blackrock_bunny 's review for:

The Rachel Incident by Caroline O'Donoghue
2.0
dark emotional funny 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: Yes
I started off really enjoying this book, in spite of how awful the main characters are (I normally can't finish a book if I find the characters really unpleasant, so it's a testament to how good a writer O'Donoghue is that I stuck with it), but by the end I wanted to throw it across the room. As a Gen X woman I really thought the younger generations of women were doing such an amazing job of breaking free of the internalised misogyny that my generation and those before haven't been so successful at doing, but I was really disgusted to read, in the closing pages of the book
how Rachel was so glad that Deenie had a partner and stepchildren and that she hadn't been "left with nothing". Because a woman is "nothing" without a man and children, right?! Even though we know from earlier in the book that Deenie has a career she loves and a great group of friends – that's "nothing" according to the author.

So while O'Donoghue might congratulate herself for writing about women having kinky sex and abortions, she might want to dig a bit deeper into her own internalised misogyny and see that she still has a bit of work to do. 
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