The Rachel Incident

Ahhhhhh!!!!!! All I can say is I was incredibly enthralled by the characters, Rachel and Deenie in particular. Rachel is extremely flawed, but I found myself seriously relating to her. There are entire sections that I felt were plucked directly from my head. Codependency, for example, was shown so well through her internal thoughts and dialogue between her and james. It was all so incredibly honest.

Again, Rachel did some bad things and none of them are excusable and still, I wanted Rachel to win so badly. I wanted her to get what she wanted. I hated who she hated, loved who she loved, was obsessed with all the same things. I wanted her to seek out petty revenge from everyone who'd ever made her feel small even though it wouldn't be fair. I wanted the (mostly) good people in this story to be bad because that would've made loving Rachel so much easier. She was self aware in the most dangerous way, in that she can pinpoint her role in hurting others and feels hopeless about it. At the same time, you can't deny that she'd been used. And punished. It was pretty heart wrenching to read how she was treated at the graduation, all based on a lie to spare someone else. It just felt so horrible. I don't know how else to explain it.

Nearing the end, I realized that resolution is what I wanted for everyone. Despite the turmoil Deemie suffered, it was incredibly fulfilling to see how things changed with her. I don't know if I would've coped as healthily as her, so I respect her character so much. Ultimately, I think this book teaches you to cope with people's shitty behavior (even your own!) with empathy and context. Every bad decision we make is to protect ourselves or others. That doesn't make it any better. But it helps us understand why we keep messing up and hurting people. I think that's all we can do.

Apart from plot/characters, the pacing of this was what helped me get through this so quick. I would prepare for a long chapter, only for it to fly by without me noticing. Each chapter, no matter how long, transitioned so smoothly and was easy to breeze through. The last few chapters feel a bit rushed because it skips time so quickly. However, I think the quickness was necessary to get to the last chapter without giving unnecessary detail over a longer span of time.

The writing itself is the most impressive part to me. It was so witty and the ‘drama' was so fleshed out. I was invested in every single relationship, in every single slip-up or obstacle. It was also just so versatile. It was devastating and funny and complicated. I've read too many books that are so invested in plot, they forget to say something important in a hard-hitting way. Some people are great at making interesting/unique concepts for stories, some people truly understand the craft of writing. O'Donoghue is great at both and it feels effortless in my opinion.

The endings of chapters were also so so interesting to me. I think landing on ‘mundane' images or statements to move forward works really well in stories like this. A really intimate moment cannot end on something explosive or dramatic. It works so well when these moments end on the fineness of tea leaves, on the printed-off email tucked somewhere, on a kiss planted on a neck. Writing poetry is one of my favorite things ever and this is usually my go-to way to end poems. Devastate them with a lasting image that pulls in their senses, something that grounds them.

I love love loved this novel. It was just genuinely refreshing. I also just have this weird urge to cry silently whenever a main character seems to resolve their issues and get closure (maybe because I'm living vicariously through them?). So I did a little bit of crying with this one and that was so satisfying.