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Thirst Trap
A group of three best friends in Belfast approach thirty and start to question their days at dead-end entry-level jobs, and their nights of never-ending bar tabs.
Sometimes friends hold you together.
Sometimes they’re why you’re falling apart.
Harley, Róise, and Maggie have been friends for ages. After meeting in primary school years ago, the women are still together, spending their nights on the sticky dancefloors of Belfast’s grungiest pubs. Each woman is navigating her own tangle of entry-level jobs, messy romantic entanglements, and late nights, but they always find their way back to each other, and to the ramshackle house they share.
Harley is lusting after the landlord and trying doggedly to learn to play the piano. Róise’s fallen for someone at work, and isn’t sure she’s ready for something new after a devastating break-up. Maggie has taken up running in the hopes of wooing a woman who can’t be bothered to send her more than an after-hours “you out?” text. And amidst the familiar chaos, the three girls are still grieving the tragic death of their friend, Lydia, whose room remains untouched. Their last big fight hangs heavy over their heads, unspoken since the accident.
The girls’ house has witnessed the highs and lows of their roaring twenties—raucous parties, surprising (and sometimes regrettable) hook-ups, and hellish hangovers. But as they approach thirty, their home begins to crumble around them and the faultlines in their group become harder to ignore. In the wreckage, they must decide if their friendship will survive into a new decade—or if growing up sometimes means letting go.
Brimming with heart and humor, Thirst Trap is an exuberant ode to friendship and a reminder that a little mess isn’t always such a bad thing.
Sometimes friends hold you together.
Sometimes they’re why you’re falling apart.
Harley, Róise, and Maggie have been friends for ages. After meeting in primary school years ago, the women are still together, spending their nights on the sticky dancefloors of Belfast’s grungiest pubs. Each woman is navigating her own tangle of entry-level jobs, messy romantic entanglements, and late nights, but they always find their way back to each other, and to the ramshackle house they share.
Harley is lusting after the landlord and trying doggedly to learn to play the piano. Róise’s fallen for someone at work, and isn’t sure she’s ready for something new after a devastating break-up. Maggie has taken up running in the hopes of wooing a woman who can’t be bothered to send her more than an after-hours “you out?” text. And amidst the familiar chaos, the three girls are still grieving the tragic death of their friend, Lydia, whose room remains untouched. Their last big fight hangs heavy over their heads, unspoken since the accident.
The girls’ house has witnessed the highs and lows of their roaring twenties—raucous parties, surprising (and sometimes regrettable) hook-ups, and hellish hangovers. But as they approach thirty, their home begins to crumble around them and the faultlines in their group become harder to ignore. In the wreckage, they must decide if their friendship will survive into a new decade—or if growing up sometimes means letting go.
Brimming with heart and humor, Thirst Trap is an exuberant ode to friendship and a reminder that a little mess isn’t always such a bad thing.
288 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 12, 2025
599 people are currently reading
25847 people want to read
About the author
Gráinne O'Hare
1 book63 followersGráinne O’Hare is a writer from Belfast based in Newcastle upon Tyne. She received a Northern Debut Award for Fiction from New Writing North, and was awarded funding by the Arts Council for the development and completion of her first novel. She has also been shortlisted for the Francis MacManus Short Story Competition and the Bridport Prize, and came in the top three of the Benedict Kiely Short Story Competition. She is media sub-editor of Criticks reviews for the British Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies, and has a PhD on eighteenth-century women's life-writing from Newcastle University.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 728 reviews
December 2, 2025
sometimes i feel like a cigarette in a barbie shoe
(review to come / thanks to the publisher for the copy)
(review to come / thanks to the publisher for the copy)
February 3, 2025
In a style reminiscent of Dolly Alderton x HBO’s series Girls, this novel explores how friendship dynamics change as you get older, the experience of feeling unmoored in your thirties, and the non-linearity of grief. O’Hare did a great job at differentiating each of the girls in the friendship group, each one had their own voice and fleshed-out background. I also liked how their house was almost a character in itself, its declining state representing the end of an era in their friendship and a reminder that they need to move on for their own sakes.
Thank you Picador for the arc <3
Thank you Picador for the arc <3
May 17, 2025
Even though I do feel like this will be an extra special one for those who were brought up in Ireland, Thirst Trap is a perfect look into what womanhood is like in our twenties for so many of us. Felt like a perfect read for the year I’m turning thirty years old, as one of the main characters, Róise, does at the beginning of the book. She is entering her thirties, along with her best friends Maggie and Harley, with all the wild party girl days that clouded their twenties still ever-present. At the same time it does feel as though those days are coming to an end, quite literally, as the house they share is crumbling around them.
They are collectively grieving the fourth member of the close-knit friendship group, Lydia, who tragically died in a car accident. It seems as though they cope by mixing drugs, alcohol, and having a string of messy love-affairs between them. None more so than Maggie’s sapphic love/lust for a woman named Cate, who seems confused about her sexuality and feelings for Maggie.
