Thirst Trap by Gráinne O’Hare

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.