This is chiefly in relation to the breakup of her relationship with Luke, who left her six years ago for reasons the novel takes slow and measured time to unfurl. Even when the painful, tragic story is revealed, Rachel's take on events differs to Luke's version, and it's wonderful to see how clever Keyes is in showing that neither of them is in the right or in the wrong, but more so, both of their versions fit together as one full truth, like pieces of a puzzle. The oldest Walsh sister, Claire, and her husband, Adam, have been married for over 20 years and are going through a difficult phase in their sex life. Says Keyes: “It’s strange that even when you are with somebody for a long time, the way we communicate can be so difficult. Or frightening. It’s terrifying to say I don’t fancy you the way I used to but I’d like to work on it. There seems to be shame in saying this because it means we failed. Not at all! The mystique wears off. You need to say, I enjoyed the magic, how can we reclaim it?” But the craic notwithstanding, these writers have more than whopping sales figures in common: Keyes was an alcoholic; Osman suffers from food addiction. As he says, “You are either controlling it or not controlling it.” There hasn’t been a day Osman hasn’t battled with food since he was nine (no surprise, the time his father left), around the same age that Keyes just knew “something was wrong, something was broken. Something needed painkilling.” At first it was sugar for her too, then books. They both mainlined Enid Blyton for a while. “But then alcohol was the big one,” she says. “The drug of choice. It was the thing that helped me cross over from feeling like a defective human being to being able to pass myself off as normal. But it was a problem immediately because I always wanted more.”

Make them practise yelling, ‘SURPRISE!’… My sisters, but especially Imelda and Philomena, won’t want to, and some of the cousins are right bitches too, but tell them there’ll be no goody bag for them if they don’t.”

This funny, heartbreaking and wise book really showcase Marian Keyes' amazing talent as an author, and if you've not read her then definitely start with Rachel's Holiday so you can get to this one. Again, Rachel is dedicated to her mother, with whom she has unexpectedly “fallen in love” after years of “what you could call a robust relationship”: her mother is a “devout Catholic”, Keyes “a devout non-Catholic”. The eldest of five, Keyes attributes her gift for telling a story, and making it funny, to growing up in a big noisy household, rather like the Walshes. “Being a good raconteur was a thing in my family,” she says. “I think there was a blueprint given to me very early on. You laugh at your misfortune. It’s an immensely Irish thing.” Osman’s father left when he was nine. Everyone was very “English” about it; the first he knew of any difficulties was when his father called him into the living room and told him he was leaving. His mother became a primary school teacher: people still call out “Hello, Mrs Osman” when they walk around Haywards Heath. She would stuff envelopes in the evenings to bring in extra money, but shielded him and his brother from any sense of financial hardship or sadness. Addiction can be work or power, or whatever you need to cover up your shame and to run from your trauma Richard Osman

I loved the bits with Rachel's patients at the Cloisters, each one of them came fully into their own right and I felt connected to their journeys - even though they were not the main focus of the story. Rachel's lesson of "Making a man out of Baam ver 3.0") " Baam!! Remember!! Never betray another!! Betraying is bad! No matter what happens, you must never betray another person! Especially not a woman. If you betray a woman, the world's ceiling will collapse." [26] SIU has confirmed she's an Irregular, a fact accepted by the Korean fanbase. The term Irregular (비선별인원, biseonbyeolinwon; "members who have not been chosen" or "Irregulars") is actually used to refer to her and other Irregulars. [18] Literary snobbery has always had more than a whiff of misogyny about it. “It is also very effective to tell women who like the books that they are reading rubbish,” she continues. “Because it is incredibly humiliating to be told: ‘Jesus, you’re not reading that shit are you? And you went to university?’” Set after the events of Rachel’s Holiday, one of Keyes’ most well-known novels, Again, Rachel allows us to access both the enigmatic Rachel Walsh and her charismatic family. I totally forgot how mad and unique this clan was but I didn’t take long for me to get myself reacquainted with this fun-loving family. Keyes includes some great characterisation and this is carried through for the length of the novel. Rachel was how I remembered her and I liked how her character was extended further in this latest Keyes release. The Walsh family were endearing and it was good to reconnect with this family circle. While some relationship elements weren’t exactly to my tastes or expectations, it was good to be involved. With a number of heavy topics (and possible triggers) surrounding addiction, alcohol abuse and loss, readers need to be open to this if they select Again, Rachel. It is told with Keyes’ original blend of tragedy and comedy.https://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-news/2020/02/28/crunchyroll-unveils-tower-of-god-cast-staff-and-new-trailer-at-c2e2