This was honestly unputdownable, a book that fully brought my speed-reading ability out. It just felt honest and raw, as though you were really peering into the lives of this Irish group of friends. I also feel as though I’ve learnt to pronounce some more Irish name now, lol!
I’m honestly tempted to pick up a physical copy when it is published.
Thank you to Netgalley/ the publisher for the ARC !! 🫶
5 Stars 🇮🇪✨🖤
They are collectively grieving the fourth member of the close-knit friendship group, Lydia, who tragically died in a car accident. It seems as though they cope by mixing drugs, alcohol, and having a string of messy love-affairs between them. None more so than Maggie’s sapphic love/lust for a woman named Cate, who seems confused about her sexuality and feelings for Maggie.
This was honestly unputdownable, a book that fully brought my speed-reading ability out. It just felt honest and raw, as though you were really peering into the lives of this Irish group of friends. I also feel as though I’ve learnt to pronounce some more Irish name now, lol!
I’m honestly tempted to pick up a physical copy when it is published.
Thank you to Netgalley/ the publisher for the ARC !! 🫶
5 Stars 🇮🇪✨🖤
October 29, 2025
reading this felt like a night in the club bathroom with my best friends, a weekend sitting silently together in the living room enjoying each other’s company, and crying together about everything and nothing. this book is the distant cousin of GIRLS and Fleabag, and I’ve already carved out space in my heart for her.
Maggie, Róise, and Harley are messy, flawed, and so-achingly real; you can feel the love they have for each other and see how their friendship makes them better. this is an incredible debut novel, O’Hare beautifully captures the complexity of female friendship, navigating grief together, and getting older with the people who know you best. this was one of my most anticipated 2025 releases, and i adored every moment of it!
a huge thank you to picador for the e-arc!! and to crown for the advance US copy!!!!
Maggie, Róise, and Harley are messy, flawed, and so-achingly real; you can feel the love they have for each other and see how their friendship makes them better. this is an incredible debut novel, O’Hare beautifully captures the complexity of female friendship, navigating grief together, and getting older with the people who know you best. this was one of my most anticipated 2025 releases, and i adored every moment of it!
a huge thank you to picador for the e-arc!! and to crown for the advance US copy!!!!
June 8, 2025
This is my most anticipated release of 2025. As soon as I saw the cover, I wanted this book. Then I read the premise and knew I needed this one.
Set in Belfast, we meet our three protagonists a year after Lydia has died. Harley, Maggie, and Róise still live in the same house share. The fourth bedroom door remains closed.
The days are filled with day jobs and hangovers. The evenings full of coke, cheap wine, and complicated sex.
Lydia is rarely spoken about. The girls weren't speaking when she died. Her death has left everything unresolved and messy.
This has me laughing out loud. The banter here is very witty and very funny. But also, it's so incredibly sad. I really loved the portrayal of female friendships in your late twenties, the clashing of loyalty and jealousy, along with the representation of grief, unspoken, hidden, until it's erupting
This is a really decent debut. The Irish are known for their storytelling, and this author doesn't disappoint.
Four stars.
Set in Belfast, we meet our three protagonists a year after Lydia has died. Harley, Maggie, and Róise still live in the same house share. The fourth bedroom door remains closed.
The days are filled with day jobs and hangovers. The evenings full of coke, cheap wine, and complicated sex.
Lydia is rarely spoken about. The girls weren't speaking when she died. Her death has left everything unresolved and messy.
This has me laughing out loud. The banter here is very witty and very funny. But also, it's so incredibly sad. I really loved the portrayal of female friendships in your late twenties, the clashing of loyalty and jealousy, along with the representation of grief, unspoken, hidden, until it's erupting
This is a really decent debut. The Irish are known for their storytelling, and this author doesn't disappoint.
Four stars.
November 23, 2025
Maggie, Harley, and Róise are thirty, give or take a tequila, and share a house, a pet turtle, and the kind of lingering guilt that makes therapy bills feel like tithes. Their fourth friend, Lydia, died in a car crash before they could make up after a fight, so grief now sits at the breakfast table between the cereal and the cystitis sachets.
Maggie, a legal secretary with anxiety and a PhD in emotional self-sabotage, is trying to therapize her way out of panic attacks and an on-again, off-again entanglement with
Cate, a woman so blasé she could flirt during a fire drill without breaking a sweat.
Harley, the resident cynic, has elevated bad decisions to an art form and treats romance like a recurring infection, diagnosed late, treated reluctantly.
Róise, meanwhile, has swapped social life for spreadsheets and developed a mild crush on her boss, the kind of middle-management Adonis who says "team player" without irony.
