Book Review – The Rachel Incident

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 and one hell 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.

You can buy the Rachel Incident here.