Growing up – Osman in West Sussex, Keyes in Dublin – it was all about the television. (When he is reading, Osman says, he can always spot the writers who didn’t watch TV as kids.) For Keyes, “TV was how we bonded, it was the time we spent together. We didn’t go on middle-class rambly walks,” she says, swinging her arms. “We never went out to the garden because the lead for the telly didn’t stretch that far. We would go to my granny’s house for a week, there’s wasn’t a telly and we were a bit anxious.” I have loved Marian Keyes books for as long as I can remember. I can’t even recall which one of hers was my first, because I devoured them all as soon as I discovered them. The story is dark and painful in parts, but is lit up with Keyes’s wit and a truly compelling romantic hero, Luke Costello – for my money, the sexiest man in literature. To Baam) " Do you think you were born to come here, defeat Zahard and become the hero that would change this Tower? No, Baam. You weren't born for that. You weren't born to save this Tower. You are a 'Monster', born to curse this Tower and devour everything. Arlene always called you.. A monster." [49]There are steamy sex scenes in Again, Rachel just as there are in her other novels. It’s interesting to read because it’s not young love; it’s about women who are over 40 and their experiences. Keyes says: “I loved writing the one scene [read the book!]. There has to be an emotional connection as well, and the reason they were not together was complicated. So there had to be more than sex, but the sex was nice. It’s okay to be a female over 40 and wanting to having sex. It’s down to the individual but I really sympathise with women who think, ‘Gawd, I have to have sex with my husband tonight’. There were many sensitive topics which were dealt with respectfully. On that note aside from the obvious topic of addiction, I'd give a trigger warning for child loss. Menopause seemed like a strange country with some very odd practices and I did my best to pretend I’d never be old enough for it. As it happened, I could well have been perimenopausal, but it was hard to be sure, seeing as I already had several of the symptoms. Insomnia? Step right up! Tiredness? Well, that’s just modern life.” In Rachel's Holiday, we meet Rachel Walsh as she finds herself unexpectedly a resident in The Cloisters, a rehab centre, where she is being treated for drug addiction. A drug addiction she is in massive denial about.

SO GOOD!! I'm giving it the maximum 5 stars but my real rating is more like a thousand stars!! LOL. Marian Keyes is so, so funny - dark and wry and off-the-cuff hilarious. She writes with such emotional intelligence. At times I was just in such complete awe at how deftly she layered the character development. The emotions are so raw and real and vibrant. Rachel is so well-written and memorable, a true joy to spend time with and watch her grow. There’s something about Marian’s style of writing that just gets into your soul. It’s funny, relatable, and adorable. There’s also times she goes on a deep dive into topics you don’t generally talk about, and you don’t even realise that’s where you’ve gone until you are there. And when it’s over, you are so glad it happened. Rachel's goal) " Yes. There's nothing in our way. An open sky. And when night falls, the stars rise. It's unlike the night we fear, it's truly beautiful, the true night that comes. I definitely... will go there someday. Definitely..." [29]

To Khun Aguero Agnis after the Dallar Show) " Since the very beginning. They have been determined to kill you all at any costs. To them, today is merely the start of a greater story. No matter what results you may achieve, everything will flow in a set direction." [39] To Khun Aguero Agnis) " Sly woman? Yes, you may be right. But to someone else, I'm the brightest woman ever. That's right. To that guy, I'm somewhat like a star. A star that shines so bright. That's what I should be like to that guy." [34] Rachel herself remains flawed, gorgeous and real. She is now head counsellor at the Cloisters rehabilitation clinic, where she was treated in the original novel. These scenes sing.