Caroline O'Donoghue

At first I thought I'd stumbled upon a Mills & Boon for Millennials. Then I thought I might not be all that interested as I'm scarcely the same generation as Rachel and her friends and colleagues, stumbling through messy early adulthood. But almost against my will, I was drawn in to the convoluted affairs and working arrangements of Rachel, and her gay friend and flat mate James. We begin in 209, and there's a recession on, which colours everyone's prospects, including Rachel's middle class dentist parents.

Rachel is at first finishing her English degree while also working in a bookshop. She fancies her professor. But he, it turns out, has begun an affair with James, although he's married to the woman whom Rachel is in due course working for as an intern, and Rachel has fallen for someone who's fallen for her too, but has a habit of disappearing ... It's all intriguingly complicated and believable.

It's gossipy, witty, wry and a real page turner. Recommended.… (more)

Gr 9 Up—Maeve hopes that her uncanny knack for interpreting an old deck of tarot cards will be her ticket to
popularity at school. Then her former best friend Lily draws a mysterious card before she goes missing. Maeve must
delve into the origins of the cards and her own culpability in the disappearance and, with help from Lily's
genderqueer sibling and new friends, try to get Lily back. Original fantasy elements brilliantly combine with mysticism
and folklore for an inventive series starter.… (more)

I listened to this, it's an excellent audiobook. I looked up an interview with the author, and found out that she wrote this during the first year of COVID, wanting to write something that would help her and the people who read it feel good. She's done it, it's a funny, warm-hearted book. There is tension, but the narrator (Rachel) tells part of the story from her older-self; so you always know she will end up OK.

It's an Irish novel, set in Cork where Rachel and her best friend James are coping with the economic depression of 2009 and with figuring out their own identities and futures; while spending time going to parities, bars and getting drunk; and in between school and working in a failing bookstore.

Here is a passage, as Rachel reflects on her choice of getting a degree in literature:

“I liked dead women talking glibly about society. I liked long paragraphs about rationing and sexual awakenings in France.”… (more)