"The Rachel Incident" may remind you of Sally Rooney's novels, in that it's set in Ireland and largely revolves around 20-somethings finding their way in love, school and work. I would say Caroline O'Donoghue's main characters are somewhat better behaved and therefore both less interesting and easier to like than many of Rooney's. The story centers on Rachel (obviously), a college student and part-time bookstore employee, and her best friend, James. Although the novel expands to include their romantic interests and a substantial subplot about abortion, the best parts of the story are when Rachel and James are together, hatching schemes to improve their finances and love lives and picking each other up after disappointments. The novel starts off slowly but once it finds its footing and you know the cast of characters, the final two-thirds are strong and move along at a good clip.

SYNOPSIS-

Rachel Murray is a college student who works at a bookstore when she befriends her coworker James Devlin. They instantly connect, and become housemates and best friends.

Rachel has a crush on her professor, Dr. Fred Byrne, and arranges a book signing for his new release at the store. This is when she finds her best friend, James, and Dr. Byrne making out in the back room.

Dr. Byrnes and James continue the affair long-term, often at James’ and Rachel’s apartment. Rachel, knowing Dr. Byrne’s wife is in publishing, asks him to speak to his wife about allowing her to be an intern.

Rachel, obsessed with “adult” life (which to her, means drinking and sex), meets and falls in love with James Carey. Already having a loved one named James, she refers to him as Carey throughout their relationship.

Intermitted with stories of friendship, youth, and falling in love, this all leads up to The Rachel Incident.

ARC REVIEW-

4.5 ⭐️

I had a hard time writing a synopsis for this one. There are so many small parts that lead up to the main plot, but the main idea of the story lies in everything in between.
The coming of age of Rachel Murray.

The story is told in past tense from Rachel’s point of view, reflecting on the messy and poignant matter of her young 20s. At the time, Rachel has no idea how to love others or herself. Throughout the book, you’ll notice how obsessive she is with certain ideas of maturity and even with the people in her life.

The moment she meets James Devlin, there’s a sense of relief and belonging in having found a new friend. Rachel grips to this friendship until she can’t anymore, and when she finally lets go of everything that led up to the Rachel Incident, she can finally begin her life.

There is so much drama and heartbreak in this book that is wrapped up with beautiful closure at the very end. Caroline O’Donoghue creates such intense, intimate, and relatable characters.

I highly recommend you pick up a copy and witness The Rachel Incident yourself. I will definitely be purchasing a physical copy :)

Rachel is working at a bookstore during college when she meets her newest coworker, James. They quickly become roommates and best friends, with shared secrets that will bond them together for life.

There was something about this book that just felt captivating to me. I wanted to know what happened next for James and Rachel, and how they got from the early days of their friendship to the present day.

I think this is a book that a specific audience is going to love, while others might hate it. The main characters are selfish kids in their early 20's who are pretty unlikable. I found myself enjoying the book anyway, but I'm sure it will be off-putting for some.

My one complaint is that the story alternates between two time periods, but it's not always super clear when the narrator is switching from the past to the present. Sometimes it happened in the middle of a chapter and it would take me a couple of paragraphs to realize.

Thank you to Netgalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, & Anchor for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I just saw a glowing review (granted, in audiobook form) of this from a fellow bookstagrammer so I decided to start it on a long flight. It didn’t take me long while reading to decide it wasn’t for me. I don’t know how to describe this genre but I feel like it’s popular lately — reliving and unearthing bizarre experiences during college years. And it’s not really my vibe of book, and didn’t catch my interest at all, so I’ll be DNFing. Thanks anyway for the advanced copy.

In a story that tries to follow the lives and tribulations of twenty-somethings, The Rachel Incident missed the mark for me. The main characters in this novel, Rachel and James, become quick friends and we get a glimpse of a year of their lives filled with debauchery, new relationships and finding themselves. The issue, for me, comes in how they do this. I found both characters to be insufferable; they both come off extremely self-centered and immature in both their words and actions. Their mistreatment of everyone else in their lives is infuriating; every other relationship they have comes off shallow and only as important as how it benefits them. I kept reading this hoping for a moment of redemption for one or both characters, a moment where there was real growth that made it all more palatable and that moment never came. The glimpses of the older Rachel that we do get in this story have her explaining how her younger self misinterpreted situations, but I never really got a sense that realized how wrong they were.

I’ve seen this novel often compared to Sally Rooney novels, which I’ve read and enjoyed. I can see some of the comparison, as the writing styles are similar. The book overall is written well, the style is easy to read and technically speaking this book is well written. For me, however, it all comes back to the characters. I tried but couldn’t form any connection to Rachel and James, and because of this I found that the more I read, the more I gave up on them. Without that, the book fell flat and was a story that I wouldn’t want to revisit.

