The Girl on the Train: A Novel

by Paula Hawkins

The #1 New York Times Bestseller, USA Today Book of the Year, now a major motion picture starring Emily Blunt. 

The debut psychological thriller that will forever change the way you look at other people's lives, from the author of Into the Water and A Slow Fire Burning.
 
“Nothing is more addicting than The Girl on the Train.”—Vanity Fair

“The Girl on the Train has more fun with unreliable narration than any chiller since Gone Girl. . . . [It] is liable to draw a large, bedazzled readership.”—The New York Times
 
“Marries movie noir with novelistic trickery. . . hang on tight. You'll be surprised by what horrors lurk around the bend.”—USA Today
 
“Like its train, the story blasts through the stagnation of these lives in suburban London and the reader cannot help but turn pages.”—The Boston Globe

“Gone Girl fans will devour this psychological thriller.”—People 
 
 
EVERY DAY THE SAME
Rachel takes the same commuter train every morning and night. Every day she rattles down the track, flashes past a stretch of cozy suburban homes, and stops at the signal that allows her to daily watch the same couple breakfasting on their deck. She’s even started to feel like she knows them. Jess and Jason, she calls them. Their life—as she sees it—is perfect. Not unlike the life she recently lost.

UNTIL TODAY
And then she sees something shocking. It’s only a minute until the train moves on, but it’s enough. Now everything’s changed. Unable to keep it to herself, Rachel goes to the police. But is she really as unreliable as they say? Soon she is deeply entangled not only in the investigation but in the lives of everyone involved. Has she done more harm than good?

• ISBN10: 1594634025
• ISBN13: 9781594634024
• Publish Date: 12 July 2016 (first published 1 January 2015)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Penguin Putnam Inc
• Imprint: Riverhead Books,U.S.
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 336
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9781594634024

Reviews

[Sam@WLABB]

This book had me from page one. I was so intrigued and had to know where it was going. I throughly enjoyed trying to figure out what happened and how these damaged people were connected. Contrary to what other people felt, I felt sorry for Rachel and could see what had driven her to become what she had became.

[Amber]

This review was originally posted on Books of Amber

As someone who doesn't read the blurbs of books before going into them, I am happy to say that my way is the best way to experience The Girl on the Train. I knew next to nothing about the book before I read it, and it meant that I was able to enjoy the book and suspect absolutely everyone, as well as having no clue as to what was going to happen next. Some people have mentioned that the blurb does help you narrow down who the culprit(s) could be, so you have been warned.The Girl on the Train wasn't the best thriller I have ever read, but it was certainly intriguing and well written for the most part. I was captivated by the mystery pretty early on, and I was excited to play detective to find out who was to blame. In true Amber fashion, I suspected absolutely everyone. And, realistically, it probably could have been any of those characters because so many of them were dark and twisted and creepy.

My main gripe with The Girl on the Train was the portrayal of mental illnesses. While I would agree that diversity and representation are good things, I don't think that part of the novel was executed very well, particularly because a couple of the characters' mental illnesses were brushed aside, or even cliché representations at best. There was very little depth for most of these characters, and as a result their mental illnesses weren't portrayed very well.

I did enjoy reading from the perspectives of the three different women, although I would argue that two of them in particular sounded almost too alike. I liked seeing different sides of the mystery unfold between the different points of view.

The Girl on the Train was an enticing read, but it doesn't match up to various other thrillers that I have read and enjoyed. I feel like Hawkins tried to pack too much into this book rather than focus on the smaller details, which made many parts of it feel rushed or incomplete. I would still recommend it, especially if you're looking for an unreliable narrator because that is one of the things that The Girl on the Train does very well.

[inlibrisveritas]

The Girl on the Train is not my normal kind of read. I tend to avoid thrillers because of how utterly frustrated they make me. I either guess who the bad guy is way before I’m supposed to or the characters do stupid things and I’m left screaming in my head. Well…The Girl on the Train definitely did the latter, but I found myself desperate to hear every single word of this one.

The Girl on the Train takes unreliable narration seriously, giving us one point of view that leaves us constantly guessing while the other two play second fiddle and color our image with bias and extra information. I’m not sure if I was meant to like any of the characters because I hated them all, but I was invested in their stories and the only time I took a break was to sleep or if a customer came in. Rachel is a desperate alcoholic who wants to move on from her ex-husband but keeps spinning her wheels, Anna her ex-husband’s new wife, and Megan the woman who was murdered. All three of these points of view had me in turmoil. I’m pretty sure I was growling at parts of it because they are three of the most frustrating individuals ever, but it’s because of those strong feelings that I enjoyed it so much. This is a ‘whodunnit’ with the emotions amped way up, and I felt just desperate as Rachel at times for the answers to who was responsible for the woman’s death. The entire story takes a lot of time to piece together, and I warred with wanting Rachel to stay out it and wanting her to get involved more.