The book alternates between hungover mornings and hung-up evenings, each chapter a small insight into modern womanhood, complete with club toilets, therapy rooms, and Catholic guilt in reusable packaging. The trio drift through Belfast's nightlife and adulthood alike, armed with sarcasm, contraception (occasionally), and Barnaby the turtle, who may or may not be judging them for everything.
As the anniversary of Lydia's death approaches, the cracks in their friendship spread like damp in their rented house. Old wounds itch, secrets fester, and self-help slogans die valiantly in battle with old habits. Yet beneath the jokes and the gin lies a disarmingly tender portrait of women who are clever enough to see the irony of their mess but too human to clean it up.
It is a comedy of errors without the comedy of closure, a study of friendship in its thirties: still standing, still slightly drunk, and still pretending the cactus in the corner counts as emotional growth.
The dialogue is whip-smart, the observations scalding, and the humor always one drink away from despair. It is both cringe comedy and quiet tragedy, a reminder that maturity is about surviving your own bad decisions long enough to tell the story.
Like all good disasters, Maggie, Harley, and Roise are charming and fascinating at a distance, and exhausting up close. They fumble through therapy, casual sex, and friendship with equal parts sincerity and sabotage, convinced that irony can function as a personality.
At its core, the book examines grief, guilt, and the strange limbo between youth and responsibility. It asks what happens when the people who once kept you afloat start to sink beside you. The death of their friend Lydia is a slow leak, quietly flooding every room they enter.
I think that the main ideas in the book are that fiendship can be both salvation and suffocation, self-awareness is not the same as growth, and women are still measured against impossible expectations even when they know the rules are rigged.
The pressures of modern womanhood have not disappeared; they have simply rebranded under wellness hashtags and feminist merch.
Thirst Trap is not a comfort read; it is an affectionate slap in the face. It laughs at the ways people confuse coping with progress and shows that loving your friends does not mean understanding them. It is cynical, tender, and painfully believable. It captures the way Western adulthood often feels: like showing up to your own life slightly late, slightly drunk, and still pretending it was all part of the plan.
Sadly, Thirst Trap absolutely swims in self-absorption. Its characters treat heartbreak, hangovers, and rent anxiety like existential crises, while the rest of the world is on fire. They live in a bubble of brunches, therapy sessions, and bad decisions, mistaking their emotional static for tragedy. If one were looking for perspective or moral weight, this book would feel like a parody of privilege.
The women in it are educated, safe, and free to implode at leisure, yet they perform suffering as though it were a creative act. It is the cult of self-expression at its most claustrophobic: every tear, every hookup, every bad night becomes another installment in their ongoing memoir of "me." It is painfully, miserably, pretentious. The book luxuriates in its own introspection, mistaking overthinking for depth.
Still, there is an odd honesty in its smallness. It captures the modern affliction of people who have everything except a sense of proportion. Their pain is not about real oppression or war; it is about meaninglessness, and they fill that void with irony, therapy, and expensive cocktails. This is what happens when comfort meets emptiness.
Thirst Trap is a story about privileged people spinning in circles and calling it a journey. Whether one finds that profound or pathetic depends on how patient one is with self-pity masquerading as art.
Get a life, whiners.
Maggie, a legal secretary with anxiety and a PhD in emotional self-sabotage, is trying to therapize her way out of panic attacks and an on-again, off-again entanglement with
Cate, a woman so blasé she could flirt during a fire drill without breaking a sweat.
Harley, the resident cynic, has elevated bad decisions to an art form and treats romance like a recurring infection, diagnosed late, treated reluctantly.
Róise, meanwhile, has swapped social life for spreadsheets and developed a mild crush on her boss, the kind of middle-management Adonis who says "team player" without irony.
The book alternates between hungover mornings and hung-up evenings, each chapter a small insight into modern womanhood, complete with club toilets, therapy rooms, and Catholic guilt in reusable packaging. The trio drift through Belfast's nightlife and adulthood alike, armed with sarcasm, contraception (occasionally), and Barnaby the turtle, who may or may not be judging them for everything.
As the anniversary of Lydia's death approaches, the cracks in their friendship spread like damp in their rented house. Old wounds itch, secrets fester, and self-help slogans die valiantly in battle with old habits. Yet beneath the jokes and the gin lies a disarmingly tender portrait of women who are clever enough to see the irony of their mess but too human to clean it up.
It is a comedy of errors without the comedy of closure, a study of friendship in its thirties: still standing, still slightly drunk, and still pretending the cactus in the corner counts as emotional growth.
The dialogue is whip-smart, the observations scalding, and the humor always one drink away from despair. It is both cringe comedy and quiet tragedy, a reminder that maturity is about surviving your own bad decisions long enough to tell the story.
Like all good disasters, Maggie, Harley, and Roise are charming and fascinating at a distance, and exhausting up close. They fumble through therapy, casual sex, and friendship with equal parts sincerity and sabotage, convinced that irony can function as a personality.
