Caroline O'Donoghue is a New York Times best-selling author and the host of the award-winning podcast Sentimental Garbage. She has written two previous novels for adults, Promising Young Women and Scenes of a Graphic Nature. She has also written the best-selling supernatural series for teenagers, All Our Hidden Gifts. She was born in Ireland and currently lives in London.
I loved it
*Cosmopolitan*
It's funny and nostalgic and the sex scenes are actually sexy ...
it's everything I want from a summer book
*Elle Summer Reads*
If you've ever had a literary internship that didn't really pay
you; if you've ever contemplated writing a screenplay with a
friend; if you've ever been unsure what to do with your degree in
English; if you've ever wondered when the rug-buying part of your
life will start; if you've ever avoided going home or run out of
things to say to your parents; if you've ever built your life and
your personality around a friend; if you've ever loved the wrong
person, or the right person at the wrong time... In short, if
you've ever been young, you will love The Rachel Incident like I
did
*Gabrielle Zevin, author of TOMORROW AND TOMORROW AND TOMORROW*
Made me realise I'd never properly understood the word 'whipsmart'
till now. Hilarious, wise and wonderfully written
*Graham Norton*
A book full of love, and it is extremely easy to love reading
it
*Vogue*
Chaos at its finest
*Stylist*
A headlong read about being young and hopelessly in lust . . .
Funny, fond and wittily observed
*Sunday Times, Best Summer Reads*
So intimately warm and witty that reading it is like hearing your
funniest, sexiest friend tell you the best story they know. It's
about being a young idiot, and the glorious intensity of friendship
in your early twenties
*Katherine Rundell*
Deeply relatable and extremely funny, and features a dinner party
scene so awkward I had to put the book down and do a bit of
breathing before I continued
*Observer*
Sometimes the most passionate love stories are platonic. As sharply
witty as it is warm-hearted and wise, this coming-of-age story
about an Irish graduate and her gay best friend captures the
intensity of friendship, the brittle craziness of youth and the
desperation of gunning for an arts job in a recession
*Guardian, Best Summer Reads*
Every so often, a novel comes around that makes you excited about
reading again. For me, this year that is Caroline O'Donoghue's
gripping, moving The Rachel Incident, which looks like it could be
branded the book of the summer . . . The book is full of witty
insights that get you right to the heart of the character . . .
O'Donoghue is a funny, smart, fearless voice who strikes the
perfect balance of realism and romance, and The Rachel Incident is
a stormer of a novel
*i news*
A deliciously complicated and very real romance with some
refreshing twists. O'Donoghue captures all the intensity of messy
young love, burnishing it with nostalgia and pointed wit
*Mail on Sunday*
Caroline O'Donoghue perfectly captures the intensity and high and
lows of first love, and while The Rachel Incident is steeped in
nostalgia and heartache, it's also very, very funny
*Red Magazine*
An unconventional love story filled with heart and humour . . .
You'll gobble up The Rachel Incident in one bite and be left hungry
for more
*Daily Express*
The story feels slick and refined like a HBO series, but what gives
it heart is O'Donoghue's raucous humour slathered on top. It's a
deeply satisfying novel about friendship, love and the uncertain
Ireland of 2010
*Irish Times*
Caroline O'Donoghue's best work yet, a rich and nuanced read which
is endlessly entertaining
*Irish Independent*
Will make you laugh and wince with its depiction of 20-something
life
*Independent, Best Romantic Summer Reads*
Books by Irish women writers are hot these days, and this novel is
on fire . . . O'Donoghue deepens the familiar coming-of-age premise
with riveting moral complications
*People Magazine, Book of the Week*
O'Donoghue has a sharp eye for the tumultuous life of a young woman
struggling to figure out who she is . . . profoundly satisfying . .
. O'Donoghue has found a way to tell this story in scenes both
heartbreaking and funny
*Washington Post*
Capturing the problems and intensity of early 20-something life,
with the added complications of the restrictions of Catholic
Ireland, this bittersweet story is at times laugh-out-loud
funny
*Best Magazine*
Hilarious, messy, and all the things being young and infatuated can
often be, The Rachel Incident
creates a world so vivid you feel it wrap around you . . . This
book won't leave you willingly, nor will you want it to
*Independent*
An nostalgia-drenched story about intense, 20-something love - with
our friends
*Grazia*
The stage is set for a deliciously complicated and very real
romance with some refreshing twists . . . all the intensity of
messy young love, burnishing it with nostalgia and pointed wit
*Mail on Sunday*
A compulsive, all-consuming story about love, friendship and the
messiness of being young
*The i, Best New Books out in June*
The kind of warm-hearted and genuinely funny novel that's the
perfect antidote to a bad news day
*Sunday Business Post*
Exuberant, bitingly satirical . . . Recalls the fiction of both
Sally Rooney and Anne Tyler as the author interrogates the dynamics
of power, from academia to publishing houses to bedrooms . . .
O'Donoghue steers us toward reckonings large and small, her hand
steady on the tiller . . . A gratifying, accomplished novel
*New York Times*
Gorgeous, bittersweet and true
*Jenny Colgan*
The QFJ Index is HIGH (Queasy from Jealousy) on The Rachel
Incident, easily 13/10. Funny, LOVELY, romantic, DRENCHED in
nostalgia, it made me extremely happy (apart from the jealousy). I
sense it'll be a BIG success
*Marian Keyes*
Delightful! So funny and smart
*Ann Napolitano, author of HELLO BEAUTIFUL*
Navigates a young Irishwoman's chaotic early 20s with a cozy warmth
that had me laughing out loud throughout. This is one of those
catch-yourself-smiling-without-realizing-it books
*NPR*
Caroline O'Donoghue, where have you been all my life? The Rachel
Incident is a transportive joy, a superhighway to young friendship.