Any time a mystery book manages to keep my highly analytical brain churning and unable to decide just who it was that did the deed for at least the first 60% of the book I consider it a success (though it’s rare)…so for this book to completely through me for a loop until about 75-80% is just amazing. Kudos to you Ms. Hawkins. It might have been I was preoccupied with wanting to punch people for their lack of clear judgment (but who could really blame them), but I appreciate when a mystery actually remains a mystery.

The narrators were excellent and I quite liked their ability to put on new personas and give clear voice to other characters. Megan’s voice, Louise Brealey, is my favorite personally because she sounds like Billie Piper and I could honest listen to that woman talk all day. If Louise Brealey may sound familiar and that’s because she’s Molly Hooper on BBC’s Sherlock! The only narrator I had a problem with was Anna, and that’s because she had a flat sort of voice…but honestly it worked well with the type of personality Anna has.

I quite like the style of this book and I can’t wait until I get a chance to read more like it, namely Gone Girl. I’ve heard it is an excellent read for those who are aching for a book with a slow forming plot and lots of emotional twisting.

[kimbacaffeinate]

Five Caffeinated Reasons to grab your ear-buds and listening to The Girl on the Train

• You love psychological thriller and figuring out the players and pieces. Hawkins does a fantastic job hooking the reader, and dropping red herrings. Her use of an unreliable narrator as the main character is brilliant.


• The characters are complex and as you listen, you suffer a range of emotions from distaste to understanding. Hawkins slowly reveals their stories allowing you to gain understanding even as you want to shake them and say, “Enough, don’t do this.” The tale unfolds from three distinct characters and is broken out in chapter form. Chapters are dated so you are able to connect perspectives and timeline. Rachel our unreliable narrator is the main perspective and we get bits of Anna, her ex-husband’s new wife, and that of Megan the woman whose been murdered.


• The Girl on the Train is addictive from wondering what outrageous thing Rachel will do next to who killed Megan. Hawkins makes you think about what we see when we catch glimpses of others. Have you ever envied a neighbor whose life and family seems picture perfect from those glimpses? Only later you find out things were dreadful. Hawkins will make you as the listener think, as you crave for more answers.


• When done right the audio edition of a brilliant novel can add another layer to the characters and story. Clare Corbett, India Fisher, and Louise Brealey brought these characters to life allowing me to feel their frustrations, taste their fear and become completely immersed in the events that took place. I enjoyed their interpretation of the characters. I listened to the last part as I cooked and my hubby was sitting nearby and he became curious.


• The Girl on the Train is the perfect buddy- read or book club read because you will want to talk about it. It has been five days since I listened and I can still hear the characters in my head. I still cringe when I think of things that happened and the way in which characters behaved. When I drive with my husband in the car and gaze out the window at others ..I cannot help but wonder.

Audio provided by publisher, full review on blog. This review was originally posted at Caffeinated Book Reviewer

[violetpeanut]

POV: Alternating first person between Rachel, Anna and Megan

It's been a few days now since I finished The Girl on the Train. I waited to write this review because I felt like I needed to mull things over, let things marinate in my head, before trying to write down my thoughts. My initial rating was four stars but this book has stayed with me. I keep thinking about it and remembering things and making connections. It's definitely a book that I would re-read and for that reason, I've since bumped up my rating to a full five stars.

Reading this book felt somewhat voyeuristic because these characters and their lives are completely raw and gritty and we see far beyond the masks they each wear day to day. That voyeuristic feel is apropos because Rachel, in turn, is also a voyeur who peeks into the backyards of her ex-husband and their neighbors while riding the train every day. All of the characters, and the narrators in particular are, by turns, sympathetic and also horribly disgusting human beings. Their personalities are each distinct yet they each have this pervading darkness.

The book blurb does a pretty good job of giving an idea of the plot without giving anything away so I won't rehash it here. This book will grab you right from the beginning. Rachel is like a train wreck and it's hard not to watch. As the book unfolds, though, you'll be sucked in even deeper and start to see connections everywhere. All three of the narrators are unreliable so with each chapter, the reader gets another piece of the puzzle and another suspicion.

