The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

The Girl on the Train

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?

Reviewed by inlibrisveritas on

4 of 5 stars

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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.

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 26 February, 2015: Finished reading
  • 26 February, 2015: Reviewed