manikahemmerixh 's review for:

The Rachel Incident by Caroline O'Donoghue

3.0

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I think that I was expecting to feel the drama of this book a bit more, but somehow it was just a bit empty for me. There were a lot of things that were introduced that I was like woah, I'd like to unpack that a lot more, and then it was just on to the next. Especially in the last half of the book. I think most of my problems narrow down to that I wasn't a huge fan of the perspective being grown adult Rachel narrating the story. I suppose grown adult Rachel would have worked through those things and tampered them in her memory, but the raw emotion of these complicated events would have been really interesting. I did like how much personality was given to the characters though, and the overall concept is compelling.

Ex. Rachel and Deenie both seem to believe they have some sort of friendship, which would add a layer to the betrayal of her knowing Fred is sleeping with James and doing nothing about it, but I didn't feel that friendship. If anything I felt more embarrassed for Rachel every time she inserted her life into the Harrington-Byrnes' than sympathetic. And I don't think that enough emphasis was put on just how messed up it is for Fred to throw Rachel under the bus to protect himself. She was complicit in knowing about his affair, and "reaping it's benefits" and not saying anything (how could she, really??) and that somehow makes it ok for him to effectively ruin her life?