This is not a traditional "whodunnit" kind of mystery, but suspicion does fall on just about every character at some point in the book. And none of them are ruled out until the very end. I had no idea where this train was going to take me until I ended up there. I think the comparisons to Gone Girl are deserved. Although the plots are not really similar, they both have flawed and unreliable narrators and a dark and gritty feel to them. They both are layered exceptionally well and you won't know what's going on until the author wants you to.

[Leah]

Psychological thrillers have been all the rage during 2014 and there are three in particular that stick in my mind - Gone Girl (which wasn't released this year, but I read it this year), Keep You Friends Close and The Accident. All three I thought were superb books (although the ending of Gone Girl left a LOT to be desired) that really held the genre in good stead. So when The Girl On The Train was announced, it was announced with a lot of fanfare. Better than Gone Girl. The best psychological thriller you're ever likely to read etc etc, and I was duly excited.

I didn't quite know what to expect from The Girl On The Train, except for y'know a girl on a train. What we get is three different narratives. One from Rachel, who's cuckoo-crazy and probably an alcoholic, one from Anna the new wife to Rachel's ex Tom with their perfect baby girl, and one from Megan, who ends up going missing. All the narratives are in the "now" apart from Megan's which starts a year prior and works up to the time she goes missing. And it was interesting to put together the pieces and see how the puzzle came together.

I wasn't as taken with The Girl On The Train as I expected, but for what it's worth it's a fairly decent thriller. I certainly kept reading, but I was never quite sure about any of the characters because they were all liars. It was so hard to take Rachel seriously when what was coming out of her mouth was lies, lies, lies. It was like she insinuated herself in to Megan's disappearance because she had absolutely nothing better to do, having been sacked from her job. And while she might have initially had something to add to Megan's disappearance, I found that she just became a nuisance in the end, and I was irritated with her trying to solve a cash she had nothing to do with.

The payoff with any psychological thriller is the ending. It's the only thing I really get excited for, because it's usually where the author trips you up and reveals the bad guy was someone you didn't suspect at all, ever. But, with The Girl On The Train, I figured out who had done it fairly early on. It wasn't a massive secret, although I will say that I enjoyed seeing Rachel piece it all together. Sure, she was an absolute hot mess who had no right to be in the investigation, but having stuck it out with her the whole novel, it was gratifying to see her get it, eventually. It was an interesting read, I was never fully invested in any of the characters because, like I said, they were all big fat liars and I hated that. But I'm glad I read it, because it was interesting. Not edge of the seat stuff, but interesting enough.{Leah Loves} http://leah-loves.com http://leah-loves.com/books-girl-train-paula-hawkins/

[Michael @ Knowledge Lost]

Every day Rachel takes the train into London and at a particular stop she likes to look out to the street and observe the row of back gardens. One house in particular is of particular interest to Rachel; she likes to imagine the lives of the couple living there, in which she has named ‘Jess and Jason’. They seem so happy, compared to her on life, she views them as a perfect couple. Until one day the minute stop allowed her to see something shocking, which leads Rachel to become a part of their lives. Rachel becomes more than The Girl on the Train.

I have to admit that I was a little hesitant going into this book; I thought it was going to try and replicate what Gone Girl did. While in the same vain with the multiple perspectives between Rachel and ‘Jess’, whose real name is Megan, The Girl on the Train stands on its own. While this book is already being compared to Gone Girl, I would just like to say that The Girl on the Train shares more similarities to The Silent Wife than anything else.

This novel plays a lot with the ideas of relationships and perspective; what may seem like a perfect couple on the surface can be a deceiving. Without going too much into the plot, I want to look at the way ‘Jess and Jason’ are perceived by Rachel. Obviously Rachel is an unreliable narrator, she only sees the couple’s house for a minute or two a day and not always the couple. To pass the time on her commute, she makes up this whole idea of what is happening in their lives.

The Girl on the Train does go a little deeper with exploring ideas of relationship, with a focus on abuse. Emotional abuse becomes a key component in the book and Paula Hawkins dives into the previous marriage of Rachel and even adding a couple of chapters from her ex-husband’s new wife. This thriller mainly happens on a psychological level and the reader gets an insight into the effects of emotional abuse.

There is a lot to be said about The Girl on the Train and I think this would make an excellent pick for a book club. Unfortunately reviewing a book like this makes it difficult, I am too worried about giving out spoilers and this restricts me from diving deeper into the themes within the novel. This debut by Paula Hawkins is not without its flaws; I think there was a missed opportunity to dive deeper into the major themes, however I did not enjoy my time with this novel.

This review originally appeared on my blog; http://literary-exploration.com/2014/12/24/the-girl-on-the-train-by-paula-hawkins/