**Thank you very much to NetGalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, & Anchor for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.**

Rachel is a university student in Ireland working at a bookstore to make ends meet when she meets James, who almost instantly becomes her (not yet out) gay best friend and roommate. The blurb bills it as being about how they get tangled up in the life of Rachel's professor - who it turns out they both have a crush on - and his wife. That's the gist of the plot, but to me it's really a character-driven book about this friendship and about this transformative time in Rachel's life, thinking she's so grown up and trying to be all cool and mature and arty in the way 20-year-olds tend to go through, but of course making mistakes in romantic and family relationships along the way as actually becomes an adult. I haven't read enough Sally Rooney books to say for sure, but I definitely think it's a reasonable comp with the Irish setting, the age of the characters, the general tone, and the character relationship-driven storyline - though I would say this is like Sally Rooney but with a bit more warmth. I appreciated how Rachel was narrating the story as an adult, looking back at this time in her early 20s with a bit of perspective and knowledge of how some of the choices she made at that time were misinformed or questionable. Also really liked the idea of exploring a platonic relationship that feels like the same sort of all-in infatuation that you see with some young romantic relationships, and I thought the early 2000s great recession setting was interesting and evocative of a particular time of someone's life as well (admittedly that's also when I was in my early 20s, so maybe that's why I feel that!). ★★★.75

Others are loving The Rachel Incident, but I found it to be just okay. The Rachel Incident is a book about a women in her early adult years in Ireland, her friendships, relationships, struggles and mistakes. I know that this is meant to be a coming of age type of story, but it didn’t quite hit for me!

I’m also not sure why it was necessary to have the other two supporting characters both named James.

Many thanks for this advance reader copy!

Rachel is a college student living with her very best friend, a gay young man. Romance is everywhere and in about every iteration one can imagine, and everything is filled with angst. The story had its moments of revelations and introspection. Most of the characters do grow – thank goodness. I found parts of the story interesting and thoughtful but it did not keep my interest throughout; it seemed to ebb and flow. The ending was just too ‘easy’ and told with too much narrative rather than letting the events unfold. This might be one of the few books I’ve read recently that might suffer from a generation gap. I found the characters rather annoying and somewhat shallow. On the other hand, the coverage on abortion was enlightening. Thanks to NetGalley and Knopf for an advanced readers copy of this book. The opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.

This was a quiet book in that it didn't have a high-concept plot, yet it was completely readable. I was so invested in Rachel and James (both of them). It was both serious and hilarious, kind of like Marian Keyes or Mhairi McFarlene. I'm not sure how to define the genre: upmarket fiction or book club would probably describe it best. In any event, I really enjoyed it thoroughly. Just a slice of life of a young woman in her early twenties in Ireland. Recommend!

I was initially so excited about this book. I thought this coming of age story about Rachel, and a special relationship she shared with her friend James would be fun and interesting. I knew there were twists and turns concerning one of Rachel‘s professors. But frankly, this book did not work for me. I found the characters unlikable, and I simply couldn’t root for them. I didn’t care about them. I don’t mind unlikable characters; but more than once I kept wondering what the point was.

Based on the 4- and 5- star reviews I’ve seen, this is clearly a wonderful book for many people. It was just a miss for me.

Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Witty, thoughtful and so easy to fly through! Caroline provided depth to all characters without it becoming bulky and longwinded. I couldn’t put this book down and have found myself regularly recommending despite not being out yet! Excited to read more from this author.

Set mostly in Dublin, and beginning in 2009 during the economic recession, Rachel Murray is making her way through college, having chosen to study English, crushing on her Victorian Literature professor, Dr. Fred Byrne, and working at a bookstore, when she meets the new bookstore hire, James Devlin. A charmer, a young man who is obviously gay but does not admit to such, the two become fast friends and move in together. They are utterly connected to one another, living together in a best-friendship bubble, and then come the entanglements. A delightful novel that features love and trials and tribulations and growing up and making one's way.

Thanks to Netgalley and Knopf for the ARC.

This is a book that wormed its way into my brain.

One of those books that I really don't know if I'll recommend it to people, but a book I kept picking up because I felt the pull to find out more.

When I started it, I was a little thrown by the writing...switching from past to present and back to past within the same paragraph...Wait, are we current Rachel or 21 year old Rachel now? At about 20% I became used to that and the book started to pick up for me and I became invested the more I read.

I tend to shy away from books about early 20 somethings as I become aggravated by the "woe as me" behavior that seems to be the flavor of the month lately, but I didn't have that same feeling with this book. I think it is because it was set in 2008 amid a financial crisis, so there was a reason for the way they were living and there wasn't a lot of whining about their situation...Rachel and James embraced how they lived and did the best they could with the little they had.

I found the relationships between the characters multi layered and complex and definitely wanted to find out what happened next.

The Rachel Incident is a case of a book that started off "so-so" for me and became really good.

