This was a book that continually surprised me and in the best possible way. It’s a book about being young, wanting what your older peers have, keeping secrets, and what happens when those secrets take over.
The blurb tells us that our main character Rachel is attracted to her literature professor – and that her gay best friend James decides they can entertain themselves by planning her seduction of him. From this, I had certain expectations of the book that were quickly subverted. There were plenty of times The Rachel Incident surprised me and kept me powering through to see what on earth James and Rachel would get up to next as they try to find their place in the world.
Caroline O’Donoghue has created a compelling narrative here that doesn’t run to the salacious but is nonetheless dramatic and believable. Told largely in retrospect, the older Rachel intersperses this tumultuous time in her life with her older and wiser self, and the book ends well with loose ends coming together and many hatchets buried. A balanced coming-of-age story that is also a real page turner.
Welloflostplots 