The Rachel Incident – 3/5 ✩
The Rachel Incident is a novel about the young lives of Rachel and James and the chaos that they find themselves in while living together in Ireland. At the start of the novel, Rachel and James quickly become best friends and when Dr. Fred Byrne enters their lives, they become connected in a way that can never be severed.
Rachel was a funny and witty narrator; I found her narration to be hilarious at times and I found myself empathizing with her at others. I loved her character and I loved her growth. I also loved her relationship with James and with both of their subsequent love interests.
The Rachel incident is a book of character development and I especially loved Rachel’s moments of introspection throughout the story. I think this was magnified because of the way the story was told; Rachel begins telling her story in the present day, then dives back into her past to clue readers into how she she ended up where she is in the present day. This gave her the unique opportunity to look at her past with the clarity of years of hindsight.
I also really enjoyed the way Rachel was able to look back at her past and contextualize it for readers. It was eye opening to think about concepts like homosexuality and abortion and be able to compare that with how they are viewed and handled today.
The reason though that I only give the book 3/5 ✩ is because I enjoyed the beginning far more than I enjoyed the end. The beginning drew me in so quickly, and I can’t really identify what it is, but I felt the whole time like something was missing. Almost like I was waiting for the story to actually start and I feel kind of like it never did.
And while most everything was tied together at the end, the final scene was such a let down for me and I was waiting for more. I feel like the book needed at least one more scene at the very end, because although Rachel’s part in the story is done, James’ isn’t and I really wanted to see the aftermath of that because he was such an integral part of the story at the beginning.
Overall, the book was was enjoyable and I really did like the characters, but it left me wanted a little bit too much more at the end.
Anchored Musings 