A wildly original debut set in Belfast: full of the pain, joy and bad decisions arising from young friendship, grief and bad house shares.

A Most-Anticipated Novel of 2025 - DAZED, Irish Times, RTÉ 'Hilarious and gut-wrenching' - Alice Slater, author of Death of a Bookseller Sometimes friends hold you together. Sometimes they're why you're falling apart. Maggie, Harley and Róise are friends on the brink: of triumph, catastrophe, or maybe just finally growing up. Their crumbling Belfast houseshare has been witness to their roaring twenties, filled with questionable one-night stands and ruthless hangovers. But now fault-lines are beginning to show. 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. And now they are all beginning to unravel. Thirst Trap by Gráinne O'Hare is a blazing, bittersweet, bitingly funny, and painfully relatable story about the friendships that endure through the very best and the very worst of times. 'Like the literary love child of Miranda July and Carrie Fisher, transposed in Belfast - hilarious, smart and chaotic in the best way' - Louise Nealon, author of Snowflake Readers are raving about Thirst Trap: 'Made me laugh and cry in equal measure' 'Laugh-out-loud funny and deeply moving . . . I loved every page of it.' 'Sharp, funny, and deeply relatable' 'This book is the moment' 'I mourned this being over. It's sad and beautiful and real and messy. It's perfect'

Details

ISBN13: 9781035046201
Format: Paperback / softback
Number of Pages: 288
Edition:
Publication Date:
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
Publication City, Country: London,United Kingdom
Dimensions (cm): 23.4(H)x15.3(L)x2.3(W)362
Weight (gm): 362

Author Biography

Gr√°inne O'Hare is a writer from Belfast based in Newcastle upon Tyne. She received a Northern Debut Award for Fiction from New Writing North in 2022, and was awarded funding by the Arts Council in 2023 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 in 2021 and 2022. She is Media Sub-Editor of Criticks reviews for the British Society of Eighteenth-Century Studies, and is currently completing a PhD on eighteenth-century women's life-writing at Newcastle University. Thirst Trap is her first novel.

Reviews

'Hilarious and gut-wrenching' -- Alice Slater, author of Death of a Bookseller
It’s compulsively readable and brilliant on friendship and grief. I raced through it -- Daily Mail
Think Dolly Alderton, but with the sharp edges of Eliza Clark . . . O’Hare has a true gift for a visceral simile, her sandpapery prose scribbling vivid pictures of messy pleasure that you can practically smell off the tequila-soaked page * The Independent *
'So funny, taut and complex' -- Wendy Erskine, author of The Benefactors
An absolute riot - funny, compassionate, observant and wise . . . O'Hare attends so closely, so wittily and so empathetically to every single one of these characters . . . enormously impressive and fun * The Irish Times *
'Brilliant. The characters were so warm and real, I felt like I knew them. A beautiful look at friendship and transition, it was funny, bittersweet, and honest' -- Chloe Michelle Howarth, author of Sunburn
Raucous, sexy and f*cking hilarious. A heady mix of Michael Magee's Close to Home and Lena Dunham's Girls. Everybody should read this book. -- Aimée Walsh, author of Exile
'An absolutely cracking read . . . Gráinne O’Hare has a keen eye, a sharp wit, pitch-perfect comic timing and a big heart, and spending time with her and her trio of female friends has all the raucous intimate pleasure of a big night out without any of the hangover. I loved it' -- Lucy Caldwell, author of These Days
'A triumph. Gráinne O’Hare is like the literary love child of Miranda July and Carrie Fisher, transposed in Belfast - hilarious, smart and chaotic in the best way' -- Louise Nealon, author of Snowflake
'It’s one of those novels that you can’t believe is a debut. O’Hare is a writer to watch out for in 2025 and beyond' * RTÉ  *
'A rising star of the Belfast New Wave . . . a book is for anyone who has found themselves on the fraying end of a close friendship, appreciates comedy or experienced their twenties in a blur of high emotion' -- The Irish Post
High-velocity, hilarious, and rooted in the chaos and absolute commitment of female friendship. I love her work -- Naomi Booth, author of raw content
Highly-relatable. A brilliant portrayal of grief — and of growing up. Written with humour, hope, and warmth * Irish Examiner *