4.5 Stars

Wow, this was a fantastic read! O’Donoghue perfectly captured the mess, uncertainty, and intensity of being in your early twenties. Rachel and her best friend James were both infuriating characters that felt so authentic and relatable, even when they were being unlikable you couldn’t help but root for them. I found this book relatable since I was in my late teens in 2010 (where the events of this book take place) and it really threw me for a loop with all the nostalgia I felt, despite being in a different country. As Rachel would say, O’Donughue captured the ‘vibe.’ This book tackles some heavy themes like abortion and miscarriage, so tread lightly if it’s a sensitive topic. On that note, I think this book did an excellent job balancing heaviness with humor. Overall, highly recommend to all my literary fiction fans who enjoy Sally Rooney and Marian Keyes.

Once I got into this story, I really could not stop turning the pages. Quite simply it’s a love story between two twenty something friends that are trying to get life figured out. It was easy at times to be frustrated with Rachel and James’ decisions, but as they were so likeable, easy to forgive all their missteps. I found this funny, thought provoking and compelling. It felt so personal. I kept wondering if this was perhaps non-fiction? I thought these were well written characters and overall a really interesting and thoughtful story, with a very satisfying ending. Also very entertaining!

this was good! not my favorite thing I've ever read but for fans of Sally Rooney this is absolutely perfect. not my thing, but I could easily see it being someone else's favorite.

This is my first Caroline O’Donoghue, so I didn’t really know what to expect, but I finished it this afternoon and really, really loved it. I wasn’t entirely sure where it was going for roughly the first half - It was fairly slow to start but not boring, and I was interested enough to keep going. I’m happy to say that when I got around 65-70%, it felt like it really ramped up to where I couldn’t put it down until I finished it.

The characters felt authentic and hit the right balance of being annoying and exhausting at times, but still likable and making you root for them. Rachel is telling the story from present-day London, and provides commentary and insights into the story and about her younger self, which tempers the more grating characteristics of young adults. I saw another reviewer say she does this without being hard on her younger self and having compassion for her, which I would agree with and really loved.

Even though I didn’t relate to Rachel and James’s specific situations, I was brought back to the messiness, feelings of instability and untetheredness of being in your early 20’s, especially since I graduated college in 2010 and faced a terrible job market that set graduates from that time back so much, and are still feeling the effects of in our lives. It looks at relationships and how important and complicated they can be, how we get in our own way and perceive things because of it, and how even though we feel stuck and will never figure things out, somehow pieces fall into place, even if it's not when or exactly how we wanted them to. Sexuality and reproductive rights are also key to the story, some similarities which we see and hear about in the US, but we also see them in a different context within Ireland, especially with the repeal referendum having been so recent, in 2018.

I really loved the writing style, and O'Donoghue is so good at capturing how humor works its way into serious situations. The book is heavy and emotional at times, but it's also funny, comforting and hopeful. It's literary fiction, but not intimidating or pretentious, and I think it will appeal to a lot of different readers.

Overall I was so surprised by this story, mostly because I was going in pretty blind, and I've been thinking about it ever since finishing. The Rachel Incident is a story that reminds me why I love reading so much, and I will definitely be buying a hard copy for my collection. Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for an eArc of the book.

I absolutely loved the way Rachel’s experience was presented to the reader. Looking back, Rachel calls attention to the mistakes of her younger years without being cruel to herself. She acknowledges the ways we can be flawed and self centered when we’re young, but also the ways people take advantage of young people that are so difficult to see in the moment. I found myself at times being frustrated with Rachel for her immaturity but ultimately so empathetic for the struggles she works through. Early-twenties are HARD!

This book is perfect for anyone who understands the special kind of support that comes from a found family. The relationships (romantic but also friendships and family relationships) in this book were each so different and so thoroughly investigated that I will be thinking about them for a long, long time.

So, off the bat I should say that I’m a huge fan of Caroline O’Donoghue and was really excited to read THE RACHEL INCIDENT.
And I’m happy to say I loved it…. for the most part. It’s messy, hilarious at times and warm-hearted, BUT I can’t help but feel disappointed by the neat and tidy ending which I personally feel let the whole thing down. A few loose ends would have been fine…. All in all though, there’s a lot to love and I continue to be a fan. Thank you so much for advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!

I'll be honest - I got a widget for this book because of my glowing review of Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow.... which is really confusing given how dramatically different the books are. The Rachel Incident is a literary fiction account of the life of Rachel Murray as she struggles to break into the publishing industry. It focuses a lot on life in Ireland and the abortion ban there. I definitely went in expecting a salacious relationship with a teacher, and it's not that. Instead we watch Rachel self-sabotage until she's near rock bottom. The narrator did a phenomenal job with the book, I just wanted more tension and plot rather than all the character-motivated business.

*Thank you to Knopf and NetGalley for the eARC and PRH Audio for the gifted ALC in exchange for my honest review*