Her life had been an attempt to get people to like her and it was hard to listen to the extent of her failure. Very disappointing ending. Good for Rachel though and I am going to read the next book. Grrr, hate it when the author does that. More like 3.5 stars, to be fair.
Highly recommended too.

I think Marian Keyes is probably the most underrated author in the chick-lit section.

My first book by her was "Lucy Sullivan is getting married" and it took me 2 attempts to finish it. From there, enjoying "Rachel's Holiday" was easy. It's by far my favourite Marian Keyes book. If you've never read anything by her, I suggest starting with this one. If you don't like it, I would think chances are slim you will change your mind reading the rest of them.

Rachel's Holiday is Marian Keyes at her best. No other writer manages to combine the sad and the hilarious as well as she does, making you laugh and cry within the same paragraph.

I'm not usually someone to try and guess how a story will end and find it much more enjoyable to just follow wherever the author leads me, but if you're not like me and you're looking for surprising twists and turns, then maybe this is not for you.

I read these books in my late teens, early twenties, and I can honestly say I learned a great deal about life and relationships (especially what not to do ;).

If you enjoy light-hearted entertainment, a special sense of humour but want more than a shop-o-holic piling up credit card debt or an office girl obsessing about her weight, Marian Keyes is your woman!

~"But I have a cat," I lied.
"You can get another one," he said.
"But I have a boyfriend," I protested.
"You can get another one of those too," said Dad.~

~I couldn't keep it up for long because I didn't like upsetting Margaret. Even though she was weird and saved money and hadn't had sex until she got married, I was still very fond of her.~

~"I believe on one could make head nor tail of that book she wrote."
"It won an award, didn't it?" I asked.
"My point exactly," said Mike.~

~"Wh...what exactly is a root canal?"
"We take the inside of the tooth out. Nerve, tissue, lock, stock, and barrel!" And with that he started drilling with the gusto of a man putting up shelves.~

~Once upon a time people used to recommend hairdressers to each other. Or plumbers. Or even personal trainers. Now it's dealers.~

I sat down and open this book. The next thing I know I read the whole entire book. I laughed I cried and I totally enjoyed. It is not just about being an addict, but the process in which Rachel went through to find herself and to understand herself that touched me the most. Even if you are not an addict of some kind, there is a great lesson you can learn from reading this book. Not only that, you would enjoy the pleasure of reading such a well written book by Marian Keyes! Excited to read more of her books!

I had to read this book for uni and the whole time I wanted to die.

Oh man, I just absolutely loved this book!

This novel is so different to anything that I would normally read, but I just loved it. The author tackles such an immensely difficult topic with grace, humility, and above all else, tons of humour. There were some genuinely hilarious laugh-out-loud moments, and the fact that I listened to the audiobook narrated by the author herself, just added to my complete enjoyment of this novel. The NY setting was fantastic and I felt transported to the party scenes that Rachel and her friend's enjoyed. I loved Rachel, Luke, and all the other main players in this story. Every character was exceptionally well developed and they all had such unique personalities. I fell in love with all of them.

Just a word of warning - this book deals with addiction, and more specifically, drug addiction. There is plenty of drug taking, snorting lines of coke, popping prescription drugs, drinking, partying, and more coke sniffing. You need to be able to deal with that if you plan on reading this book, but read it you must! It's excellent. Hilarious, sad, touching, emotional and everything in-between.

Having recently reread many of Rainbow Rowell’s books, I picked up Rachel’s Holiday, based on Rowell’s recommendation. As a student currently studying Abnormal Psychology, the topic of addiction being covered piqued my interest, as well.

The negative depiction of counsellors and psychotherapist in this book worries me, however. I would recommend reading any of Irvin Yalom’s books to get an accurate (and easy to read) depiction of what therapy and seeking help really entails. This book’s only saving grace was this line that puts into words my ongoing dilemma with books:

“I was embarrassed by my book ‘collection’ – eight books don’t really amount to a collection. But the thing was I didn’t need any more. I rarely found a book that spoke to me and even when I did it took me about a year to read it. And then I reread it. And then I read it again. Then I read another of the ones I’d already read a million times. And then I came back to the first one. And read it again. I knew this wasn’t the usual approach to literature, but I couldn’t help it.”

Oh, and the Irish characters made it fun to imagine thanks to the Derry Girls

Check it out here:
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This review and more can be found on my blog.

Olen tämän aikaisemminkin lukenut ja muistan pitäneeni siitä silloinkin. Nytkin pidin, joskin alku vaikutti vähän ärsyttävältä ja hitaasti etenevältä. Mielestäni liikaa keskityttiin Rachelin ja Luken suhteeseen mutta toisaalta siitäkin oli mukava lukea. Olisin kuitenkin halunnut että paranemisvaiheeseen olisi kiinnitetty enemmän huomiota. Toisaalta ymmärrän genren vaikuttavan siihen että kirjoitustyyli on kepeää ja hauskaa muttei mielestäni vähättele aihetta yhtään. Kirjoitustyyli olikin alun jäykkyyttä lukuun ottamatta hyvin jouhevaa.

Åh <3 jag älskade denna bok så mycket när jag var tonåring och jag blev glad över att jag fortfarande gjorde det nu. Early Marian Keyes är verkligen 10/10 kingen av chic lit. Så rolig och rörande och hjärtvärmande och sexig. Vill vara kompis med hela Walsh-familjen (och skaffa en irländsk kille asap).

Gosh, I can't believe how bad this is! I have a lot of respect for Marian Keyes for owning up to her depression and suicidal attempts, but her writing feels like ...making deliberate effort at superficiality. No depth or complication, just a bunch of thin, unrelatable, immature characters. I really had to put this aside after 10 pages or so.

This was one of my ALL TIME FAVORITE books when I was younger. I thought it was really unusual because the heroine is addicted to alcohol and cocaine (and other things), and she's an unreliable narrator (can't say how, because spoilers). The whole book is about her getting her life back on track, with many slips and slides, and yes, she's an unlikable character but you still want to root for her because she is SO relatable and her problems are so realistically portrayed.

I can't wait to reread this. I already read the first five chapters and it looks like I'm going to love it just as much.

I picked this up thinking, "Great - a fun book about a girl named Rachel who goes on vacation." Except not so much. Turns out, her "holiday" is to rehab because she has serious substance abuse problems. But if you think this book sounds like a horrible downer, it's not; Marian Keyes is terrifically funny and she makes Rachel a sympathetic character and narrator.

The first person point of view is expertly employed to hide certain things from the reader, revealing them only as Rachel herself is forced to face the truth. (I'm not usually a fan of first person POV because it feels like sleight of hand or amateur hour all too often, but it's absolutely appropriate and effective here.)

I'm glad I stuck with this book even after my initial assumption proved to be ludicrously wrong. This is one of those reads that makes you look at the world - and your own life - a little bit differently after you put it down. (It also made me consider getting a therapist to excavate my emotional baggage but I chickened out.)