Talking About Books: “The Rachel Incident” by Caroline O’Donoghue

Fiction At Its Finest - Or Is It?

Claudine Book Summary / Analysis

The Rachel Incident by Caroline O’Donoghue

Genre:

literary fiction, contemporary, young adult-ish, some describe as Sally Rooney-ish, Ireland, gay themes, romance

How I Found It:

Sarah’s BookShelves Podcast (btw, a fabulous podcast where many, many books are introduced and discussed. Ms Sarah also runs a Patreon Page (linked on her website) for this podcast offering paid subscribers special episodes and community privileges - a great example of monetizing a podcast.

What I loved:

I listened to the audio version of this book (Clara Harte) and loved it. Ms Harte did a great job complete with authentic Irish accent.

I loved the cover of the book.

I loved the title of the book - The Rachel Incident - I already want to know what the heck happened to Rachel.

In truth, I almost gave up on this one. The writing was fine and the characters seemed interesting, but nothing happened to them for a while. Rachel is the narrator and she is a college student who works in a bookstore and meets who turns out to be her best friend, James.

The truth is that the characters seemed abominably selfish and I thought, “maybe this is how young people are these days, just concerned with themselves and making unethical choices for their own purposes.” Unsavory thoughts aside, I stuck with it and I am so glad I did because O’Donoghue reveals a kaleidoscope of depth through her characters in her story.

The evolving story eruditely shows growth, introspection, and real understanding of life and what’s important mostly through Rachel. “The incident” lends interesting propulsion to the story and proves that people have many layers, don’t they? We aren’t all just one thing or another thing. I should not have been so judgy and I am tickled that I stuck with it. You’ll enjoy this one.

Claudine’s Note: I’ve been adding book reviews to my Substack. You will see more. I’m expanding my newsletter to include book reviews, lifestyle stuff and general musings. Hope you like reading it as much as I like writing it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~