At its core, the book examines grief, guilt, and the strange limbo between youth and responsibility. It asks what happens when the people who once kept you afloat start to sink beside you. The death of their friend Lydia is a slow leak, quietly flooding every room they enter.
I think that the main ideas in the book are that fiendship can be both salvation and suffocation, self-awareness is not the same as growth, and women are still measured against impossible expectations even when they know the rules are rigged.
The pressures of modern womanhood have not disappeared; they have simply rebranded under wellness hashtags and feminist merch.
Thirst Trap is not a comfort read; it is an affectionate slap in the face. It laughs at the ways people confuse coping with progress and shows that loving your friends does not mean understanding them. It is cynical, tender, and painfully believable. It captures the way Western adulthood often feels: like showing up to your own life slightly late, slightly drunk, and still pretending it was all part of the plan.
Sadly, Thirst Trap absolutely swims in self-absorption. Its characters treat heartbreak, hangovers, and rent anxiety like existential crises, while the rest of the world is on fire. They live in a bubble of brunches, therapy sessions, and bad decisions, mistaking their emotional static for tragedy. If one were looking for perspective or moral weight, this book would feel like a parody of privilege.
The women in it are educated, safe, and free to implode at leisure, yet they perform suffering as though it were a creative act. It is the cult of self-expression at its most claustrophobic: every tear, every hookup, every bad night becomes another installment in their ongoing memoir of "me." It is painfully, miserably, pretentious. The book luxuriates in its own introspection, mistaking overthinking for depth.
Still, there is an odd honesty in its smallness. It captures the modern affliction of people who have everything except a sense of proportion. Their pain is not about real oppression or war; it is about meaninglessness, and they fill that void with irony, therapy, and expensive cocktails. This is what happens when comfort meets emptiness.
Thirst Trap is a story about privileged people spinning in circles and calling it a journey. Whether one finds that profound or pathetic depends on how patient one is with self-pity masquerading as art.
Get a life, whiners.
December 18, 2024
I saw another review that compared this to the vibe of Sally Rooney's writing, but more wild. I haven't read Rooney... For the exact reason that creates that overlap. Yes we get to follow the characters and their stories but sheesh are they pretty normal experiences. I was SO bored halfway thru. I know some people do and will continue to absolutely love this one. And I did enjoy bits and pieces! I think it's at least partially a "me" thing. There just wasn't enough going on, or what was going on didn't feel unique enough, to keep my interest right now.
{Thank you bunches to NetGalley, Grainne O'Hare and Picador for the DRC in exchange for my honest review!}
{Thank you bunches to NetGalley, Grainne O'Hare and Picador for the DRC in exchange for my honest review!}
December 16, 2025
i love books about friendship 🫶🏻
February 28, 2025
What’s better than reading about a woman going through it in her late-twenties? Three women going through it in their late-twenties.
Thirst Trap follows three friends living together in Belfast picking up around the first anniversary of their friend Lydia’s sudden passing, still grieving, still living in the same rented house with Lydia’s pet turtle, and still processing their fallout with her prior to the accident. Trust me when I say I GASPED at the reveal of why they weren’t on speaking terms at the time.
Despite offering a really honest depiction of grief and the messy sides of womanhood and friendships at this stage in life, this riot of a book also had me laughing from the very first line, relating to these women stumbling into their next decade. I feel like it really captured that delusion of thinking your life will suddenly change with your next birthday, especially one as momentous as thirty, just to find you still don’t feel quite grown-up enough.
I feel like if you’ve ever lived with a group of friends you’ll seriously relate to these characters — I saved SO many quotes just to share with mine and say ‘this reminds me of you!’
Thank you so much to NetGalley and to Picador for the ARC
Thirst Trap follows three friends living together in Belfast picking up around the first anniversary of their friend Lydia’s sudden passing, still grieving, still living in the same rented house with Lydia’s pet turtle, and still processing their fallout with her prior to the accident. Trust me when I say I GASPED at the reveal of why they weren’t on speaking terms at the time.
Despite offering a really honest depiction of grief and the messy sides of womanhood and friendships at this stage in life, this riot of a book also had me laughing from the very first line, relating to these women stumbling into their next decade. I feel like it really captured that delusion of thinking your life will suddenly change with your next birthday, especially one as momentous as thirty, just to find you still don’t feel quite grown-up enough.
I feel like if you’ve ever lived with a group of friends you’ll seriously relate to these characters — I saved SO many quotes just to share with mine and say ‘this reminds me of you!’
Thank you so much to NetGalley and to Picador for the ARC
November 8, 2025
4.5 stars
Thank you Crown Publishing for sending me a free copy!
