Reviews with content warning for Abortion - The Rachel Incident

Reviews tagging 'Abortion'

The Rachel Incident by Caroline O'Donoghue

196 reviews

kaddictwithapen's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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ameliahockey's review against another edition

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hopeful sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I inhaled this book, it's the first thing I've read in ages where I was desperate to keep reading. Rachel and James (and Carey) were so vividly drawn, flawed and wonderful. I loved the reference to Rachel working in a thinly veiled Foyles, I worked there around the same time and the same age so it made me very nostalgic.

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bookishstevie's review against another edition

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3.75

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danajoy's review against another edition

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emotional reflective

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes

4.25

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bethantg's review against another edition

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medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

Definitely has friendship and relationships at its heart, with some interesting discussions about the grey areas of these relationships. My favourite aspect of this was the focus on how different people express their care for one another in unconventional ways, or how their struggle to show it at all. But for a character-focused book, the protagonist is massively lacking. She is only really defined by her actions, which she’s often unhappy with, but offers no introspection into these actions other than “I did a bad thing and I feel bad about it.” She also does nothing to rectify these mistakes or grow from them — if they’re resolved, it’s a matter of chance or another character’s decision.

(Carey for the former and Deenie for the latter.)

Her older self is not a character at all, more of a vessel that the story happens to.
Despite this gripe, this is well-written and an interesting coming-of-age story that just unfortunately didn’t really resonate with me on many points.

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murderousscottishgremlin's review against another edition

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emotional funny reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

This book feels like the literary child of Taylor Jenkins Reid and Sally Rooney. I like O’Donoghue’s writing style.

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katewhite77's review against another edition

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challenging emotional funny hopeful sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

The kind of book you just want to hug.

This is a book about how hard it is to be a human being sometimes. Especially those early years of adulthood when you haven't quite found yourself yet.

The strange thing is that none of the characters are likeable, but neither are they unlikeable. This is firstly a reflection of all of us all, as I aluded to earlier, but also a reflection of how good the writing is because I felt I knew each of the main players intermety.

I would suggest going into this fairly blind plot wise and letting the story unravel itself before you. However, one important theme is women's reproductive health/rights.

If you like a twisy, turny book about messy relationships, which aren't always romantic, then this one is far you.

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