You won't get scabies, but you will love this book
Book Talk | The Rachel Incident by Caroline O'Donoghue
This review is 299 words. So crisp.
In 2010 I visited Cork, Ireland with my high school Irish Literature class. All I remember of Cork is visiting the college and sneaking out of the hotel to drink on our last night. I was 17, an excited, drinking neophyte. I had two Jägerbombs. Those I don’t recommend.
What I DO recommend is The Rachel Incident by Caroline O’Donoghue. It was a delight to visit Cork again in this novel. Told as a retrospective from Rachel’s point of view, the story follows a formative year of her twenties, living with her new friend James Devlin.
The novel digs into friendship, class, sexuality, and growing up. But at the core of each theme, it is really a story about how we use and misuse other people to figure out who we are and what we want. Sometimes, I laughed. Others, I winced. I admit, it’s a mirror I didn’t always want to look into. But O’Donoghue makes these moments sharp, random, and funny. The narrator’s self-aware comments on the lunacy of her choices make you feel like you can laugh at your own.
Some reviewers say these moments make Rachel and James “unlikeable,” but I found them charmingly weird. James’ opening line about scabies? Iconic and so very confusing. Staging an entire event at a bookshop to get the attention of a man? If only I had a bookshop!
Ironically, many of these “unlikeable” reviews are by twenty-somethings on BookTok. Maybe the young adults of 2025 are just more mature than the rest of us, or maybe hindsight really is 20/20.
It’s the structure that makes this story work though. Throughout the novel O’Donoghue scatters micro-scenes that seem like throwaway moments, but by the end, there’s an easygoing symmetry. This could feel cheesy. Here, it's brilliant.
Final Thoughts: Complete delight. Well-crafted and witty. My go-to summer recommendation right now.
Who Should Read The Rachel Incident? Irish Lit fans. Coming-of-age lovers. Friendship nerds. Non-ethical non-monogamists. Contemporary fiction readers. Romantic realists who still want that dash of happily-ever-after.
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