I absolutely love the cover design for this book as it just fits it to a tee. THIRST TRAP is a story about 3 friends and roommates in Belfast. They met in primary school and are now hitting the age of 30. It’s a moment when they are realizing the late night partying and messy love lives are not ideal as they leave their 20s behind. The three women are also still processing the death of their other roommate and close friend.
Hats off to anyone who had their life figured out at a young age and didn’t stray far from the path leading to success, happiness, and fulfillment. There’s many of us who struggled, made poor decisions, and found the years ticking by without much personal growth and development. These characters are relatable even if your partying days were tame in comparison. This book captures that lost, stuck in a rut feeling and explores recognizing it and whether steps are taken to move forward or stay in the same place. I liked what each character brought to the table and am satisfied with their storyline arcs.
This book totally worked for me and I’d recommend it to anyone as long as you can handle tales about sex, drugs, and grief.
Thank you Crown Publishing for sending me a free copy!
I absolutely love the cover design for this book as it just fits it to a tee. THIRST TRAP is a story about 3 friends and roommates in Belfast. They met in primary school and are now hitting the age of 30. It’s a moment when they are realizing the late night partying and messy love lives are not ideal as they leave their 20s behind. The three women are also still processing the death of their other roommate and close friend.
Hats off to anyone who had their life figured out at a young age and didn’t stray far from the path leading to success, happiness, and fulfillment. There’s many of us who struggled, made poor decisions, and found the years ticking by without much personal growth and development. These characters are relatable even if your partying days were tame in comparison. This book captures that lost, stuck in a rut feeling and explores recognizing it and whether steps are taken to move forward or stay in the same place. I liked what each character brought to the table and am satisfied with their storyline arcs.
This book totally worked for me and I’d recommend it to anyone as long as you can handle tales about sex, drugs, and grief.
June 29, 2025
3.75 stars
December 16, 2024
Thirst Trap is a novel about three friends in Belfast turning thirty in the wake of their friend's death and facing up to the reality of their lives. Maggie, Harley, and Róise live together in a crumbling rented house, with one room still empty after their friend Lydia's death. They've all been coping in different ways, still clinging on to the drinking and nights out of their twenties, and not talking about the events before Lydia's death. As things start to unravel, they must see if their friendship can survive into the next decade.
Moving focus between all three of the friends, this book does very well to tell the story of their friendship at this moment and in the past, not making any of them seem like the protagonist. This energy stops the book from being similar to other 'young millennial women falling apart' novels that become a depressing spiral without saying much, because instead it can focus on friendship and grief and not very healthy relationships both with people and with drugs and alcohol, as seen through the lens of three different people. There's not a huge amount of plot in terms of dramatic events (other than some collapsing stairs), but the story follows them facing up to the fact that they might not all want the exact same thing at that moment, but are also united in their friendship. At times, you can hardly see why they are friends, but that is also what it is about: turning thirty and seeing how different people can be, but also who you still want to be close to regardless.
I liked that the characters weren't all straight and looking for a settled down relationship with a man, but instead didn't have much direction and were looking for the smaller things that would give them purpose (especially against the backdrop of people from school and uni all with babies). Maggie, who is a lesbian, gets a few elements of queer girl problems, like knowing most of the people on dating apps already, and these kinds of details made it feel more real, rather than about unrealistic young women as some of these books can be.
Overall, Thirst Trap is a sad and funny look at people who are on the brink of realising they need to grow up a bit, but also are trapped with each other and their shared grief. It feels like the sort of book people might say is for fans of Sally Rooney, but is actually for people who wish Sally Rooney's books were a bit more realistic and messy.
Moving focus between all three of the friends, this book does very well to tell the story of their friendship at this moment and in the past, not making any of them seem like the protagonist. This energy stops the book from being similar to other 'young millennial women falling apart' novels that become a depressing spiral without saying much, because instead it can focus on friendship and grief and not very healthy relationships both with people and with drugs and alcohol, as seen through the lens of three different people. There's not a huge amount of plot in terms of dramatic events (other than some collapsing stairs), but the story follows them facing up to the fact that they might not all want the exact same thing at that moment, but are also united in their friendship. At times, you can hardly see why they are friends, but that is also what it is about: turning thirty and seeing how different people can be, but also who you still want to be close to regardless.
I liked that the characters weren't all straight and looking for a settled down relationship with a man, but instead didn't have much direction and were looking for the smaller things that would give them purpose (especially against the backdrop of people from school and uni all with babies). Maggie, who is a lesbian, gets a few elements of queer girl problems, like knowing most of the people on dating apps already, and these kinds of details made it feel more real, rather than about unrealistic young women as some of these books can be.
Overall, Thirst Trap is a sad and funny look at people who are on the brink of realising they need to grow up a bit, but also are trapped with each other and their shared grief. It feels like the sort of book people might say is for fans of Sally Rooney, but is actually for people who wish Sally Rooney's books were a bit more realistic and messy.
