Thirst Trap By Gráinne O’Hare

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.