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Caroline O'Donoghue

Autor(a) de All Our Hidden Gifts

8+ Works 1,069 Membros 32 Reviews

About the Author

Includes the name: Caroline O’Donoghue

Séries

Obras de Caroline O'Donoghue

Associated Works

Furies: Stories of the wicked, wild and untamed (2023) — Contribuinte — 57 cópias

Etiquetado

2022 (3) 2023 (5) 21st century (3) 4-stars (3) ARC (8) contemporary (6) currently-reading (4) ebook (4) fantasy (41) fiction (55) friendship (14) gay (4) Ireland (29) Irish (4) Irish author (9) Irish fiction (3) Kindle (8) lgbt (10) LGBTQ (12) LGBTQ+ (3) LGBTQIA+ (4) London (3) magic (15) mystery (11) novel (4) paranormal (11) queer (5) read (4) sff (3) supernatural (7) tarot (17) tarot cards (3) teen (5) thriller (3) to-read (74) urban fantasy (3) witches (9) witchy (5) YA (19) young adult (25)

Conhecimento Comum

Data de nascimento
20th century
Sexo
female
Nacionalidade
Ireland

Membros

Resenhas

(9) It dawned on me while I was reading this that at some point maybe I won't be able to relate to a coming of age novel from the female perspective due to my personal age. Does there come a time when an older individual can't relate to a 20-something anymore or are the themes universal? Why should I be able to relate to a young person on the struggle bus in Ancient Rome, or Victorian England but not the 2010's? In a well written novel, the ability to relate should be unaffected by space and time. And after much reflection, I think this author achieves universality despite writing about a specific time, place, and person.

Rachel is a middle class Irish student finishing a University degree in English in Cork. The recession is in full swing and she and her family are feeling the pinch. She lives in an unheated bohemian house with her newfound gay BFF and works in a bookstore. She wears dirty clothes, drinks too much, is somewhat irresponsible, and is struggling through serial monogamy, kinda. Maybe she is having an affair with a professor. The contextual detail is excellent, and while I could not relate to the politics of texting while dating, I could relate to the overanalyzed moves and countermoves that define the first serious love of your life. I think I might have lived in a similar house in Boston, and had a few candidate Jameses.

I think men have been writing this same book for centuries and we call it a timeless bildungsroman. Women write it and we too easily dismiss it as chick-lit. Some books of this type make me eye-roll at the self-involvement of the protagonist - O'Donoghue's Rachel is too close to the bone for it to have crossed my mind. For me, this is a better book upon reflection than I appreciated while I was reading it. I am not sure I appreciated the artistry while binging on what seemed a fun romp through some random woman's 20's. This prevents a higher rating, but I think this author is capable of greatness.
… (mais)
 
Marcado
jhowell | outras 14 resenhas | Mar 24, 2024 |
this didn't start off great for me. didn't like rachel, not sure if i like her now, but as always, we love plotless character driven books about girls struggling through life and work and love and mental breakdowns in their 20s. even though this wasn't perfect for me - moments of overwhelming frustration and characters i couldn't care about - i knew i was going to like this book from the moment i knew it was irish fiction and i thought it was a good read
 
Marcado
Ellen-Simon | outras 14 resenhas | Feb 23, 2024 |
Rachel's in her final year at university in Cork, Ireland when she takes a part-time job at a bookstore. It's 2009, and her parents are not weathering the economic crash well, which shakes her out of her comfortable middle-class existence. She and James get along beautifully, quickly developing the inside jokes and secret language of longtime friends. It's 2009, and James is reluctant to be openly gay, although he is in a relationship with an older, married man, a man he met through Rachel, who is taking a seminar with the professor. As they both enjoy life and struggle to figure out what they do next, what kinds of relationships they will have, what kind of career they can put together, the one constant is their friendship.

This is a straightforward coming-of-age story. While this novel is set in a very specific time and place, this story of a young woman trying to figure out how to be, trying on different identities while always seeing herself as larger and more inept than other see her, is a universal one. O'Donoghue has taken the ordinary and made it into something that shines. This is a very well-written and well-structured novel that allows Rachel to make some mistakes and bad decisions while never making her a mess. She's figuring out what adulthood entails, just like everyone has to. It's also refreshing to read a novel like this that isn't set at some elite university located in London or New York. Cork in 2009 is vividly described, that feeling of being in a place that holds your entire world while also being aware that it isn't a particularly large or important location. I'm looking forward to reading more by this author.
… (mais)
 
Marcado
RidgewayGirl | outras 14 resenhas | Nov 20, 2023 |
A poignant, gently funny coming-of-age story set in Cork City just as the Great Recession hits. The eponymous Rachel is trying to navigate life while finishing her degree at UCC; there are of course many twists and turns along the way. Caroline O'Donoghue has a great ear for the cadences of Irish speech and for capturing relationships in a way that feels emotionally true. (And yes, I'm going to go there: better on both counts than That Other Contemporary Irish Novelist Writing About Twentysomething Women. O'Donoghue is far less at risk of vanishing up her own bum.) I was roughly the same age as Rachel in 2009 and going through some similar life stages and there were more than a few moments in The Rachel Incident where I had a little shock of recognition. Recommended if you're looking for a warm-hearted bit of contemporary fiction.… (mais)
1 vote
Marcado
siriaeve | outras 14 resenhas | Nov 1, 2023 |

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Estatísticas

Obras
8
Also by
1
Membros
1,069
Popularidade
#24,076
Avaliação
3.9
Resenhas
32
ISBNs
54
Idiomas
5

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