November 16, 2025
Friends, this book was not for me. I do not think I am the target audience for the book. The young women are in their late 20s/early 30’s, having lost a friend to a tragic accident a year earlier. They seemed vapid, angry, and whiny. I did not like the overtly sexual undertones, drug use, and general malaise about the future.
One book about this time frame and age that I did enjoy was Work Nights.
I do think others may appreciate the story, for the European setting and the snarky tone a lot more than I did. Just wasn’t my cup of tea.
One book about this time frame and age that I did enjoy was Work Nights.
I do think others may appreciate the story, for the European setting and the snarky tone a lot more than I did. Just wasn’t my cup of tea.
March 6, 2025
I received a copy of this book from the publishers via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Róise, Maggie and Harley are all celebrating their big 3-0’s and still living life as if they are college students in a moldy, falling-down house share, shared custody of a turtle called Barnaby and a lot of romantic exploits and dramas still following them around. All three also still mourning the death of their friend Lydia, whose death was sudden and happened before an argument could be resolved.
This book is chaotic and heartwarming showing female friendship at its finest and its worst, and a combination of sad girl/messy girl. Perfect for fans of Caroline O’Donoghue’s The Rachel Incident or Ghosts by Dolly Alderton.
The pacing and the style of the writing is easy to fly through and you almost feel hungover yourself as you travel along on the girls’ nights out from pub to nightclub to…museum. Grief is a big element in this book as the ghost of Lydia is with them all the time from her room which still holds her vibrator (and yes, Harley thinking about using it was a bit of a step too far), as well as the echoes of their last argument with her and the forgiveness that can never be shared.
Each girl is going through their own stuff - Róise is still reeling a bit from her past relationship but ends up entering a sexual relationship with her boss Adam (who is actually a pretty decent guy) and her issues may end up stalling it before it’s really begun. Maggie, the lesbian of the group, is in a toxic relationship with her ‘friend’ Cate who keeps her at arm’s length but also pulls her in every chance she gets. And then Harley definitely takes too much drugs, likes her landlord/dealer a little bit too much and could probably do with making better, healthier decisions with her sex life.
The book feels more character focused than plot as we follow the girls from one exploit to another, or one mistake to another. TW for some descriptions of disordered eating (stemming from anxiety rather than body image), abortion, and heavy drug and sexual content. I would have liked to have seen a bit more character growth throughout rather than a lot of it being shoehorned in at the end in the last chapter even though it was nice seeing the girls all a bit healthier and happier.
Róise, Maggie and Harley are all celebrating their big 3-0’s and still living life as if they are college students in a moldy, falling-down house share, shared custody of a turtle called Barnaby and a lot of romantic exploits and dramas still following them around. All three also still mourning the death of their friend Lydia, whose death was sudden and happened before an argument could be resolved.
This book is chaotic and heartwarming showing female friendship at its finest and its worst, and a combination of sad girl/messy girl. Perfect for fans of Caroline O’Donoghue’s The Rachel Incident or Ghosts by Dolly Alderton.
The pacing and the style of the writing is easy to fly through and you almost feel hungover yourself as you travel along on the girls’ nights out from pub to nightclub to…museum. Grief is a big element in this book as the ghost of Lydia is with them all the time from her room which still holds her vibrator (and yes, Harley thinking about using it was a bit of a step too far), as well as the echoes of their last argument with her and the forgiveness that can never be shared.
Each girl is going through their own stuff - Róise is still reeling a bit from her past relationship but ends up entering a sexual relationship with her boss Adam (who is actually a pretty decent guy) and her issues may end up stalling it before it’s really begun. Maggie, the lesbian of the group, is in a toxic relationship with her ‘friend’ Cate who keeps her at arm’s length but also pulls her in every chance she gets. And then Harley definitely takes too much drugs, likes her landlord/dealer a little bit too much and could probably do with making better, healthier decisions with her sex life.
The book feels more character focused than plot as we follow the girls from one exploit to another, or one mistake to another. TW for some descriptions of disordered eating (stemming from anxiety rather than body image), abortion, and heavy drug and sexual content. I would have liked to have seen a bit more character growth throughout rather than a lot of it being shoehorned in at the end in the last chapter even though it was nice seeing the girls all a bit healthier and happier.
October 30, 2025
They're thirty, or almost thirty, but Róise and Harley and Maggie don't feel grown, not yet. They're still living together in a grimy share house, still sleeping with the wrong people and doing too many drugs and grieving the loss of Lydia, the fourth of their tribe. They're stagnating, each in her own way. They all know something has to change, but nobody is sure what, and nobody is ready to take the plunge.
This is funny and sad all at once. I'm not sure quite what genre I'd put it in—something at once both chick lit and lit fic; coming-of-age for adults. Character-driven but not slow. (Might be a good gentle entry into lit fic for those who are curious?) It took me a minute to get into the rhythm of which character was dealing with which issues, and how, but these are compelling characters. Again, this is not a book in which anyone is perfect; they mostly run around screwing up in various ways. They manage to be sympathetic characters anyway.
