Louise O'Neill: 'I sometimes wonder if I should find a nemesis, a yardstick against which to measure my own life'

"Two of my closest friends are excellent grudge-keepers, they are like Madeline in Big Little Lies, smiling as she says, “I love my grudges. I tend to them like little pets.”"

Louise O'Neill, author. Photograph Moya Nolan

Famously, the writer and academic Roxane Gay has a nemesis. I say famously because she regularly discusses this nemesis with her 830k followers on Twitter. 

“All last week, I visualized crushing my nemesis,” she tweeted in 2013. In 2018, she wrote, “my nemesis is having a good year professionally and has clear skin. It’s a lot to take,” and in 2019, shared that her nemesis, “got a job I was in the running for. I had paused plotting against her for the holiday. I won’t let that happen again.”