Sex, grief and debauchery: Gráinne O’Hare on her blazing millennial novel Thirst Trap

Gráinne O’Hare’s debut is set in the nightclubs of Belfast - (Pan Macmillan)

We’ve all got that friend. The one who plonks herself down at the pub table, overflowing with anecdotes about the night before. The one who has the whole group in thrall to her stories, each one a marmalade-dropper in its own right and delivered with panache and killer timing. Whether it’s sexual escapades or a slice of office gossip, she’s got the tea. It’s always a joy hanging out with this friend. A rush. And that’s what it feels like reading Thirst Trap, the debut novel from Gráinne O’Hare.

At the heart of Thirst Trap are three Belfast housemates – Maggie, Roise and Harley – who are coming to the end of their roaring twenties and faced with the fact that their fourth best friend, Lydia, will never turn 30. We join the women a year on from Lydia’s death, and they’re still in the same mouldy flat share, with Lydia’s pet turtle in the living room and her old moisturiser going crusty on the bathroom shelf. To cope – or to avoid coping – the trio are self-medicating with booze, drugs, questionable relationships and bad sex.