Big-hearted, witty and expertly crafted - I want to live inside
this book
*Sloane Crosley, author of CULT CLASSIC*
Starkly funny and heartbreaking
*Time Magazine*
I haven't enjoyed a book as much as The Rachel Incident in a long
time - so, so sharp, funny and painfully relatable. These
characters defy tropes and stereotypes, they come alive on the
page. I adored them
*Laura Kay, author of TELL ME EVERYTHING*
I really loved this book. It was gentle yet compelling and I was
truly rooting for each character, even the ones I didn't like.
Caroline has a talent for writing complex characters with humour
and tact. The Rachel Incident kept me guessing while feeling deeply
comforted the whole way through
*Emer McLysaght, author of OH MY GOD WHAT A COMPLETE AISLING*
A book I took to my heart. . . A truly lovely read; complex in its
emotional range, funny, poignant, heart-breaking, beautifully
plotted, with clever, pacey dialogue, vivid characters and a
shocking plot twist that left me gasping in horror
*Barbara Trapido, author of BROTHER OF THE MORE FAMOUS JACK*
I didn't know books could be this hilarious. The Rachel Incident is
so warm and comforting, and the characters so real. I can't believe
Rachel and James aren't people that I know -- I care about them so
deeply!
*Annie Lord, author of NOTES ON HEARTBREAK*
I just had such a blast reading this book, honestly - it was sharp
and romantic, and horribly funny, and so wise about love and youth.
Glorious
*Eva Wiseman*
A gripping story, beautifully written, with an expertly woven plot,
packed with charm and suspense that sneaks up on you and leaves you
rooting for the characters and gasping for more. A masterful,
mesmerising tale of the joy of obsessive and consuming friendship,
the secrets that bind us, and the damage we can't help but inflict
on the ones we love the most
*Justin Myers, author of THE FAKE-UP*
The Rachel Incident worked its way under my skin and into my heart
and has stayed there for months. It's such a beautifully observed,
open-hearted, clever, horny, desperately funny, joy of a book. It
captures, with unique eloquence, those years in our early twenties
when every feeling reveals an exposed nerve, when every small event
is tragedy or ecstasy, when we're trying to shape, and reshape (and
reshape again), who it is we want to become. I adored it
*Kate Young, author of EXPERIENCED*
By turns hilarious and heartfelt, breezy and bittersweet, The
Rachel Incident is a full-throated, big-hearted romp through early
adulthood
*Christina Baker Kline, author of Orphan Train*
Caroline O'Donoghue writes characters that just sort of melt from
the page and into your life - they are so relatable, so likeable,
so beautifully messy. Her story of twenty-somethings stumbling
through life, trying to find themselves but usually finding awful
rented accommodation and crappy jobs instead is instantly
relatable. There is a dinner party scene so brilliantly staged and
so exquisitely uncomfortable, I had to read it through my fingers,
like watching some sort of horror movie. Books so rarely capture
the sheer chaos, heartache, misery and euphoria of our twenties,
effectively the internship stage of adulthood in so many ways, but
this one does it effortlessly. A truly charming, moving, funny and
sad novel
*Keith Stuart, author of THE BOY MADE OF BLOCKS*
Has engaging central characters and relevant things to say about
ghosting, student dog years, reproductive healthcare and the
destructiveness of small-town gossip
*Independent*
Caroline O'Donoghue shines a laser beam on young adulthood,
particularly the crazy intensity of those messy, beautiful
friendships forged in the fires of romantic crisis. The Rachel
Incident made me nostalgic for my early twenties. But even more
than that, it made me wish I could go back and hug the person I was
back then and tell her she'll be okay
*Lauren Fox, author of Send For Me*
I can't explain the sheer unadulterated glee of reading this. It's
so good and absorbing and funny and honest and horny. And when I
finished, I was bereft ... O'Donoghue's observant, incredibly smart
writing and character work and story are just the peak of modern
fiction for me right now
*Lizzie Huxley-Jones, author of MAKE YOU MINE THIS CHRISTMAS*
An absolute pleasure is the only way I can describe the sensation
of losing myself in this ceaselessly charming, vulnerable,
atmospheric story of human connection and self-discovery. Fans of
Sally Rooney and Coco Mellors will delight in the cozy Irish vibes
and glimmering voice of Caroline O'Donoghue.
*Amanda Montell, author of WORDSLUT and CULTISH*
Capturing the madness and intensity of early 20-something life,
with the added complications of the restrictions of Catholic
Ireland, this joyful, passionate story from the author of Promising
Young Women is at times spit-out-your-tea funny - and always a
bittersweet delight
*Bookseller, Editor's Choice*
Completely engrossing, intensely intimate, full of wry wit and
hard-learned insights about finding friends and holding on to love.
I'm struggling to think of a single person I know who wouldn't love
this book
*Matthew Parker, author of ONE FINE DAY*
An amusing coming-of-age saga
*Sunday Independent, Ones to Watch*
A sensational new entry in the burgeoning millennial-novel
genre
*Kirkus Reviews (starred)*
Wry, charming and fun, O'Donoghue knocks it out of the park with
her third adult novel
*RTE Guide*
A brilliantly entertaining, poignant novel about sex, friendship,
and both losing and finding yourself
*Irish Country Magazine*
Sharp, wryly original ... quirky, eminently readable, funny
*RTE, The best Irish books of 2023*
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