There are a number of romances throughout the book, some longer-lasting than others, but what I love most is how much of the story is about friendship, about platonic relationships. The women are acutely aware that what they have can't last forever—eventually one or more of them will want to move in with a partner, or move to another city, or just want a slightly better daily quality of life. There's a feeling of...pre-grief, I guess, of knowing that it can't last, on top of the active grief they already face related to Lydia's death. Even without having had that sort of friend group, it's relatable and oddly nostalgic.
I hoped from the cover alone that this would be a good fit, and it didn't disappoint. More along these lines, please.
Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.
This is funny and sad all at once. I'm not sure quite what genre I'd put it in—something at once both chick lit and lit fic; coming-of-age for adults. Character-driven but not slow. (Might be a good gentle entry into lit fic for those who are curious?) It took me a minute to get into the rhythm of which character was dealing with which issues, and how, but these are compelling characters. Again, this is not a book in which anyone is perfect; they mostly run around screwing up in various ways. They manage to be sympathetic characters anyway.
There are a number of romances throughout the book, some longer-lasting than others, but what I love most is how much of the story is about friendship, about platonic relationships. The women are acutely aware that what they have can't last forever—eventually one or more of them will want to move in with a partner, or move to another city, or just want a slightly better daily quality of life. There's a feeling of...pre-grief, I guess, of knowing that it can't last, on top of the active grief they already face related to Lydia's death. Even without having had that sort of friend group, it's relatable and oddly nostalgic.
I hoped from the cover alone that this would be a good fit, and it didn't disappoint. More along these lines, please.
Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.
July 21, 2025
The title and cover are the thirst trap but only of a very mediocre book. Is it funny? yes. Is it great? mwhe... Would I recommend it? i don't know? It's like an actual Thirst trap on Instagram; looks great on the beach but has no personality.
The three main characters all have very big and concerning issues and they absolutely do not deal with it until the end and all of it is magically sort of better. Idk. I'm also getting really sick of reading about girls that are at the end of their twenties/beginning of their thirties and have absolutely burning piles of garbage as personalities and do nothing real about it. The story is pretty much about how to deal with their individual grief over the death of their best friend and how to forgive her and themselves for what happened before she died. But even that all happens kind of suddenly and without any real emotional journey. Again, it's funny but that doesn't really hold up the book.
The three main characters all have very big and concerning issues and they absolutely do not deal with it until the end and all of it is magically sort of better. Idk. I'm also getting really sick of reading about girls that are at the end of their twenties/beginning of their thirties and have absolutely burning piles of garbage as personalities and do nothing real about it. The story is pretty much about how to deal with their individual grief over the death of their best friend and how to forgive her and themselves for what happened before she died. But even that all happens kind of suddenly and without any real emotional journey. Again, it's funny but that doesn't really hold up the book.
July 18, 2025
A lesson in not judging a book by it’s cover (or title)!
This was my book club’s July pick and I really wasn’t feeling motivated to start it at all as it didn’t sound like my type of thing. But, when I eventually did, I was hooked from the first page and finished reading it in a day. This is such a tender, funny, and heartbreaking book - I really felt for all the girls and can really relate to the sense of worry and listlessness that accompanies the tipping over of your 20s into your 30s
This was my book club’s July pick and I really wasn’t feeling motivated to start it at all as it didn’t sound like my type of thing. But, when I eventually did, I was hooked from the first page and finished reading it in a day. This is such a tender, funny, and heartbreaking book - I really felt for all the girls and can really relate to the sense of worry and listlessness that accompanies the tipping over of your 20s into your 30s
August 19, 2025
This was a beautiful story about coming-of-age, friendship, and grief. I loved it. I loved each character and I loved how messy they all were. I loved the deep friendships and love they have for each other. This was messy and raw and fun.
Side note: This is the best cover of 2025.
Thank you to Crown Publishing and NetGalley for the ARC.
Side note: This is the best cover of 2025.
Thank you to Crown Publishing and NetGalley for the ARC.
April 1, 2025
so unbelievably brilliant
January 4, 2026
"She is the last in the group to turn thirty and was expecting the day itself would either find her grieving the end of an era or rejoicing in the start of a new one. The reality is different. It is either numbness or calm; she cannot tell the difference between them anymore."
Thirst Trap follows three best friends, Harley, Róise, and Maggie, who have known each other their whole lives. They've lived in a four-bedroom house in Belfast since they graduated from university, and the plan was always to see each of them get older and become 'girlbosses'. However, years later, they're still at entry-level jobs, they still spend their nights together in sticky pubs doing questionable drugs, and waking up in the morning with strangers in their beds. Despite that, they always come home and be girls together. In this story, Harley is lusting after their dodgy landlord and trying to learn the piano; Róise is going through the canon event of falling for a coworker, and Maggie is attempting to date a woman who only cares for her when Maggie answers her "You up?" texts.
