A review by capy
The Rachel Incident by Caroline O'Donoghue

emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

This is what it’s like to love an unreliable man, or to have an untenable job, or an unsteady parent, or an ill child. It is the outfit you constantly dress up and down, accessorising it according to what insecurities hang well, what caveats are the most slimming.

decided to get to this now since it's currently a free title on audible plus (in which the narrator says "harukU murakami" at a certain point... but otherwise, the voice acting was solid)

i absolutely loved the retrospective narration choice. offering hindsight from a future we're expecting, breaking the fourth wall, all of that. i'm a big fan of books that force you to be Aware. i've been typically put off by plots that involve
pregnancy
as a center point but, considering the book's structure and the occasional social commentary on 2010s ireland, it felt handled meaningfully

When something good happens to you at that age, you can’t settle with the notion that it’s a one-off. You want it to be the beginning of a tradition. That’s how I felt about that night: I wanted it already to be a memory, a foundational one, a first evening of many similar evenings. I wanted future nostalgia, a rear-view, years-old fondness for something that had literally just happened.

definitely related to a chunk of the experiences you go through in your 20s (bildungsroman, as i learned today lol), in intimacy or in friendships, who we choose to keep around and who ends up fading away, what is forcibly expected of young adults to navigate, everything tender and gritty in between. i do think the book would've benefited from shedding more light on rachel's career path, as opposed to the consistent focus on the lives of her peers

very understandable why i've seen this described as 'conversations with friends' without the depression gene. overall, a safe recommendation for that slice of life itch