: more than worth it.
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I didn’t intentionally finish the Irish lit on St. Patrick’s Day- just lucky I guess.
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content warnings for abortion, homophobia, & miscarriage

I loved this book so much! It felt fresh and funny, and I cared about many of the characters and was rooting for them all the way through. Even if they were a mess at times, it felt authentic to their generation and that time of life.

achel is just a girl making ends meet while finishing her degree. I loved following Rachel when she meets forbidden love and the decisions she is forced to make. Fortunately, she has her roommate, James as support. They run freely in the streets of Cork, the best of friends until that bond is tested with crushing results.

An entertaining read with the Irish political state lending a feeling of chaos along with Rachel's frenzied young adult life. A satisfying read. 3.5 rating

Thanks to NetGalley and Knopf.

The titular Rachel is in uni in Ireland and working in a bookshop. There she meets James and they become fast friends and eventually roommates. Rachel has a crush on her professor and James helps her to hatch a plan to hold a reading at their bookstore -- a ruse to get closer to the man. Things do not work out exactly as Rachel expects and a long and complicated relationship ensues. A great read. I am grateful to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with an advance reader copy.

Very fast read. Story of 2 friends with an intense relationship (as seems to only happen in your 20's) and how it effects the rest of their life. Makes you look at your own past through different eyes. Thank you to Netgalley for this advanced reader's copy.

Rachel, in her 30s now, is the narrator. A chance meeting in a bar with someone who reminds her of a class they had together in college and their professor and it invites her to look back on that time in her life.
This was an interesting story. I really got sucked in to Rachel and her friendship with James. I loved the rapport and relationship they had. It is definitely one of those stories where the plot is minimal. It's about that time in our lives... Early 20s, trying to figure out life and career and relationships and balance it all with the partying you want to do. Rachel is definitely a flawed main character/narrator, but that makes her perspective so refreshing because she also knows this about herself. Rachel, looking back at that time can give a candid explanation of what really happened and also how things felt to her at the time.
This book feels like a Sally Rooney novel, but better. (I must admit, Normal People and Conversations with Friends were not my jam)