Their house has experienced everything, including that fourth bedroom they never open– Lydia's room, the friend they lost over a year ago. With the highs and lows, and the messes always being cleaned up, the girls start coming to the conclusion that perhaps the only way to grow up is to let go.
I got gifted this book for Christmas and since I've known it was coming since this book released, I've had my eye on making this my first book of the new year. I adore Irish literature, in fact, I don't read it enough, and I will always be sat for a pink book that contains a girlhood story. I read a lot of books about being lost in your 20s, but not too many where characters are starting to realize they need to outgrow that concept. By the end of this novel, I expected heartbreak and the girls moving on, but what I was given instead was a lot more fulfilling.
Lydia is never explicitly met on the page. Due to her off-page death, we never get her POV. While we don't know her favorite colors, her personality, or basic descriptors, like the house, we get to know her through word of mouth. Lydia was electric, she was messy, Lydia made mistakes she can never atone for, but in the end, the girls were always there for her and vice versa. From what we can infer, she's just as messy as the other girls, and the scene where Harley enters her room for the first time since her passing, and sees a collection of dog-eared books and a bowl of the extra buttons you get with new cardigans and coats, I know I would have loved her as they do.
Unsatisfied is how I imagine most will feel. Not much moves and not much goes on, but as is most literary fiction. The story is in the characters, the story is in their minds, and the story was a ride. Perhaps the girls learned, and perhaps they didn't, but they have each other.
If you're wondering if you'll like the book, look at the cover. If you like the cover, you'll like the book. :)
August 9, 2025
probably a 3.5
really enjoyed the unhinged, uncertain portrayal of your 20s ending and self destruct
this lost stars for me though because i struggled at times to connect the characters to the grief they were experiencing, there was just something disconnected i can't put my finger on
really enjoyed the unhinged, uncertain portrayal of your 20s ending and self destruct
this lost stars for me though because i struggled at times to connect the characters to the grief they were experiencing, there was just something disconnected i can't put my finger on
February 18, 2025
Derry girls meets fleabag meets girls so yea I loved it
July 31, 2025
is het raar als ik zeg dat het huis mijn fav personage is?
August 24, 2025
Heart’s broke n/rs x
October 30, 2025
I enjoyed this one so much. I love stories that take place in Ireland and I also enjoy an audiobook with an Irish narrator with that beautiful accent. Susan Crothers is outstanding on the audio. I liked all the characters and there were many laugh out loud moments. Particularly in their dating lives. I felt like I was listening to an episode of Derry Girls grown up!
With the levity, there is a tragic story in the background that seems to color everything differently for the characters. The grief of their loss is profound and different for each young woman. The house they live in is crumbling around them which to me represented the loss of the friend who kept things together for them.
With the levity, there is a tragic story in the background that seems to color everything differently for the characters. The grief of their loss is profound and different for each young woman. The house they live in is crumbling around them which to me represented the loss of the friend who kept things together for them.
August 29, 2025
Thank you to NetGalley and Crown Publishing for the arc!
I enjoyed this book! I could find parts of myself in each of the girls and truly felt like this book is the epitome of “I’m just a girl”.
It was fast paced, which I liked. The plot was a bit scattered, which threw me off at times. I think more depth and character development would’ve been nice but actually the point is that at the pivotal age of 30/late 20s, no one really knows what to do, they mess up, and they try to move forward. So I appreciated how O’Hare highlighted that so authentically.
Overall another great grimy girl read.
I enjoyed this book! I could find parts of myself in each of the girls and truly felt like this book is the epitome of “I’m just a girl”.
It was fast paced, which I liked. The plot was a bit scattered, which threw me off at times. I think more depth and character development would’ve been nice but actually the point is that at the pivotal age of 30/late 20s, no one really knows what to do, they mess up, and they try to move forward. So I appreciated how O’Hare highlighted that so authentically.
Overall another great grimy girl read.
January 14, 2025
An incredibly funny novel about grief, aging and friendship that is also essentially an argument against going on the sesh too often.
Don’t do drugs lmao.
Don’t do drugs lmao.
May 11, 2025
Oh my goodness how I loved this book. Straight in my top 5 of the year. Full review will be coming soon on insta, but PREORDER!! Thanks so much to Picador for my early copy
July 12, 2025
Group of Irish gals navigating life together while each of them turn 30 while dealing with the loss of a friend. Literally hook it to my veins. I’m just like every other girl 😌😌😌😌
August 12, 2025
5- Another instant classic in my library! So witty, so entertaining. The characters felt like real people so much I forgot they were characters. A triumph in debut fiction!
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