THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN BY PAULA HAWKINS
Genre: Adult Mystery
“Hollowness: that I understand. I’m starting to believe that there isn’t anything you can do to fix it. That’s what I’ve taken from the therapy sessions: the holes in your life are permanent. You have to grow around them, like tree roots around concrete; you mold yourself through the gaps”
― Paula Hawkins, The Girl on the Train
Synopsis:
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?
I am going to start with this first… I thought Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn was better. I have heard a lot that this is a book you either love or you hate. I felt meh about it. I sometimes have a hard time reading mystery novels because the part that I love is the end. At the end of mysteries is when all the crazy gets figured out and there is always some sort of big twist and unexpected ending.
I read this book kind of fast, but I think it was due to the fact that I had a lot of free time and the nature of how short the sections were. The narrative jumps between mainly two different characters and adds a third about halfway through. In my opinion that was the best part because you get a different perspective from each character that is so bias and a bit unreliable. Besides this fact the story kind of dragged for me and I had a tough time getting through the dry monotonous that was the beginning of the book. I was driven by the motivation to figure out what had happened.
As with most mystery novels I was trying the whole time to figure out who had done it and what had happened. I have to say this book stumped me. I thought I had everything figured out but was completely wrong. I really enjoyed the ending. It was suspenseful and had me on the edge of my seat.
Overall I thought the book was okay. The ending of the book saved it for me. I did enjoy the characters, it is great to read imperfect characters that are dealing with inner conflict and real struggles. I thought the nature of the characters being unreliable really added to the overall mystery feel of the story. If you enjoy mystery novels or even Gillian Flynn’s writing I think you should give this a try. I am also excited that this just came out as a movie and I cant wait to watch it and see what they did with it.
